22/07/2014 The Papers

been not bidding for the World Cup as long as Sepp Blatter remains in

charge of FIFA. That is in 15 minutes after the papers.

Not our normal studio as you can see ` we're live

on the banks of the River Clyde to mark the eve of Glasgow 2014.

With me are Richard Walker, the editor of The Sunday Herald and

Lindsay McIntosh, Scottish Political Correspondent for The Times.

They'll be taking us through their pick of tomorrow morning's

First, let's look at tomorrow morning's front pages.

And the Independent says MPs are warning of a sharp increase in

the sale of weaponry to Russia, just as the European Union considers

widening sanctions against Moscow over its support for pro`Russian

They've been blamed of course for downing the Malaysian airliner.

The Financial Times says the head of the French Socialist party has

accused David Cameron of hypocrisy for urging Paris to scrap

the sale of two warships to Russia when so many Russian oligarchs have

For the Telegraph, it's a photograph of the Queen's racehorse, Estimate,

who's tested positive for the banned substance morphine, that features

But the paper also says the SNP leader Alex Salmond has broken his

own self`imposed ban and already talked about Scottish Independence

even before the Commonwealth Games has officially started.

The Guardian leads with the Trojan Horse report from former

counter`terror chief Peter Clarke into allegations of a hard`line

And The Mail, which also pictures the Queen with her racehorse

at Ascot, says David Cameron is under pressure to return

donations given by Russian oligarchs to the Conservative Party.

Let's begin our more in`depth look at the papers. Yes, this is in

context of the Malaysian airlines crash, and as the world decides what

sanctions to put in place we have a report coming out from the committee

on export controls which shows there has been a 52% rise in the licenses

for exports to Russia of ammunitions in the last 12 months. This comes

after David in the last 12 months. This comes

after Cameron addressed the Commons yesterday and criticised the French

for their warships they are exporting and saying we need to take

a hard line on this, and it also comes on the day when the EU nations

were meeting to discuss what sanctions they could put in place.

This throws open the issues individual and countries will have

and how the sanctions will affect them. What are your thoughts on

this, Richard? It is not a great front page for the prime minister,

is it? It is not, it is hardly a surprise return sells arms to

Moscow, Britain sells arms to almost everybody. But is a shocking and

shameful list, Huffington Post reported one year ago that the UK

sells ?12 billion worth of arms to the world's worst dictatorships. It

is a real embarrassment to David Cameron. Not a surprise because for

this Government, business and profits are number one priority and

morals are nowhere to be seen. We need to look at what David Cameron

does in terms of sanctions that are imposed. The timing of this report

is unfortunate for him, and does he stand by the stance he has taken?

That obviously happened before this terrible tragedy in Ukraine. That's

right, but many of those contracts are still in place. Who would have

thought that would be the first question David Cameron would ask his

advisers before saying what he said? You are right, there are real issues

around what pressure can be put on Putin to act on this. I think it is

a really important issue. What is another important issue is why

Britain can sell arms to these dictators and nobody questions them.

I think we need to look at the policy over that. It needs to be

dealt with at some point in the near future. Let's move on to the

Financial Times, David Cameron accused of Russian hypocrisy. They

are also reporting across the papers that the Labour Party are taking the

opportunity to say, actually, David Cameron pointing out that the

Conservative Party are accepting donations from Russian oligarchs.

Yes, I'm not sure what the detail is, I would be wary about party

political politics coming into this at this stage, but in terms of the

City of London, that is the issue being referred to in the Financial

Times, the accusation of hypocrisy over Russia which came from the

French socialist leader. The suggestion was that David Cameron

needs to clean up his backyard before he starts criticising the

French for their dealings. Each country in the EU has got its own

economic reliance and dependence with Russia and one of those that

David Cameron will have to look at is London. It will be interesting to

see what they come up with. Let's move back to the Independent and the

other main story, depressingly familiar, a picture of Gaza and the

terrible conflict going on there. This is a pretty shocking image,

showing the father of a nine`year`old girl and his face in

absolute dismay and grief and horror. What you can see in soft

focus behind him is an image of the nine`year`old girl being carried by

a relative to the hospital. These images coming out of Gaza, within

this they are not showing anything macabre, just showing the extent of

the human suffering here and it is horrendous. It is an example of how

photography can really ram home the reality of the situation, and also

change public opinion. There is no doubt innocent children are being

killed and that just has to stop. There needs to be a real attempt to

bring both sides under some sort of control, but certainly America has

got a responsibility to be more forthright with Israel because I

think if you look at the relativity of what is happening there, I think

the missile strikes in Israel are clearly wrong. I think the balance

is skewed with their firepower that Israel is using in Gaza. 28 Israeli

deaths, much higher possibly than Benjamin Netanyahu would have been

expecting, and yet there is much discomfort about the levels of

suffering in Gaza. It is a very complex situation that has been

going on for as long as I can remember. It waxes and wanes in

terms of public opinion and publicity, depending on what is

going on in these pictures and the ones we saw last week, they would

certainly serve to put it further up the political agenda. We can only

hope there is a renewed emphasis on finding a way to have a cease`fire.

Let's look at the Herald because this is the reason we are here, the

eve of the Commonwealth Games tomorrow. It has been a great day

here in Glasgow, the sun has been shining. The sun always shines on

Glasgow! It's true! It has been an absolutely beautiful day and you can

really sends the spirit. You guys spend much more time in the city

than I do, but... It is really busy, there are people from all over the

world and there is a real sense of anticipation. A real sense of people

supporting the Commonwealth Games here and tomorrow night will start

the party, the likes of which the world has never seen. We don't know

much about the opening ceremony. But we did not know much about the

Olympic opening ceremony either, which took us by surprise. We did

not know the Queen was going to jump out of a helicopter. Identity that

will happen tomorrow. But we don't know who will jump out of what.

There are rumours about certain things which I won't spoil by

repeating them. What I have heard, I have to admit, I was a bit cynical

about it as I was about the opening of the Olympics, and that event blew

me away. From what I have heard about tomorrow night, it is going to

be absolutely fantastic. I can hardly wait. Maybe you can tell us

about the theme, Gallagher us, this impish, self`deprecation with a

swagger. Maybe a bit of self`confidence. Yes, definitely a

bit of a swagger. You need to experience it to understand what it

is but you will see it here. We are hearing from the guy who has

orchestrated the opening ceremony that it will have a Glaswegian

accent. I'm not entirely sure what that means but it sounds brilliant.

Looking at the front page of the Herald, the leaders hail city

transformation, ?1 billion investment, 4500 athletes from 71

nations, but is it all good? I spoke to a couple of taxi drivers, maybe,

who are a bit annoyed about the inconvenience. Never take the

opinion of a taxi driver! Others have been happy about it. Any

negatives? Yes, some people are unhappy about certain things that

have happened. Some people believe that their own areas are not getting

the investment and the benefits that they would expect from an event like

this. You can completely understand that. I think it is overridden by

the benefits of showing Scotland as it is today and Glasgow as it is

today, to the world. That is a tremendous opportunity. I think the

world will be duly impressed. In terms of the few negative headlines

we have had in the build`up, they have been pretty minimal, compare to

major events. Like the Olympics. There have been teething problems,

issues with the opening ceremony, FA chairman Greg Dyke tells MPs

the FA will not bid for FIFA tournaments, as long as

Sepp Blatter's in charge. Alistair Cook keeps his captaincy,

as England name their squad