08/05/2014 The Papers

the World Cup qualifying campaign, when they took on Ukraine.

That is in 15 minutes, after the papers.

Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing

us tomorrow. With me are Paul Johnson, deputy editor of The

Guardian, and media commentator Tim Collins. Good to have you both here.

They have relived a few personal insults, so they are nice and limb.

Tomorrow's front pages: . The Express leads with a report by

MPs that condemns proposals to allow the taxman to take money out of

people's bank accounts without their permission.

That's also the lead in the Telegraph, which says the Treasury

plans, which would mean no court order is needed to take money from

accounts, is "very concerning", given the history of mistakes by HM

Revenue and Customs. And the Mail adds that money could

be taken from joint bank accounts even if one partner owes nothing.

The FT goes with Barclays' announcement to cut 7,000 jobs in

their investment banking division, sounding a retreat from a part of

the business that was once at the heart of its operations.

The Mirror has a story from a family who found their grandmother dead in

an NHS hospital before staff realised.

The Metro claims that tenants are facing the worst eviction rate in a

decade, with nearly 50,000 possession claims lodged by

landlords in the first three months of this year.

The Guardian leads with a highly critical report by MPs that calls

for reform of oversight of the UKs intelligence agencies.

And the Scotsman's picture story is that armoured cars are ready to

protect Nigel Farage when he makes are returned as it's northern

border. `` a return visit. So let's begin

with this taxman story that seems to have affected a few of the papers.

The Daily Express says, taxman raid on our bank accounts, plans to let

the taxman take cash out of our accounts without permission have

been condemned by MPs. How can they do this, because normally a court

order is necessary? This is a terrific story. It turns out that

this proposal, whereby the unseen hand could dip into your account and

retrieve whatever has been calculated as missing by the HMRC,

was in the small print of the Budget. But like many parts of the

Budget, it was not noticed at the time. So it has taken the select

committee and its Tory chairman to bring this to public attention. HMRC

said there are certain safeguards here. You have got to have been

contacted four times and you have to owe more than ?1000. But many people

are saying this is outrageous and that lots of things will not work

here. The Daily Mail has picked up on this line about going into joint

accounts. If the husband owed the money, the money would be retrieved

for a joint account. Surely any people who do pay their taxes should

be grateful that HMRC are going to do this and claw`back some money

that people refuse to hand over? I don't think many taxpayers will be

grateful about this. People under part is of many different colours

have made terrific mistakes with IT processes. The HMRC lost a disk with

child benefit details. They have repeatedly been found to get

calculations wrong for millions of people in terms of tax credits. This

story gets worse the more you look into it. Paul was right. The Daily

Express says they could go into your bank accounts. The Daily Mail says

they could go into joint account even if one partner does not owe any

tax at all. So much for the idea of separate taxation. And they could

even go into your ISAs. So even those things that you sort were

preserved for your children and grandchildren for many years to come

could be raided by the taxman, without any notice or any court

order. You have both mentioned the Daily Mail. Let's show the

headline. Wife could lose cash if husband is in arrears. That article

makes the point that many couples are independent about their

finances, maybe even secretive. It will come as a shock to see that

money might have been taken when you did not even know your partner was

in arrears. That is right. There could be lots of disputes behind

curtains there. We know that many people on PAYE are on the wrong tax

code. So it is right that people should pay the right amount, but it

is also right that they should be asked for the right amount, so there

will be inherent problems with this. They are saying this will only

happen if the taxman has tried to contact you four times, but you can

easily see how someone could just press a button to send out letters

on four excessive days and they just do not reach you and before you know

it, you look at your bank account and see that your direct Brits are

bouncing and you are falling into arrears on your mortgage. It is an

absolute horror story. I am a former Tory MP myself and I think this

shows that George Osborne had a tin ear on this. We have a deficit, but

you should be thinking about how ordinary taxpayers could face

serious financial difficulties as a result of incompetence if the HMRC

are given this power. But he is also being told to clamp down on tax

avoidance, particularly from those who earn a lot and do not pay much

tax. Even so, small amounts do add up. They say it is about 17,000

people. It could be where money is disjointed. They are talking about

elderly and vulnerable people where post has not necessarily got through

or contacts have not been made. There is always the course to the

courts. You realise you have just agreed with each other? Don't

worry, it will not last. This next story will divide you. The Telegraph

says Michael Gove says Ofsted should inspect private schools to make sure

that fee`paying education is held to the highest standards. Why not, Tim?

