:00:00. > :00:00.His press conference was just a few minutes ago. We are not proud of our
:00:00. > :00:00.performance. It is a bitter pill to swallow but that is it. And coming
:00:00. > :00:26.up, the Film Review. Time for a look at the front pages.
:00:27. > :00:32.Thank you for joining us. Good evening.
:00:33. > :00:46.Let's have a look at some of them now. The Independent has a
:00:47. > :00:53.photograph of Eusebio, who has died. It also has a report on the standard
:00:54. > :00:58.of care in the NHS. The Financial Times says that years of economic
:00:59. > :01:08.uncertainty lie ahead despite the recent recovery. The Express's
:01:09. > :01:12.headline is that tough new rules will be put in place to stop
:01:13. > :01:20.migrants claiming money for family not living in the UK. The Daily Mail
:01:21. > :01:24.says Downing Street is in turmoil over pensions. And hardfought
:01:25. > :01:27.territory in southern Afghanistan will fall back into Taliban hands
:01:28. > :01:31.when British troops withdraw this year. The Mirror says Doreen
:01:32. > :01:38.Lawrence is furious following the removal of the detective leading the
:01:39. > :01:43.investigation into her son's death. Let's start with the Daily Mail.
:01:44. > :01:46.They have done some journalism of their own following David Cameron's
:01:47. > :01:53.appearance on the Andrew Marr Show today. The result is that there is
:01:54. > :02:02.turmoil over the old age pension benefits. Yes. I'm not trying to
:02:03. > :02:06.belittle pensioners and benefits and essential things like winter fuel
:02:07. > :02:10.allowance, free bus passes and television licences for people of
:02:11. > :02:17.pension age, but it does seem to be the wrong focus. If the government
:02:18. > :02:19.is looking at sweeteners to give the public in order to win votes in the
:02:20. > :02:26.forthcoming general election, this is the right thing to do, but when
:02:27. > :02:32.we look at the stories in recent weeks about one in ten young people
:02:33. > :02:36.in the UK feeling suicidal, that is the population that we have utterly
:02:37. > :02:41.failed, young people, and I find this focus on pensioners just a
:02:42. > :02:47.little bit distracting and essentially a vote please. People
:02:48. > :02:50.have been quick to point out that it degrades vote and its pensioners who
:02:51. > :02:55.come out and vote. -- it is the elderly vote. That is why Labour and
:02:56. > :03:00.the Liberal Democrats support similar pledges. But David Cameron
:03:01. > :03:04.refused to be drawn on whether the Conservatives would cut back on
:03:05. > :03:07.pension benefits like winter fuel allowance, bus passes and the
:03:08. > :03:13.television licence. The Daily Mail says there is some confusion over
:03:14. > :03:17.that. Downing Street says it is David Cameron's personal position on
:03:18. > :03:22.that to safeguard it. That has always been the case. He has backed
:03:23. > :03:26.these universal benefits and has refused to touch them for political
:03:27. > :03:33.reasons. These universal benefits actually only cost about ?3 billion
:03:34. > :03:38.maximum. They are not expensive. But it is madness that someone with an
:03:39. > :03:41.income over ?100,000 per year should get a winter fuel allowance, free
:03:42. > :03:47.television licence and a free bus pass. On a moral and ethical level,
:03:48. > :03:51.it should be means tested. Even if you reform those things, you still
:03:52. > :03:54.have so much to cover. Welfare spending is 25% of what the
:03:55. > :04:00.government spends and half of that is pensions. In other words, you had
:04:01. > :04:03.to look not just at these universal benefits but the mounting pensions
:04:04. > :04:08.Bill. We have to get more people getting private insurance rather
:04:09. > :04:12.than relying totally on the state. Later, we will be hearing from
:04:13. > :04:17.George Osborne. According to the Daily Telegraph, he is preparing the
:04:18. > :04:19.country for more cuts ahead and austerity measures even though we
:04:20. > :04:28.are bouncing back, slightly, it seems. Osborne's blueprint for tax
:04:29. > :04:30.cuts. The Chancellor is promising a permanently smaller state but it
:04:31. > :04:36.says that the austerity programme must continue. We are bouncing back
:04:37. > :04:42.because of austerity. No, we are not. It is the property boom. And
:04:43. > :04:48.this is not how you get a nation back on its feet. Of course it is.
