27/12/2013

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:00:00. > :00:00.position. We have news of Andy Murray's

:00:00. > :00:00.comeback match and the results of tonight's Rugby union games, or

:00:00. > :00:20.after The Papers. Hello and welcome to our look ahead

:00:21. > :00:22.to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With me are

:00:23. > :00:27.author Ian Leslie and media commentator Neil Wallis.

:00:28. > :00:31.The Telegraph leads with an attack on the RSPCA by the head of the

:00:32. > :00:33.Countryside Alliance, who says the charity has turned into a "sinister

:00:34. > :00:40.and nasty" organisation, more interested in animal rights than

:00:41. > :00:43.promoting welfare. It also has a photograph on its

:00:44. > :00:47.front page of David Cameron being berated by an angry victim of the

:00:48. > :00:50.flooding in Kent. The Times reports that the

:00:51. > :00:56.Government is determined to block EU plans to introduce new human rights,

:00:57. > :00:59.such as the right to marry. The Guardian leads with warnings to

:01:00. > :01:02.David Cameron, from what it calls a leading moderniser, that he is

:01:03. > :01:04.guilty of "pandering to UKIP prejudices" and championing a

:01:05. > :01:10."negative and uninspiring" form of politics.

:01:11. > :01:14.The Daily Mail is concerned that Britain is now Europe's most

:01:15. > :01:18.overcrowded country. And it says Andy Murray will be snubbed in the

:01:19. > :01:20.New Year Honours list. The Independent has another flood

:01:21. > :01:24.victim confronting the Prime Minister, and on its inside pages, a

:01:25. > :01:31.call from the children's tsar for smacking to be made illegal.

:01:32. > :01:34.The Financial Times reports that borrowing costs have hit a two-year

:01:35. > :01:40.high, as investors are betting on a brighter economic outlook for 2014.

:01:41. > :01:43.And, there is more bad weather to come, according to the Express,

:01:44. > :01:55.which forecasts that wild storms and travel misery will ruin New Year

:01:56. > :02:00.celebrations for many of us. Let's begin and have a look at

:02:01. > :02:06.those. We will start with the Telegraph macro and that unusual

:02:07. > :02:13.story about the RS PCA being called a sinister and nasty organisation.

:02:14. > :02:15.What do you make of that? The head of the countryside Alliance has done

:02:16. > :02:22.an interview with the Telegraph where he sounded off at the RS PCA,

:02:23. > :02:28.The National Trust, and it sounds like he is quite angry at the

:02:29. > :02:31.moment. He attacked the RSPCA in particular for being an organisation

:02:32. > :02:36.which is now more concerned with animal rights than with animal

:02:37. > :02:39.welfare, more concerned about engaging in legal battles than

:02:40. > :02:48.actually making sure that animals are OK. It is a story I have not

:02:49. > :02:56.seen elsewhere. I think it is very important that we read out the name

:02:57. > :02:58.of this gentleman. He is General Sir Barney White Spiller. Sounds like

:02:59. > :03:04.something out of the Vicar of Diddley, doesn't it? He does

:03:05. > :03:08.basically have a serious point, because the RSPCA has becoming

:03:09. > :03:15.creasing the political. It has run two or three major court cases, and

:03:16. > :03:20.was absolutely lacerated eye a judge after spending I think in excess of

:03:21. > :03:29.?300,000 chasing a case involving fox-hunting. -- lacerated by a

:03:30. > :03:31.judge. It seems to have taken one of those terms whereby organisations

:03:32. > :03:35.decide they have to reinvent themselves to some extent. They have

:03:36. > :03:44.gone political. Significantly political. Having said that, General

:03:45. > :03:50.Sir Barney, as was pointed out, is lashing out at everybody. Basically

:03:51. > :03:53.anybody who lives further than Hillingdon or Croydon is regarded as

:03:54. > :04:03.a Neanderthal by the BBC, apparently. You are enjoying this,

:04:04. > :04:09.aren't you? I might repeat that. Rather unfair one country file.

:04:10. > :04:13.Apparently there is not enough on shooting on the country file

:04:14. > :04:20.programme. Do you think this will affect the RSPCA and fundraising?

:04:21. > :04:24.The membership of the RSPCA is descending at a heck of a rate but

:04:25. > :04:27.they are incredibly wealthy, so what they are doing is using some of that

:04:28. > :04:32.wealth that they have gathered over many years to try to reinvent

:04:33. > :04:40.themselves and become, if you like a left of centre countryside Alliance.

