22/12/2015 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers

With me are the journalist and broadcaster Eve Pollard and

Tomorrow's front pages, starting with:

The FT leads on an investigation by Revenue and Customs

into claims foreign sellers on Amazon and eBay are dodging VAT.

Agencies are creaming off up to half of fees paid by NHS hospitals

for locum medics, according to an investigation by the Telegraph.

The Metro says that Christmas shoppers queued

in a six-hour traffic jam to get out of the Bluewater centre in Kent.

Figures showing more than a million migrants entered the EU this year

That story too in the Guardian, which carries a photo

of refugees arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos.

And the Mail says that 100,000 illegal migrants were stopped

The i says that five of the world's big investment banks paid no

corporation tax in Britain last year despite making billions in profits.

The Times says that tens of thousands of European Union

officials are to recieve a payrise worth 100 million euros.

The Times seems to be suggesting that it is a nice Christmas present.

Pay rises and bonuses to cost 100 million. Is this just the straight

reporting of Christmas bonuses? Straight reporting I'm sure, but it

will have its influence on the EU debate. Nigel Farage is quoted here,

surprise surprise. Guess what, he is not happy about it. It seems to be a

lot of money, the bogeyman of the recent debate, Jean-Claude Juncker,

he will get and extra ?8,300. I like the fact that they mention Aaron

Mannan, Lord Hill, he looks to be in line for an extra ?2200 -- they

mention our own man. We know that the banks will be dishing out

millions and millions in bonuses, just after Christmas is over in the

New Year. What is the big deal? I can see what you might get a bonus

if you have done your job. Do you know how many people work for the EU

in Brussels? Occasionally it has to move to Strasbourg it is otherwise

people would get upset, but do you know how many work for them? Rather

a lot. 55,000, bonkers! This is the beginning of the EU debate and I

don't want to vote emotionally, because if I did that is the sort of

story that makes me want to leave. We would be walking out tomorrow.

But it does seem that 55,000 people to run this... To run this huge

organisation. When we went into this, I called my children Claudia

and Oliver so they would have European names and we would be all

full of free trade and working everywhere and speaking French,

well, they both do, but this is not what I signed up for. All of this

cash going out to bureaucrats. What are they doing all day? Once you

have seen the figures and had the outrage, what do you do? One could

argue that if we were better at play in Brussels, if we played a more

constructive part in Brussels then maybe this sort of thing wouldn't

happen and we wouldn't spend so much time moaning about it from the

sidelines. They will not write off Brussels expenses, because the

accountants say they don't add up. We complain about the way Brussels

works, but perhaps if we were more involved in it and we sent better

people, our best people to represent our country, Brussels might not be

so dysfunctional. I would beg every newspaper to get a private

undercover staff in Brussels. It would cost a fortune, if you have

ever had a cup of coffee in Brussels it costs a fortune. I have indeed

had quite a few and they are expensive. The Guardian, just over a

million refugees have tried to reach Europe or have reached Europe this

year alone. I think that is an enormous figure, but I'm not

surprised because the news has been full of people coming from the

Middle East, from Turkey, from wherever. It is quite interesting

that two thirds of them have landed in Greece, and we still don't know

what to do with them, we still haven't sorted out peace for them so

they can go back to where they came from. Of course, a lot of those

refugees are economic refugees... Not a lot of them but a certain

percentage. It is a terrible problem for Greece and for Europe, and yet I

feel very sad for them because what kind of Christmas are they going to

have? As you say, some of them are economic migrants, but the majority

of them are Syrians, people fleeing war. And once you reach the refugee

Convention, it says that you can claim asylum in the country where

you land. And that is Europe. One of the things that worries me when you

see these pictures, they are obviously distressing in their own

right, but I feel that we haven't even begun to grasp the scale of

this. There are massive flows of people, conflicts that are driving

people to leave their homes, and they have the ability to move, by

one way or another, they are moving and I think that we tend to deal

with these things piecemeal when actually we need... Actually, a lot

of people say that they will want to go back to Syria. Well, once you see

film of Raqqa, and then you see Europe, I'm not sure that many

people will want to go back. This is certainly what the UN would say, the

debate about migration has been about how different states can stop

it, put up barriers, not actually adapt to it and deal with it and

make the systems and processes within individual countries workable

to deal with this kind of thing, because you are not going to stop

these people. As you say, compare Syria with... Oxford Street... Which

would you choose? The terrible thing is that there is no plan or cohesive

plan, there is no real advice from the United Nations either, frankly.