Well, again, sorry to say this because I am a conservative, but I

have to disagree again with a Conservative Cabinet minister. The

key to the meaning of independent schools is the first word,

Independent. They are not supposed to be inspected by the state. They

are supposed to be outside the national curriculum if they so

choose. They are supposed to be able to set their children different

exams. And to put them under Ofsted runs the risk of turning them into

state schools with fees, the worst of both worlds. I suspect that

Michael Gove is trying to do some political positioning and say, we

are not the Tory toffs. I went to a state school. I don't think

independent schools should begin from special privileges. But the

danger is that we are taking some of the best schools not just in the

country, but in the world that attract people into this country

from all over the world because of their tremendous strengths and their

independence and the fact that they have been around for centuries doing

things very well, and we will try and turn them into bog`standard

bumper hence it is. If Michael Gove gives that power to Ofsted, it will

take both worked at independent schools. It is a dangerous thing for

an Education Secretary to do and an astonishing thing for a conservative

Education Secretary to do. I wonder if the story is all that it seems.

Many independent schools in this country and members of the

Independent schools Council, which are inspected by the independent

schools inspectorate. That body is monitored by, you guessed it,

Ofsted. It is all very circular. It is an arm's length position for many

schools anyway. So I do not take the view that Tim takes about this, but

I am sure the thing about political positioning may be true. Staying

with the Telegraph, traffic lights to stay red longer. Why? It appears

that they have calibrated the pace at which you cross the road in the

1950s, and it is four feet a second. But since then, we have not

calibrated the speed at which the over 65s cross the road, and men

over 65 cross the road on average at three feet a second, women at two a

second. So you either have to hurry up or take your chance. The green

flashing man is one symbol, of course. Other symbols are the cat

down. At if you are pedestrian, you are thinking, I could give that

another few seconds and nip across. If you are in a car, you are

thinking, this is taking ages. But it appears we have not accounted for

a growing elderly population which is taking a bit longer to cross the

road. It depends on your perspective as a pedestrian or a driver. I love

that because it is the Telegraph, all the speeds are in feet and

inches. I suspect that with other papers, it would be metres and

centimetres. But the point is that we are all living longer and there

are many older people around now that were in the 1950s. It clearly

makes sense to look at this. The AA have a sensible point, which is to

say that where you can, or you could do it by adjusting Caps dance and

having more of the countdowns so that people know how long they have

got `` the countdowns. A huge amount of work for somebody.

The Guardian, Number Ten woos Ulster MPs in case of a hung parliament.

The paper is saying David Cameron is not afraid of playing the Orange

card. I do think this is a slightly overtakes it `` overstated story.

All that has happened as the Prime Minister has hosted a reception at

Downing Street for Democratic Unionist members of Parliament. It

was a lavish reception. Any Tory is a top Tory so if you want to make a

point, any reception at Downing Street is lavish. I suspect there

were a couple of sausages on sticks and not a lot more. I have been to

some, not that particular one. The Prime Minister will hold receptions

in Downing Street very regularly. But the DUP are going to be useful,

aren't they? What it points to is as the polls have closed, people are

thinking about what the permutations might be in a hung parliament. For

the Conservative Party to only need the support of the Democratic

Unionists, they would have to be so very close to having an overall

majority because there are only eight DUP MPs. They are the biggest

party in Northern Ireland but they do not have many to start with. He

would probably want to have that in his pocket. My suspicion is that if

David Cameron does not have an overall majority, his preference

would be to continue the current coalition. Whether the Liberal

Democrats or his current backbenchers would let him do that,

is another matter. One lavish party with sausages on sticks does not

seem like high rise to pay. This reminds you that the DUP are the

fourth biggest party in Parliament with eight seats. It does describe a

jolly event. The children were outside running around. It was a

nice sunny evening and it was the evening that Gerry Adams was

arrested so they were probably in a jolly mood. I suspect that was a

coincidence. I suspect that there will be a much bigger story if it

was felt that Downing Street had known in advance that Gerry Adams

would be arrested. I suspect that was a genuine coincidence. The DUP

is unjust and party. It is broadly on the centre`right. It is

Eurosceptic. It is quite right`wing populist. One issue that the

Conservative government or David Cameron in particular will would

have is they are quite strongly homophobic and they have gone on

record with strong attacks on gays and David Cameron is the man who

made gay marriage legal. It would not this early in the NEC marriage.

If we stay to the end of this review, what would be appealing

about the DUP? Supposedly the demands they would make in a

coalition would be local? They would be local. It would be money, it

would be benefits in kind, infrastructure spending and so on.

As Tim says, they are not on the liberal side. I do not think they

would be a coalition. You would not have the DUP joining the government,

they would not be joining the coalition. It is simply that if they

did not have a majority they would allow it to get its own measures

through with a few rides, just as the Labour government did in the

1970s. That is all we have time for. But my guests will be back at

11:30pm. Stay with us here on BBC News. At 11 o'clock, the latest on

the abducted schoolgirls in Nigeria and some of those who escaped tell

their story. Now it is time for Sportsday.

Hello and welcome to Sportsday, I'm Karthi Gnanasegaram. The headlines

this evening. Pushing for promotion to the Premier League ` it's

Championship play off time and Derby have the early advantage against