:04:41. > :04:45.It is a fairly dangerous way to go, I would have thought. I do not know

:04:46. > :04:52.if it is about being left of centre, but it seems campaigns based on

:04:53. > :04:55.legal action, as opposed to straight animal welfare. That is a new

:04:56. > :05:03.direction and does have its downside. Let's move on, on to the

:05:04. > :05:10.Independent, which has a front page about smacking. The headline is that

:05:11. > :05:19.the children's czar once smacking to be illegal. I am not a great

:05:20. > :05:26.believer in the state being allowed to tell us how to live the minutiae

:05:27. > :05:30.of our lives. I have two children. The idea of smacking them is apt

:05:31. > :05:38.warrant. However, it is a potential deterrent to children. -- I find the

:05:39. > :05:44.idea at the horror and. I do not think it is for the state to tell us

:05:45. > :05:48.what goes on in the family home. Child abuse should of course be

:05:49. > :05:52.cracked down on but there is many a mother watching this has lightly

:05:53. > :05:57.smacked their child's but on occasion, to hurry them along, to

:05:58. > :06:02.stop them misbehaving, or to get them on the naughty step. I trust

:06:03. > :06:05.the good instincts of the parents of this country more than some

:06:06. > :06:13.interfering woman called Maggie Atkinson. A former teacher. I would

:06:14. > :06:17.love to know if she has children. I have tended to find that when you

:06:18. > :06:25.actually have children your views about many of these issues are more

:06:26. > :06:30.roundly formed. I think it is actually a bit more complicated than

:06:31. > :06:35.you suggest. On the one hand, making the state interfere in people's

:06:36. > :06:38.private homes can lead to all sorts of worries and insecurities and

:06:39. > :06:43.problems and it is an invasion of personal freedom. On the other

:06:44. > :06:47.hand, if people are smacking their children and then they take it a

:06:48. > :06:53.little too far, how do they know where to draw the line? It has been

:06:54. > :06:59.going on for rather a lot of years, you know. We have been parents for

:07:00. > :07:03.many years. Generally, where there is abuse that is of significance, it

:07:04. > :07:08.should have been picked up earlier and should have been dealt with.

:07:09. > :07:14.Abuse that leads to the stories of which we have read far too many has

:07:15. > :07:18.generally gone on complete the under the awareness, shall we say, of

:07:19. > :07:22.social services and so forth. My basic belief is that I trust most

:07:23. > :07:27.ordinary people to live their lives and know how to bring up their

:07:28. > :07:33.children. On that bombshell, we moved to the Times. This is an

:07:34. > :07:41.interesting story, the headline, ministers to block right to marry.

:07:42. > :07:48.This is a dispute, somewhat arcane, a legal dispute between our

:07:49. > :07:54.government and the EU. The EU has this Charter of fundamental rights

:07:55. > :07:57.that it is trying to introduce into UK courts. The last Labour

:07:58. > :08:05.government secured an opt out from it and this government is pushing

:08:06. > :08:09.back. I am not sure of the legal ins and outs of this. What I think is

:08:10. > :08:12.important is that this is part of the political climate around the

:08:13. > :08:17.run-up to the European elections in May. I suspect this is a story that

:08:18. > :08:22.has been very much pushed by the government, showing that it is tough

:08:23. > :08:28.against EU, because so much of the argument will be about the EU. That

:08:29. > :08:33.headline about the EU and Britain has been going on and on. There is a

:08:34. > :08:37.theme through quite a lot of the papers in different areas where you

:08:38. > :08:43.touch on this issue of EU interference in the way we live our

:08:44. > :08:53.lives here. Actually, I agree, I would have thought this is a godsend

:08:54. > :08:57.for the government, for UKIP, and if there is a way to prod people in

:08:58. > :09:00.this country it is to say that the EU is going to interfere even more

:09:01. > :09:07.into their lives or the British way of life. There is a big reaction

:09:08. > :09:12.against it. Every poll shows that the British public resent it, do not

:09:13. > :09:18.want it. I do not even know what the right to marry means. It is not

:09:19. > :09:30.really explained in this story. Unless it is on the inside pages. It

:09:31. > :09:37.sounds a little legalistic. There are a variety of things mentioned.

