08/05/2014 The Papers

England's women retain their 100% start to the World Cup qualifying

campaign, when they took on the Ukraine. That is coming up in 15

minutes. Hello, and welcome to our look ahead

to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With me are

Paul Johnson, deputy editor of The Guardian, and media commentator Tim

Collins. Tomorrow's front pages, starting

with The Express, leading 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. The FT goes

with Barclay's 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 Guardian leads with a highly critical report by MPs that

calls for radical reform of oversight of the UKs intelligence

agencies. And The Independent also leads with a report by MPs, this

time criticising a lack of financial oversight of free schools by the

Education Department. The Scotsman's picture story is that 'armoured

cars' are ready to protect Nigel Farage when he makes a return visit

north of the border. The Times declares ` It's official: the Great

Recession has ended according to figures from a respected economic

think tank. So let's begin. We will start with

the express, talking about the idea that the taxman can read our bank

accounts without our permission or a court order, this is how it is

reporting it. HM revenue and Customs said that they have a track record

of blunders, customers have been wrongly accused of owing tax, and

they could take the tax, but if they own money, should they cough up?

They should be pursued, and under the current system, they are, you

should not have, this is what George Osborne is putting in place, but the

ability for HM RC, an error riddled organisation, to read people 's bank

accounts without a court order. Sometimes, possibly raiding joint

accounts without the other half knowing. `` raid. The consequences

could be serious, you could damage credit ratings, direct debits would

balance, they could not pay their mortgages on time, it could be

damaging indeed, I don't think it is the right response. We have a huge

fiscal crisis, this is not the right thing to do. We would hope that the

government gets the message, the problem is that we have been

spending too much, and not taxing too little. Interesting timing, when

everything is geared towards the election, this will be hugely

unpopular with people. This was in the small print, as many

controversial elements of the budget are, and last March, in George

Osborne 's budget, it has taken the Treasury Select Committee to bring

this to the forefront. The chair who says, in reference to the fact that

we know that 5 million people are on the wrong tax codes, people need to

ask for the right codes, and pay the right amounts in the first place. He

is worried about vulnerable people and glitches in the system. People

would find this offensive. How can he do this? The system is in place,

but it doesn't always work properly. They do, very few people who ought

to be paying tax escape from doing so completely. Those people who

probably large`scale tax avoidance are not likely to have accessible

bank accounts. The problem is that once you have introduced the

system, it potentially may have started off as something that is

going to be aimed at the worst offenders but could become something

that becomes almost automatically. `` automatic. Napoleon, I think, was

beaten some time ago, and we still have income tax. The Chancellor says

it is a small measure, targeting 17,000 people, that is how it is

trailed in some newspapers. Before we know it, this could be how we all

pay our taxes, I don't think that is sensible. The Times says that it is

official, the great recession has ended, how are we going to

celebrate? Does it depend on the country where you live? This is a

two cheer story, rather than three cheers, it has taken six years to

claw back this growth. Not to put an entire dampener on this, you have to

look under the bonnet of the economy. Unemployment looks quite

good, but once again, when we look at it, we know how many people are

now categorised as self`employed and on zero our contracts. We know the

potential problems of the housing bubble that could come. It was

reported in the daily Telegraph a day or so ago, saying that 1%

increases in interest rates, which we know is coming at some point, but

we don't know when, it could knock 2% of the growth rate. We could be

back to where we were in 2011. I like the fact that the man who was

quoted in this, extensively, is called Jack Meaning. A marvellous

name for someone who is a research fellow! Does this mean, that Mr

Carney, at the Bank of England, he is under more pressure to put

interest rates up? Savers have been moaning that interest rates have

been low for a long time? Not least, because of what is expected, by the

National Institute, that is anything but a pro` Tory think tank. They are

saying that they expect the country to grow rapidly this year, faster

than any other major colony. It could put pressure on interest

rates, but inside of the story, it says that markets do not expect the

first moved to come before April of next year. The general election is

in May next year, we can assume that they will not go up three days

beforehand. I am suggesting that no governor in the Bank of England will

sensibly put interest rates up just before a general election. What is

interesting about the story is that the recession was so deep, and so

start, that inside of the Times story, they have pointed out that

six years after the onset of the 1979 recession, the Margaret

Thatcher recession, it was 8% bigger, and six years after the 1990

recession, the John Major recession, the economy was 16% bigger, and six

years after the 2008 recession, the Gordon Brown recession, it is only

just back to where it was. If you look at this chart, although some of

those who have more memories remember how bitterly fought the

politics and economics were of the 1980s, actually, the drop from peak

to trough in the 1980s was far far less than the drop from peak to

trough in this recession in 2008. There was a 7% collapse in output,

the worst we have had since the 1930s, that is why it has taken so

long to crawl back to basically the starting line. How concerned will

politicians be that everybody enjoys the benefits of the recovery? There

are pockets which seem to be stubbornly refusing to budge. As we

were saying, the nature of the employment market is showing that,

people in part`time jobs, lone parents and so on, have stuck to the

implement market and not drifted away. It is very uneven, it is an

uneven recovery in that sense. Not only geographically but age wise.

