07/08/2014 The Papers

League results, and on the pitch with referees learning to use the

vanishing spray. Don't banish! See you in 15 minutes. `` fannish

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

With me is Oliver Wright, Whitehall Editor of The Independent

and in our Edinburgh studio, author and journalist, Iain Macwhirter.

Boris Johnson says it will be easy to wind power is back from the EU as

long as the pie minister gets tough. The Metro has news that a

44`year`old man is to be charged with manslaughter after evidently

giving his 17`year`old daughter ecstasy. Chloe Wilkins collapsed and

died at home in in July. The Telegraph says the new Education

Secretary is to push for British values to be taught at nursery to

protect toddlers from religious extremism. The US weighs up air

strikes is the headline in the Guardian as the Islamic militant

group IS continues to make gains in Iraq. The Daily Mail says NHS

operation waiting lists of the longest they have been in six years.

The Daily Mirror says the gang that of the deadly attacked and killed

two students in Malaysia were high on crystal meth. An image of Iraqi

refugees fleeing the militant group IS dominates the front page of The

Times, saying a mass exodus of Christians are fleeing from Muslim

extremists. Let's begin with the Telegraph, specifically in Scotland

which makes sense to go to you, Ian, referring to Alex Salmon, saying he

refuses to back down, a reference to what he said in the Scottish

parliament following his debate with Alistair Darling. He sees it as

sticking firmly to the line that there will be a currency union with

the rest of the UK after independence. In fact the pound is

not if you like English property. It is much Scotland's pound as the rest

of the UK because it was originally a financial expression of you like

of the 17 seven union, it is not the property of either side `` 1707.

Either side refusing to seriously contemplate any alternative to the

pound. No idea of a Scottish currency of its own, like the

Norwegian kroner, or the Danish kroner, or indeed the Swiss

currency. Many countries in the world have their own currency. Many

people in the nationalist movement are puzzled that he has been

reluctant to have a plan B. The take of the newspaper isn't hugely

supportive of Alex Salmond's position, I think it's fair to say.

The Telegraph even in Scotland is in favour of independence. I think they

have a point. After the debate, the no campaign has Alex Salmond on the

Runs in the wave it wasn't before `` On the Runs run `` on the run. It

strikes me that if they leave the union, the politicians who

controlled the debt have the right to say "I'm sorry, but we are not

prepared to let you carry on using the pound. You can carry on using it

as a currency but you cannot be part of the currency union." The argument

of Alex Salmond is that if he gets his way and Scotland votes yes,

while the politicians in Westminster are saying what they say now, they

will have to rethink if the Scottish people have voted in the way that

Alex Salmond would like. This isn't just about Alex Salmond and the SNP,

there are many other parties which support independence and many people

who support it who would not describe themselves as members of

the SNP. It is wider than just Alex Salmond and that is one of the

unfortunate ways the debate has been pitched. As far as the currency is

concerned, absolutely there is nothing to stop Scotland printing

its own Scottish pound, setting it as a one`to`one parity with the UK

pound and continuing on that basis and having a currency board as the

monetary authority, a system that has been used widely across the

world. When Ireland became independent it did precisely this,

coining its own Irish pound and British, UK pounds continued to

circulate for 50 years, until it joined the euro. There are many

alternatives, the independent Scottish currency, joining the euro,

or having a currency board. The Daily Telegraph, is another story

that caught your eye. New aspirin, in quotes. Perhaps we need to

qualify that, because it isn't aspirin. This is another wonder drug

story. It looks like it has potential, you would say. It has

already been prescribed to people who are suffering from diabetes. The

Telegraph are highlighting a study over a long period of time, looking

at the life expectancy of the people on the drug. What they found, when

you took out other factors like obesity, smoking, lifestyle factors,

people who took the drug are more likely to live 50% longer than those

who are not on the drug. The Telegraph suggesting that may have

applications for other people, slowing down heart disease, some

sorts of cancer. They looked at a previous study that was done into

mice, good news for them, finding that their life span was expended by

one fifth `` extended stop for `` extended. We don't often hear good

news for mice in these stories! Do you buy this one? I don't, I am very

suspicious of these wonder drugs that tend to crop up, when other

drugs are losing their patents and the drug companies are in need of

numerical drugs to restore them to profitability. We have this with

statins as well, considerable evidence that they are benefits to

people with heart conditions but it isn't a wonder drug and we have a

terrible tendency in this country, especially the popular press,

picking up something like this one week which appears to be the

solution to all medical problems, discovering later that it isn't. I

think that this drug has been around for a while, it isn't a drug

company. This is a drug that has been around for a long time. This is

a study looking at the people who have taken the drug over a period of

ten, 15 years, and it is something that is reasonably cheap, but he is

right that the media are guilty of dressing up a drug as a wonder drug.