:09:38. > :09:39.Guarantees of housing assistance. Guarantees of fair working

:09:40. > :09:48.conditions. There are 52, I think it says, no, 54 extra human is that

:09:49. > :09:53.they want to impose on us. I just don't think it is for them to

:09:54. > :10:00.interfere. I never elected a load of Eurocrats in Brussels to run my

:10:01. > :10:07.life. You elected governments that decided to Elektra presented tips to

:10:08. > :10:12.do so. The last time anybody had a vote on whether or not to stay in

:10:13. > :10:20.Europe was actually in 1960, I think, and I was about 17. I doubt

:10:21. > :10:24.whether most people watching this TV programme have actually used a vote

:10:25. > :10:28.to say, yes, I want to stay in Europe. It will be interesting

:10:29. > :10:36.whether we get to that stage. It looks like we will do. Maybe. I can

:10:37. > :10:39.see this has lit the spark. Let's go in the direction of the Guardian.

:10:40. > :10:47.What is our story that we are going to talk about? This leads from the

:10:48. > :10:53.last story. This is about a modernising Tory, the part of the

:10:54. > :10:56.party that David Cameron came from, criticising him for being too right

:10:57. > :11:04.wing on immigration. He says, stop pandering to UKIP prejudice. This is

:11:05. > :11:07.really an internal Tory party dispute and Cameron will probably

:11:08. > :11:11.think it is good news to be criticised from the left of his

:11:12. > :11:14.party, because this is all part of the climate of opinion leading up to

:11:15. > :11:18.the European elections, where there will be a lot of jostling for

:11:19. > :11:23.position in terms of who is the most right wing on immigration.

:11:24. > :11:27.Renegotiation before referendum possibly. One of the things that did

:11:28. > :11:33.amuse me about the Guardian's presentation of this, describing him

:11:34. > :11:37.as a leading moderniser. I am not known for being left of centre and I

:11:38. > :11:45.am interested in politics, but I have never heard of this

:11:46. > :11:52.organisation, Bright Blue. I am not sure he is such a major figure. The

:11:53. > :12:00.head of this organisation seems to be again doing Mr Cameron a great

:12:01. > :12:11.big favour. Vote bright blue to go green, was it? Onto the Daily Mail.

:12:12. > :12:17.A story of a very different kind. This is about this worryingly

:12:18. > :12:21.crowded island. Not that different. Again, more and more front pages

:12:22. > :12:30.which are in varying ways about immigration. This is about England

:12:31. > :12:40.being overcrowded. Figures secured apparently by a Tory MP that show

:12:41. > :12:45.that we are becoming the most overcrowded major country in Europe.

:12:46. > :12:49.One of the things I like about this story is that this MP, if you look

:12:50. > :12:56.upon the website they work for you, it turns out that he owns 28 houses.

:12:57. > :13:00.That is a matter of public record, which he has declared as an

:13:01. > :13:05.interest. So you can see why this MP would be very concerned about too

:13:06. > :13:12.many people. That might be a tad harsh. It also says four times as

:13:13. > :13:18.many people will soon be in the UK as in France, and twice as many as

:13:19. > :13:22.Germany. They are talking about the number of people per kilometre.

:13:23. > :13:29.These are House of Commons figures, based on data from the UK and EU

:13:30. > :13:35.statistical agencies. What it says is that when Labour came to power in

:13:36. > :13:45.1997, there were 374 people living per acre, per square kilometre,

:13:46. > :13:51.apologies, in this country. It is now up to 411, since Labour open the

:13:52. > :13:55.borders. It is predicted, in another 25 years, that it will go up to

:13:56. > :14:03.something just under 500 per acre, per square kilometre. You have to

:14:04. > :14:07.understand and accept that that is a lot of people. The question is, why

:14:08. > :14:10.do they want to come here? Because they think this is a growing

:14:11. > :14:14.country, presumably, and there is a great safety net that they do not

:14:15. > :14:20.seem to find in Germany or France, where they could have gone. But an

:14:21. > :14:27.interesting side issue is that earlier this week there was a report

:14:28. > :14:38.that said we are going to grow, our GDP will be the biggest in Europe,

:14:39. > :14:43.partly down to population growth. Thank you very much indeed. They

:14:44. > :14:47.will be back with us at 11:30pm for another look at the stories making

:14:48. > :14:49.the news tomorrow. Stay with us on BBC News, because coming up next, it

:14:50. > :15:04.is Sportsday. Hello and welcome to Sportsday. I'm

:15:05. > :15:06.Mandy Henry. Coming up: Malky Mackay becomes the sixth Premier League

:15:07. > :15:07.manager to