The young, and most barometers here, have done the worst. Then the more

elderly. That is a significant factor. It is worth bearing in mind

the contrast between us and the rest of Europe, in Spain, youth

unemployment is over 50%. That is under the age of 30. I have someone

working for me in Brussels who is a German undergraduate, she says she

is the only one in her entire age group who left university a couple

of years ago who is in work. Although there are undoubtedly

problems with youth unemployment and prospects in Britain, we are much

better than those in the Eurozone. Let's have a look at the

Independent. The MPs savage lack of proper oversight, over ?1 billion

has been spent on the free schools programme from Michael Gove, a

rebuke from Margaret Hodge, among others. `` Margaret Hodge. Has this

project not delivered? Having had a pop at Michael Gove and hour ago, I

will defend him on this one! The Independent is, it is left wing to

other newspapers, it's not surprising that they have taken this

angle. They would be desperate to see free schools fail, as people on

the left are, they want state`controlled monopolistic

education to be the only option available to people who cannot

afford it. Isn't proper oversight what they want to see? What they

want to see is these problems in state schools, that is not the

reason for having a state education system, but overall, free schools

have raised standards, they have improved standards and exam results

overall, they are doing extremely well in tackling some severe

problems of social deprivation, where people have given up on what

state which commission should provide. The numbers that are used

here, some of them are the old Gordon Brown techniques `` state

education. It is about 250 million a year out of each of the four years

that this particular programme has been running. We know, from Sweden,

not a massively right`wing country, a very strongly socially democratic

country, there are huge improvements in standards. Margaret Hodge, I

understand, she wants to knock this, you can pick out individual

stories, there are some stories that are causing my eyebrows to go out,

like the salary figures, weighted by individuals, but if we can make this

work and put parents in charge, we could have important improvements ``

the wages of certain individuals. We cannot criticise all free schools

when you think it is a small number who are not doing well, and haven't

been run properly. This is the redoubtable Margaret Hodge, this is

the second story we have from a Select Committee tonight. Five of

the national newspapers lead from stories of three select committees,

it shows how a dynamic chairman with an energetic set up like the Select

Committee, with the ability to call witnesses, it can be effective. But

coming back to this, Margaret Hodge is fine, she can talk about proper

financial accountability, but the broader worry, about free schools,

is the necessity to enforce a broadly balanced curriculum, and the

fears that are more widely felt about the ability to employ

unqualified teachers, a lot of people are worried about that,

whether they are on the left or right of this argument. Let's move

on to the Scotsman, Farage is on the front cover of this. Armoured cars

are ready to protect him on his return to Scotland, the paper says.

They are supposed to protect him from protests. Family friends does

he have in Scotland? All of us, when we first saw the front pages, we

thought it was a joke. As you unpack it, it turns out to be less of a

joke. The first thing to note is that, my eyebrows went up when I saw

the headline, they are talking about the far right making plans for

Nigel. They are not talking about UKIP but an organisation I had never

heard of, it is called "Britain first". They are quite right wing,

and it is not UKIP asking for the armoured cars, or the police, this

is the far right group trying to get some publicity for themselves. If

you dig back into the history, the last two times that Farage has gone

to Scotland, I am not a UKIP supporter, you could play a key role

in taking me out of Polmont, I owe them no favours whatsoever. He was

not physically assaulted but abused `` Parliament. He had to flee into a

pub. I think if you do not agree with UKIP, whether you are in

Scotland or England, which have a civil debate and not have one where

even a political leader who we do not agree with is held down, shouted

out, abused, and told where he can put the union jack, all of that has

happened to him. He is a legitimate leader of a party, and if those who

disagree debate at, do not shout him down. `` debate with him. The phrase

"armoured cars" is' is, that means it could not be true. Farage travels

with a couple of mind is these days since he was hit over the head with

a placard. We did an interview with him last week, he is relaxed about

having those minders. He thinks it is probably a necessity of any party

leader who is gaining the National Forum in the way that he is. And

such predominance in a recognisable character. A comment from each of

you. Comments that ethnic minority voters will flock to UKIP. Tell that

to Lenny Henry. 99.4% of UKIP supporters are white and most

studies have shown they are far less tolerant of ethnic minorities and of

immigrants. This is wishful thinking. This is very much a part

of what is clever strategy for Nigel Farage, saying, don't believe in the

line. I'm going to get minority voters. Everyone knows which pool he

fishes from. So much to talk about. We have run out of time. It bubbly

my fault. Paul and Tim, lovely to see you both. `` it is a bubbly my

fault. The latest of the abducted schoolgirls from Nigeria as some of

those who escaped tell their story. Coming up next, 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