26/04/2014 The Papers

Titanic has been sold at auction for a record fee, it was written eight

hours before the ship hit an and sank. `` hit an iceberg.

Welcome to our look ahead at what the papers will be bringing us

tomorrow. With me is the parliamentary editor of politics

Home.com, and the political editor of The Times. We start with the

Observer. School meals could be fuelling an obesity epidemic. The

Independent, reporting that Nigel Farage has survived a difficult week

of headlines and harmed. The Sunday Times also leads with UKIP. A new

twist in the so`called Plebgate scandal is the splash on the mail on

Sunday. And the Telegraph, leading on the tragic deaths of those

petition military personnel. `` British. And the Sunday express, a

potential breakthrough in the Madeleine McCann case.

Let's begin with those headlines. Gentlemen, the Independent on

Sunday. A cartoon picture of Nigel Farage. It reminds me of a guard in

front page earlier in the week. It has been an interesting week for

UKIP. The Westminster village perceived his interview with Nick

Robinson as a bit of a car crash. And a story about using actors in

their party literature, employing his wife who is German, but these

are very SW1 attacks. Lots of UKIP attack throughout the country comes

from older voters in particular. They are more likely to see through

this and just think that these attacks, if you support Nigel Farage

just broadly, without knowing much about politics, you would expect

these attacks from national newspapers. The success of UKIP is a

double edged sword. They will be pleased they are leading Labour in a

recent Sunday Times poll but it will increase scrutiny. Who knows their

policy on education? Health? That is why it reminded me of the Guardian

story. Highlighting that they don't have any MPs are any well`publicised

policies besides immigration. Yet rival parties are worried. They were

talking about a flat tax of 31%. Increasing expenditure on defence.

Primary school economics. Now they are looking to flirt with Labour

voters, pulling votes from both major parties, they are talking

about a higher tax rate. Abolishing the bedroom tax. All sorts of

claims, yet no scrutiny commensurate with the current polling. I think

that will change, and when it happens, Nigel Farage, who

unquestionably has a huge amount of popular appeal, that will diminish

as policies come under scrutiny. He is a personable face, coming across

quite well, doesn't he? Most people in this country have no idea about

the European Parliament, tonight for these elections is around 40%, you

will get protest votes, UKIP will do well. The party in government will

do less well. That is why the Tories are at a high for MEPs, the last

round of elections was during the Gordon Brown premiership. The front

page of the Sunday Times, a picture of Nigel for Farage, and saying that

UKIP is leading on 31%, three points clear of labour, and the Tories are

languishing on 19 points. Probably within the margin of error. But this

is interesting. The front page of the Independent. Cross`referencing

each other. Yet Nigel Farage and his popular appeal seem to have a Teflon

quality. Picking up on what Tony said, European elections, they don't

have a big effect, people use it as a protest, but I suspect there is

something else at work, and it is the persona of Nigel Farage. There

is a real trouble in politics. Vocabulary issues. If you ask a

politician, why are you favour of the minimum wage? They will say,

because I think it is right. That is not an answer or an explanation,

just a restatement of a preference. There is this linguistic routine

politicians clock but, Nigel Farage actually gives an answer. That is

why he gets this idea he is honest. Yet he is quite duplicitous if you

look at the facts of his expenses, but he looks honest simply because

he comes out with an answer. Let's move on to the Sunday

Telegraph. A picture of Bernie Ecclestone with a much taller women.

We had an interesting story that the Telegraph is claiming as an

exclusive, an interview with the former Bishop of Canterbury, saying

we are now a post`Christian nation. He says Britain is no longer a

nation of believers. Your take on that? It is also interesting that he

says he generation of widespread worship is over. For the Muslim

population, that is not true. In terms of Christian, he is

pessimistic. He was my favourite Archbishop of Canterbury I must say.

Did he make the top ten? Get voted off? I never liked the beard! It was

untidy! You were saying, he's been pessimistic. But look at the

polling. More than half the public regard Britain as a Christian

country. 52% described themselves as either practising or non`practising.

There could always be a religious revival which is why I think he is

been pessimistic. David Cameron said we should be more evangelical. I

have no idea if David Cameron actually knew what he was saying. To

a lot of gay people that sounds quite scary, that our rights will be

taken away. Incredibly cack`handed for the Prime Minister to attempt to

insert himself into a religious context. It won't be the last time.

People are much more quiet about their Christianity.

Even though he is pessimistic in the context of that hole, the overall

trend, the last couple of hundred years, it is towards secularism.

That has accelerated. Science is replacing previous explanations

given by theologians. I suspect that both amongst Christians and other

faith groups, including Muslims, people often talk about muscle

children growing up to become slums, I don't think that will

happen. `` muscle and children growing up to become muscles.

I think this trend towards secularism is inexorable. And these

comments something we should worry about? I wouldn't. It is positive.

It is just the case that religion used to be compulsory. Now it is

not. And that is good for the church, because it is full of true

believers and not just people who go because society expects them to. The

Observer. Top doctor slams school meals policy for viewing child

obesity. An interview with Professor Terence Stephenson, the chair of the

Academy of medical and royal colleges. He says that because

academies can opt out of nutritious guidelines then some children are

not getting healthy food. It is a fair point. The excellence of the

Jamie Oliver experiment is it created an evidenced `based approach

to school meals. A certain set of schools were given nutritious

lunches, they tracked to see what happened in terms of educational

attainment, concentration, absenteeism. The figures improved.

They standardised this across the country. A sensible move. What I

didn't know until I read the Observer is that free schools can

opt out and as a consequence are offering less nutritious meals. That

is bad for students. I favour a variety. When you have variation you

find the things that work. But we have already had a controlled

experiment, why not stick to the standard? There is no evidence in

the story that kids who go to free schools are more likely to be obese.

It is based on an interview with, admittedly, an expert. He does not

have any science behind what he is saying, it seems to be an

assumption, prejudice on you are right, free schools have opted out

of this. This reminded me of another story this week, the story of the

Trojan case in Birmingham. Hardline Muslims trying to influence what was

being taught in some academies. It goes to this apparent disconnect

between academies and state schools about who is in control of

academies. Is that relevant here? In that case, state schools were being

allegedly targeted. That story had a lot of warnings in it and it was

confusing as to whether Muslim parents were trying to become

governors. We do have Islamic schools that run perfectly well and

are respected. You agree there was an evidence `based approach to the

introduction of standardisation is nutritious meals but you are

querying whether free schools have opted out in such a way to reduce

standards? Scientists measured. I am not sure `` you on not sure anyone

is a scientist, this evening! This man is clearly a genius, Ryan

Giggs, doing something at Manchester United. He is the football

whisperer. What did he say? United had a good result. Four ` zero after

a poor season with David Moyes sacked as manager. He has gone on

holiday to the United States. Ryan Giggs, who scored the iconic goal in

the FA Cup semifinal replay against Arsenal, one of the great figures in

Manchester United's history. It is rather wonderful, starting as a

caretaker manager. The problem is they are almost certain not to take

him on as a permanent replacement because they have targeted the

Netherlands coach. It is interesting that they played with a more

flamboyant style. A criticism of David Moyes was he was too

pragmatic, which betrayed Manchester United's traditions. The Sunday

Times, dad 's Army. To be revived as a film. The classic comedy series

drew 18 million viewers. Bill Nighy We'll be in it. They will not be

able to fight actors like Arthur alone. People who can inhabit those

characters `` Lowe. It will be great, or it will be a disaster.

Thanks. Very interesting to talk to you. We will talk to you again in an

hour. Stay with us. At 11pm a report from

Afghanistan on the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of five

British personnel. But next, Reporters.

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