:04:49. > :04:52.We are leading in car production. Manufacturing is up. In 15 years,
:04:53. > :04:57.Britain will be the second largest Western economy aside from America.
:04:58. > :05:03.We are coming back. It's not just housing. It's because we have got
:05:04. > :05:07.our finances in order. We are already the second largest economy
:05:08. > :05:11.but we have the most wealth inequality. Nobody is feeling the
:05:12. > :05:15.benefits of any effect of the supposed economic recovery
:05:16. > :05:20.statistics. George Osborne, not content with driving people into
:05:21. > :05:24.poverty with low wages... He is convinced that things are getting
:05:25. > :05:29.better. He wants to compound this even further by dismantling the
:05:30. > :05:36.state. It's completely avoidable. These are ideological cuts. There is
:05:37. > :05:41.no need for them. Not necessarily. Labour would have done exactly the
:05:42. > :05:46.same. Just slower. That just means Labour is as spineless as the
:05:47. > :05:50.coalition. George Osborne says that things are getting better. However,
:05:51. > :05:55.the Financial Times says it is years of cuts that lie ahead. How much
:05:56. > :06:02.more are people supposed to take. This is unsustainable. Just get the
:06:03. > :06:07.government back to the size it was before Labour went on its spending
:06:08. > :06:11.splurge. The government's target is ideological. It is to cut the
:06:12. > :06:15.welfare state and that is ideological driven and unnecessary
:06:16. > :06:22.stop it can be philosophical but it can also be necessary. We cannot
:06:23. > :06:30.afford it! We have ?1.2 trillion... Rachel, isn't it a case that... Why
:06:31. > :06:37.not chase tax evaders? We can do that as well. We have to have
:06:38. > :06:43.austerity. We don't have to have austerity. This is not a fringe
:06:44. > :06:48.view. Leading economists, leading businessmen. There are other ways
:06:49. > :06:53.out of a financial crisis. This austerity is pure ideology. I'm very
:06:54. > :06:59.happy as a Catholic to hear you say that the Pope is right on some. This
:07:00. > :07:06.is a purely ideological view and you are presenting it as the law. Let's
:07:07. > :07:09.agree to disagree on that one. The Times has a story that we mentioned
:07:10. > :07:14.earlier, which is quite unique, compared to other papers. The
:07:15. > :07:22.Taliban is poised to regain Helmand province after the UK exit. This is
:07:23. > :07:25.regarding Afghanistan. 447 UK soldiers lost their lives in this
:07:26. > :07:31.part of Afghanistan and many commanders say this is how to lose a
:07:32. > :07:34.war as a good example. In which case, why did we go in the first
:07:35. > :07:41.place? That is what the public is going to be asking. Not
:07:42. > :07:46.unreasonably. Firemen very reasonably. Another indication of
:07:47. > :07:51.how poorly it has gone is that drug production is up again. Under the
:07:52. > :07:56.Taliban, one good thing that they did is eradicate the opium trade.