The idea that you can just have basically walls all barriers and

that. People, it won't. That is the beginning of the end of the EU,

isn't it? That is the whole thing about Schengen. Australia, they put

up walls, they lock people up in camps. Hungary is building walls.

Some of those countries that have emerged fairly recently from being

under the Communist foot, they will think, I am not giving up this whole

future I dreamt of of capitalism and entrepreneurialism because we have

all these strangers in our midst. Once Donald Trump has built his wall

across the border of America and Mexico, then... Let's worry about

Europe first! The Daily Mail continues this, the number of people

trying to get to the UK has doubled. 100,000 illegal people stopped at

the UK border. The UK border force has filed 30,000 attempts, and it is

quoted that this is something that will occupy the minds of ministers

for sometime come. You would wish it would, but it probably won't,

because they seem more interested in the battle they are having among

themselves about whether we should stay in Europe or not. There are

real things happening that they should be applying their minds to,

but they are not really. What one was hearing today of some of the

truckers who are caught up in this situation, particularly at Calais,

you feel great sympathy for them. They are just trying to do their

jobs and feeling that they are being menaced and no one is helping. These

people who are climbing on trucks and threatening to kill people, they

are living in France. There is no danger in France, there is no war in

France, why won't they stay in France? Why do they want to come

here? More jobs here? Are there more jobs? What I want to say is that

there is something about the way Europe is treating these people,

perhaps. I have to say, possibly as a woman, I would rather live in

France if I was awesome and I didn't have wear a headscarf, but these are

men. I think you are looking at this from a Western perspective, you are

thinking of red wine and cheeses. Nothing wrong with that. I think if

I had the choice I would live in Britain. I think if you have

community connections within the Ethiopian diaspora or the Afghan

diaspora, they are here, they are not in France. I understand that,

and Algerian and Moroccan ones in France, in which case you could

probably get the OK to come and live here she went through formal things.

The French have made it difficult for asylum applications, and the

process is much trickier over there for some reason. Maybe the French

know something we don't know. Let's quickly move on, the independent

front page, the Brits are going back to Helmand Province. At the moment

it is just ten advisers, that looks like the Taliban could overrun the

place. It does, and we have been asked to go in again and help out.

Very distressing for the families of the soldiers who went there, many

soldiers died, British soldiers died or were badly injured, and many will

feel that they are almost back at square one. We ask a lot of our

service people, which is perhaps why we should think twice before cutting

the Armed Forces, as we seem to do. Eve, beneath that picture, top five

banks pay no UK corporation tax. The Chancellor said that he was going to

come down on this kind of thing, didn't he? I thought he did and I am

waiting for him to do it. It is rather like those companies that

sell a lot of stuff in Britain and then pay no tax. We shouldn't

reinvent the wheel, we should make sure that we follow the same rules

that other countries do so that all these banks and companies that sell

and do very well in Britain, pay their taxes here. It must it

possible to see what other countries do. Very difficult, the most

Chancellor can do is sabre rattle. It can't be that difficult, in

America if you are bank pay tax to the IRS. They are tough. I think it

has to come from the top. I guess they will say, George, if you are

tough with us, we will take our business elsewhere. They always say

that, but who is going to leave London? You are going to leave

London, you want to go to France! Finally, the Daily Telegraph.

Nativity film banned for being too religious. Isn't this crazy? I think

you will remember a few weeks ago these cinemas said they would not

have the Lord's prayer as an ad, and they are now stopping a Nativity

film saying that they have a policy banning the political or religious

advertising. At least they are consistent. This is a Church of

England country, the last time we watched. We are down here, Church of

Scotland further north. Yes, as much as I admire the advertising media

society, when you are in the cinema you are looking at where you can put

your coat, will the woman in front stop jumping up and down, how soon

will be ads be over and can you watch a film? My feeling is, show

all the ads you want. As long as they follow the rules of advertising

and behave themselves, I think it is outrageous they don't have this is

shown in cinemas. Cinemas are run by commercial companies, if they have

made a mistake was in the blue the public will let them know. I suspect

you will find that these newspapers are more outraged than the public

are. Sure. I suspect that is probably the case. Thank you both

are coming in. Stay with us, you stay at the top of the hour, but

now, Sportsday. --