09/05/2014 The Papers

And Lewis Hamilton leads the way in practice and head of the Spanish

Grand Prix. That is in 15 minutes, after the papers.

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

bringing us tomorrow. With me are the Economist's Jeremy Cliffe, and

novelist and journalist Dreda Say Mitchell.

Many of the papers are covering the first day of the Rolf Harris sex

abuse trial. The Mail here is focusing on a letter the prosecution

claim he wrote to the father of one of his alleged victims. The Mirror

also leads with Rolf Harris and this letter that the jury heard in court.

More on Rolf Harris in the Telegraph, and their front page also

features the British servicemen sent home from Afghanistan after photos

appeared of them posing next to the body of a dead insurgent. The

Independent leads with a special report from Mariupol in Ukraine,

where there's been violent clashes between government forces and

pro`Russian separatists. Russia are celebrating Victory Day,

the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II in red Square. That is in the

Financial Times. The FT also features the situation in Ukraine

and a story about the hotel at the Shard in London. The Guardian

headline suggests that NHS hospitals need thousands of extra nurses. And

Take That's Gary Barlow is on the front page of the Times, which says

that he and his fellow band members Howard Donald and Mark Allen are

facing a ?20 million bill for tax avoidance. `` Mark Owen. And the

Express has the story that the Queen has been told to take it easy.

Prince Charles stood in for her at the last minute during an official

ceremony. Let's unpick some of those stories. We start with the Daily

Mirror. Like many of the papers, the Rolf Harris trial is featuring

prominently. They have this headline, forgive me, I sicken

myself. This was to do with the letter the court heard about? Yes,

it was an allegation by the prosecution that said Mr Harris said

a letter to the father of one of the people he allegedly abused. It goes

to show how dramatic and how much media interest there is in this

trial. This is just the first day, and it is splashed across the front

pages. Rather lurid stuff. Dreda, this is making the front pages of

many papers. And particularly this letter the Star wrote, saying he

loathed himself for what he had done. But he was making the point

that although there was a relationship with one of these

alleged victims, he is saying it was when she was not underage.

Absolutely, and that is something to remember about this case. I feel

quite uneasy talking about it, because we have already had an

incident this year with somebody in the spotlight. It was proved that

the allegations against them were not true, so we need to be clear

that there is a court case still going on and we have to see what

happens. And we will leave it there for that very reason. Let's go

inside the Daily Mail. They pick up on this story we have in talking

about a lot today, the suggestion from Amnesty International that

Nigeria had an inkling of what was going to happen to these 300

schoolgirls who have so dreadfully been taken. That is at the bottom of

the page. Tell us more about that? I find this a horrific and upsetting

story which becomes worse every day. This is the fourth week, and now it

has been alleged by Amnesty International that the Nigerian

government were warned for hours before this incident, and nothing

appears to have happened. They categorically showed the clip where

the president said that is not true. But I think there are so many

undercurrent here. One of the big things for me is the sense that

Nigeria feels like two very different countries. There is the

north and north`east, and then there is the South, predominantly

Christian, with traditional African religions. It feels like there is

not cooperation. And it also feels like some Nigerians may say that

because this happened to girls in the north, did the government in

Abuja care about them? You mentioned Amnesty International. One of the

interesting parts of the story is the extent to which that charity has

driven this story up the agenda. This is about girls and women being

treated as the spoils of war, which has happened for decades, but I

can't think of any similar story that has got the prominence that

this has stopped so it is testimony to them that they are putting

pressure on the Nigerian government. It is interesting that it has only

happened because of an international outcry. This happened quite a while

ago and if there was not an international outcry, when you think

about other countries where you have had war is going on, there has been

so much to show that women are used as weapons in war, and we can't have

that happening in Nigeria. The international community has clearly

been horrified. The US and Britain are offering help. We understand

there may be use of American drones to track down these hiding places. I

suppose the international community has to tread a cautious line here,

because they don't want to get embroiled in Nigerian internal

politics. Absolutely. The US and Britain have said there was no

question of military intervention in this. As you say, the tensions

between north and south Nigeria are so volatile that getting dragged

into the situation would be a terrible mistake. There is so much

pressure because of media campaign that it is a difficult tightrope

that the governments of the West have to walk. Also, the no doubt ``

Nigerian security forces have been accused of human rights violations

as well. So if international intelligence specialists come in,

they have to be very careful. It is a very complex issue. But the focus

has to be on finding those girls. Let's look at one of the other

stories in the Daily Mail on page four, the suggestion that the

government's Help To Buy scheme for first`time buyers, to give them a

foot on the ladder, has somehow gone a bit awry. Yes, this is George

Osborne's scheme to help those struggling to get on the housing

ladder. The government effectively subsidises their mortgage. At the

important criteria are that those who take on the scheme have to have

at least 5% of the value of the house to put down as a deposit to

show that they are safe to lend to. The problem that has emerged is that

a lot of people on this scheme have not put down 5% of the mortgage

value because of some technical reason to do with the computer

system, inevitably. We know government computer systems rarely

go to plan. The result is that there seem to be lots of people who have

taken on this scheme who may not be safe gets. This smacks to me of the

sub`prime mortgage crisis in 2007. There is the suggestion that people

will be overstretching themselves and left without a security blanket.