:07:57. > :07:59.That is now back. One irony is that the wars on terror in Afghanistan
:08:00. > :08:05.and Iraq is that they have had the opposite effect. They have actually
:08:06. > :08:12.increased militants. There was no Al-Qaeda in Iraq before 2003, now
:08:13. > :08:16.they have just taken over Fallujah. So these wars have not only failed,
:08:17. > :08:21.they have had the opposite effect of what they set out to achieve. Do you
:08:22. > :08:24.think that has effect did not just the British reaction but the
:08:25. > :08:32.international reaction to Syria? -- affected. Of course it has. It is
:08:33. > :08:34.not a position of impotence or being too frightened. It's a case of not
:08:35. > :08:41.doing something because you have learned a lesson. But Syria is
:08:42. > :08:45.different to Iraq and Afghanistan. The definition of insanity is to go
:08:46. > :08:52.on repeating an action that hurts you. If we went on after Afghanistan
:08:53. > :08:59.and Iraq, that would not be courage, that would be madness. Some patients
:09:00. > :09:04.could be denied treatment because of overspending on NHS budgets. Doctors
:09:05. > :09:08.have been forced to cancel a ?15 million fund to fast track the use
:09:09. > :09:13.of new therapies because the NHS in England has spent too much of its
:09:14. > :09:17.?12 billion budget for complex care. Recently, the head of the BMA said
:09:18. > :09:21.that if the NHS was the country, it would not have a credit rating
:09:22. > :09:25.because it is so poorly managed. This is a good example. You have got
:09:26. > :09:31.to reform the system wholesale otherwise things like this will keep
:09:32. > :09:36.on happening. This is a really hard story, isn't it? Cancer care, the
:09:37. > :09:39.idea that people are not getting the best care that they could have and
:09:40. > :09:43.that there is better care available overseas... There was something
:09:44. > :09:50.recently about pancreatic cancer getting better treatment in
:09:51. > :09:54.Germany. It's just horrifying. People should be allowed to shop
:09:55. > :09:58.around. If you have the money, you should be able to go there and buy
:09:59. > :10:04.those drugs. And yet on the front page of the Independent, the
:10:05. > :10:06.headline is that NHS care is outstanding, according to serve
:10:07. > :10:11.Michael Richards, whose job is to review every single NHS Trust in
:10:12. > :10:15.England, and he says that he has come across fantastic care that he
:10:16. > :10:23.feels deserves to be highlighted as well. Good. He has come across some
:10:24. > :10:27.fantastic care. And it's almost certainly the majority of
:10:28. > :10:31.hospitals. But recent reports into GPs found that one third of
:10:32. > :10:35.surgeries were not up to scratch. Mid-Staffordshire Hospital. People
:10:36. > :10:39.died. The point of the NHS is that you might get it right in the
:10:40. > :10:44.majority of cases but when you get it wrong, because it's a health
:10:45. > :10:53.service, people die. It's not good enough. But if you keep bashing the
:10:54. > :10:57.NHS, people will be driven to cutting it into parts and selling it
:10:58. > :11:03.off, which is what the government is trying to do. I'm fascinating about
:11:04. > :11:12.why you think it's necessary to talk up the NHS. Negative headlines make
:11:13. > :11:16.good news. But the curious thing about this headline is that it is
:11:17. > :11:31.positive. You have to remember that this is a vocational job. They are
:11:32. > :11:42.not doing it for the money. This is the Daily Mail. A story you are very
:11:43. > :11:50.keen to do. Yes. Baldric goes to war against Michael Gove. This is coming
:11:51. > :11:54.off the back of Michael Gove in the same newspaper attacking the way
:11:55. > :12:00.that World War I is being taught in schools. He would prefer it to be
:12:01. > :12:09.taught in a much more jingoistic term. Neocolonial, nationalists.
:12:10. > :12:16.Yeah, yeah will stop upbeat. Then act this is embarrassing. We have so
:12:17. > :12:20.many resources, historians, teachers, capable of providing a
:12:21. > :12:24.really well rounded view of World War I, the arguments, the opinions,
:12:25. > :12:27.the different takes, and instead we have Michael Gove promoting this
:12:28. > :12:35.horrible, nationalistic war happy... It's like history for
:12:36. > :12:38.insecure idiots. I admire him as an education Secretary and he has done
:12:39. > :12:42.a lot of great things but this frightens me as an historian. I
:12:43. > :12:46.don't care about his opinion as to World War I but the idea of an
:12:47. > :12:51.education secretary saying that it's too left-wing and to promote an
:12:52. > :12:55.alternative right wing take on that and that the state should impose
:12:56. > :13:01.that on children and academics, that is actually frightening. That is
:13:02. > :13:12.very frightening. I actually agree with you for a change. Thank you. We
:13:13. > :13:17.will have more on the storms sweeping in from the Atlantic.
:13:18. > :13:37.Almost 100 warnings in place. Coming up next - the film review.
:13:38. > :13:42.Hello and welcome to the Film Review on BBC News. To take us through this
:13:43. > :13:48.week's cinema releases is Jason Solomons. Jason, amazingly good
:13:49. > :13:49.films out at the moment. Yes, and awards season