Drugs have side effects, but drugs like statins have saved the lives of

thousands of people. But I don't think one should take the opposite

extreme and save that you shouldn't take any drugs at all. You should

just be careful. The headline is eye`catching, but what we said about

aspirin yesterday, and now we have "new aspirin", which we've

established isn't aspirin at all! A bit like new Labour! The Guardian

front page, a story we have been leading with, the US weighing up air

raids to stop the surge of jihadists. Oliver, clearly thought

being given in Washington to what they make, or may not do in Iraq. A

terrible dilemma. It more pictures of fleeing families, displaced `` it

is really grim. It is awful. The Obama administration is in a tricky

situation. A couple of months ago they will doubt air strikes and now

they seem to be suggesting that his back on the table, in a limited

sense. And the idea of humanitarian aid drops. They don't want to be

seen to be propping up the regime in Iraq, the regime of Maliki in Iraq

which is deeply unpopular. They need to find different ground. Any kind

of bombing is pretty indiscriminate and pretty difficult. The only way

you can do it really is to have boots on the ground which isn't

really a possibility. The keywords in the headline, "weighing up", it's

a question of what they can realistically do, if anything.

Indeed, as you indicated, the administration is obviously very

cautious because this isn't the first air strikes in Iraq, but it

would be the first since the Iraqi war and they don't want to repeat

history. Somebody's going to have to intervene here. There are disturbing

echoes here of the ethnic cleansing that took place in Kosovo in 1999,

and eventually after great reluctance, the Western powers had

to intervene because it was an humanitarian emergency. People

fleeing for the hills, an unacceptable situation. One reason I

fear this has been neglected in Western public opinion is because it

is coinciding with the crisis in Gaza. This in many ways is more

serious than that. It's also a situation when air strikes would be

appropriate, as would providing more material assistance to the Peshmerga

forces on the ground, those opposing the IS. It is a relatively small

organisation, Islamic State. It has managed to acquire significant and

France is in armour, arms and ammunition from the Iraqi army ``

significant acquisitions of armour. A limited intervention on

humanitarian grounds seems to be unanswerable. I'm going to move on

because we spoke extensively on this slot yesterday about a man by the

name of Boris Johnson. He features on the front of the Daily Express.

Interesting to see how they have taken it forwards. The Daily Express

went quite big on the EU yesterday and they are doing the same again

today. They say the shake`up is simple, we just need to get tough,

he tells Cameron, the day after saying he wants to be an MP. Try

telling that to Angela Merkel! Don't be under any illusions, this isn't

about the EU, it is about Boris and a future leadership Challenge Cup if

Cameron loses in 2015. As clear as that already? Yes. `` a challenge,

if Cameron loses. If Cameron wins in 2015, Boris really isn't a threat. I

can see Cameron sending him off to become the Health Secretary, maybe

something else that would damage his reputation. If Cameron loses, he

will almost certainly have to resign, and Boris is positioning

himself to the right of the party on Europe as the person who can unite

the party and take back from Ukip while being slightly socially

liberal. The idea that any EU negotiations is easy is "for the

birds", because it won't be. It is, the gated and technical. What is

your take? This is the kind of thing that annoys a lot of people in

Scotland because they say that if the glass go council leader was

considering becoming an MSP, would it be all over the UK press? Of

course not. It's a compelling story, on personality grounds if

nothing else. And as you rightly indicated, this is a question of

who's going to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and possibly

the next Prime Minister. This is really hard ball politics. Boris

Johnson is absolutely going for the goolies here because he knows this

is a situation that David Cameron cannot cope with, Cameron is boxed

in. He cannot turn around and say that he would contemplate a British

departure from the EU because he has staked his reputation on

renegotiating. He has David Cameron in a corner and this is going to be

a very interesting stand`off because the Cameron supporters are not going

to allow this to continue, they can see the threat, they know where

Boris is vulnerable. The interview with him before, questions about his

probity, journalistic past, his private life. You will see a lot

more of this coming out in the press as he gets closer to Parliament. On

that note, we will come back and do this in an hour. Thank you for

joining us. That's it for the papers. Back at 11:30pm. Stay with

us because we will have more on the situation in Iraqi, as we've been

discussing. Coming up next, Sportsday.