What struck me about this story is that there seems to be a difference

between people in the south and people in the north and Scotland.

Apparently, this scheme is working well in the north and Scotland.

There is a differential between the prices of Robert E. If you are young

person living in London, 10% is a lot of money. In this article, they

quoted 10% of 200,000. I spoke to a young couple this week and they said

they are desperate to do this scheme. They cannot afford ?20,000,

so it is fine to have a Help To Buy scheme. However, there should have

been differential is built into it. It is a tale of two countries. The

extent to which the London property market has exploded in the last year

seems to have no bearing on what is happening elsewhere in the country.

A lot of people in the north and Northern Ireland are in negative

equity, which in London seems impossible. So maybe a more

differentiated scheme would have been helped for. And also, what

about help to rent? That is why so many people have been pushed to buy,

because rents are so high, or even higher than mortgages. Something

needs to be done about the rental market. And in this country, we are

wedded to the idea of buying. But with property prices, you can see

why people might think it would be a good investment if they could only

get on the ladder. Let's move further afield now. The Independent

has a picture of a police station burning in Aria pour in Ukraine. We

have been hearing about those clashes between government forces

and pro`Russian insurgents. They have the stark headline there. The

suggestion is that civil war looms. The Independent and 50 are going

with the metaphor of clouds and storms. They have a very ominous

picture on the front, with a burning building and dark clouds billowing

above and wind in the trees. It sums up the situation very well. The FT

used the phrase of a cloud above Russia as well. Beyond this, what

strikes me is the shift we have seen since a few weeks ago, when you saw

those idealistic scenes of young people in Kiev, protesting for

liberalism and wanting to join the European Union. Now the region seems

to be descending into civil war. There is now a slanging match

between the Russians on the one side, who are making lots of

provocative and symbolic gestures, with Putin in the Crimea at the

moment. Then you have the government in Kiev, using the opportunity of

that commemoration to launch attacks on Russian militants in eastern

Ukraine. It is becoming an extremely dark and and threatening story. The

suggestion that the approach of the Ukrainian government has become more

strident and they are upping their game which is exacerbating the

situation. Absolutely but the government would say that they were

taking back ` I think it was a police headquarters and I think

pro`Russian, you can use all types of words, militants, freedom

fighters, it depends what side you are on. But you talked about this

picture and the one in the FT, there is one missing and it is the one

with Putin in Crimea, that kind of collects it all. It seems such a

shame that on a day that's meant to be about commemorating victory, that

you have what I consider to be quite a provocative move by the Russian

president. He should have just let it lie. This country is descending

and before we know it, it is going to be descending into civil war.

Let's bring in that picture you mentioned on the FT ` cloud over

Russian celebrations, that analogy and metaphor continuing and this

really the proud Russian force there is march through Moscow. We see how,

perhaps, President Putin has used that, as some people would say, has

hijacked those celebrations to make an altogether more modern point. The

symbolling seems to be intent on both sides. You have the Ukrainian

government using the commemoration as the Independent put it, to crow

about the deaths in eastern Ukraine, the Russian activists that have been

killed and apparent lit commemoration in Moscow, which

happens every year was unusually bombastic. It lasted 15 minutes more

than usual. Everyone ratcheting things um.

We must push on to the i. A very unnerving story. Britain's Camp

Bastion shame and these photographs, supposedly of British servicemen

posing with a dead Taliban fighter. Pictures from 2002 which have come

to light online. I think it was 2012, at Camp Bastion which was the

biggest British base in Afghanistan. . First of all, there is an

investigation, so we need to be clear ` are these true pictures? But

if they are, this is horrifying. I think what horrified me when I read

this story was, there was a line in it that says ` concerns that the

photograph pro provoke the Taliban for more propaganda and get more

people on its side. Actually when I look at this, I don't think at that

` I just think, somebody is dead in this photograph and somebody has

their thumb up, really. So forget about the recruitment and prop began

darks somebody has died here and I think there `` prop began darks I

think there should be a sense of someone has died and having

reverence for that. I know the MoD says it has zero tolerance for that.

When I read that article, it was all about whether it was going to make

more Afghanis join the Taliban. It is certainly a grotesque image. We

will talk more about that. Sorry to bring things to an end. We will be

back in an hour's time, plenty more to talk about, and see what is

making the headlines tomorrow. Stay with us, at 11.00pm we'll get an up

date on the situation in eastern Ukraine. Coming up next, time for

Sportsday. Hello and welcome to Sportsday. I'm

Katherine Downes. Peter Moores is back at the helm and England are

back to winning ways. They beat Scotland in a rather rainy One Day