:00:00. > :00:17.Hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be
:00:18. > :00:22.With me are Rashid Razaq, culture correspondent
:00:23. > :00:25.for the London Evening Standard and Caroline Wheeler,
:00:26. > :00:28.political editor for the Sunday Express.
:00:29. > :00:36.The Observer leads with the story that government budget cuts
:00:37. > :00:39.are almost doubling the number of homes considered as being
:00:40. > :00:43.at significiant risk of flooding within 20 years.
:00:44. > :00:46.The Sunday Times headlines an executive pay row,
:00:47. > :00:48.saying the Enviroment Agency's PR chief left the organisation
:00:49. > :00:51.with a six figure pay-off, despite a troubling week
:00:52. > :00:56.The Sunday Express leads with the same story,
:00:57. > :00:59.saying senior managers at the Environment Agency have been
:01:00. > :01:03.awarded bonuses worth almost ?300,000.
:01:04. > :01:06.Independent on Sunday's picture shows a woman in Bahrain protesting
:01:07. > :01:10.against Saudi Arabia's decision to execute 47 individuals -
:01:11. > :01:13.an act that has been condemned worldwide.
:01:14. > :01:16.The Sunday Telegraph reports that 11-year-olds will be expected
:01:17. > :01:19.to know all their times tables when they leave primary school,
:01:20. > :01:40.The Sunday express. The lead story here, jury at Flood fat cat bonuses.
:01:41. > :01:46.You have written this story, tell us about it. Flooding has been on the
:01:47. > :01:50.agenda for over a week since we had the terrible Boxing Day floods. As
:01:51. > :01:55.you just said, the country is bracing itself again tonight,
:01:56. > :01:59.different parts, for yet more flooding. And we have discovered
:02:00. > :02:04.that the flooding bash Environment Agency, which has been criticised
:02:05. > :02:10.for not doing enough last weekend, has awarded some of its senior staff
:02:11. > :02:16.around ?300,000 in performance related bonuses and I am sure many
:02:17. > :02:20.Flood victims out there, in fact we have spoken to some, who will find
:02:21. > :02:24.that not very impressive, given the fact that they are still trying to
:02:25. > :02:30.pump out their homes. Among those to have been given bonuses include the
:02:31. > :02:33.guy who is basically in charge of flooding and for flood risk
:02:34. > :02:38.management. He was given a bonus of more than ?10,000. We thought it was
:02:39. > :02:42.important to highlight this because we don't often hear about these
:02:43. > :02:47.kinds of bonuses being paid to the public sector? Do you think it is
:02:48. > :02:51.fair these people are being put on the front page when they had
:02:52. > :02:56.obviously done good work, potentially, in the earlier parts of
:02:57. > :03:03.the year. Unprecedented weather we were told from the Prime Minister,
:03:04. > :03:14.one day due date bonus? I think it is a great story by Caroline. I
:03:15. > :03:21.think we probably should have asked them to give it back. The point of
:03:22. > :03:25.the story was we wanted to say, the rainfall has been unprecedented but
:03:26. > :03:29.this is not a nice lead picture. If you look back over the last couple
:03:30. > :03:33.of years, we had flooding in Cumbria last Christmas and before that, we
:03:34. > :03:37.have the Somerset Levels. When the main job is about learning and
:03:38. > :03:41.strategy in terms of flooding, we have to ask whether this is
:03:42. > :03:46.warranted or not. It is public money, as well. These are public
:03:47. > :03:51.sector people and they pitifully haven't fulfilled their job duties
:03:52. > :03:57.here. The flood defences were not adequate. But, surely, they have
:03:58. > :04:02.been faced with incredible rainfall. They've only got a certain amount of
:04:03. > :04:04.money to play with. If it was a bottomless pit of money, we could
:04:05. > :04:08.have flood defences everywhere as high as we like but we don't have
:04:09. > :04:14.that kind of cash. That is part of the problem. The Environment Agency
:04:15. > :04:19.does have a limited budget and there have been questions this year about
:04:20. > :04:24.whether the Environment Agency has enough money to fulfil its basic
:04:25. > :04:28.civic duties so the question still remains, given its limited budget,
:04:29. > :04:32.should it be awarding performance related bonuses to people when that
:04:33. > :04:36.money could have been possibly diverted elsewhere to help prevent
:04:37. > :04:43.what we have seen devastating the country. Helpfully, the Observer
:04:44. > :04:51.focuses on just that, how much money that government is prepared to give
:04:52. > :04:53.to the Environment Agency. The suggestion is here, Rashid, that
:04:54. > :04:56.many, many more houses are going to be at risk of flooding because of
:04:57. > :05:01.decisions by the government over the next 20 years. Yes, twice as many
:05:02. > :05:09.households are at a significant risk. Even though you said
:05:10. > :05:18.unprecedented weather, I think we have to prepare for this now. The
:05:19. > :05:22.emphasis often gets put on climate change, which often absolves the
:05:23. > :05:26.authorities of responsibility because, these things are out of
:05:27. > :05:29.control. But, you know, we've got the forecasts, we've got the
:05:30. > :05:34.predictions, we've had these floods repeatedly in the last few years. It
:05:35. > :05:38.is peddling obvious that these flood the fences are not adequate. More
:05:39. > :05:43.funding probably does have to be made available. Eventually got the
:05:44. > :05:47.money will be found, because you can't have large areas of the
:05:48. > :05:50.country which I inhabit all because you got houses that nobody can
:05:51. > :05:56.insure because they are not probably protected. It will be a big headache
:05:57. > :06:01.for the government because this new insurance scheme which is due to
:06:02. > :06:04.come in in the coming year is not going to protect homes which are
:06:05. > :06:07.new-build which will make a real problem for the government with its
:06:08. > :06:12.whole right to buy scheme because most of those new bills. Insurance
:06:13. > :06:15.is one particular problem but then you still got to protect those homes
:06:16. > :06:19.that have been there a long time that have been built in flood
:06:20. > :06:24.plains, areas like Hull which are entirely built on a flood plain,
:06:25. > :06:27.what do you do to protect them? We do know that other countries have
:06:28. > :06:32.had similar problems and have come up with ingenious ways of solving it
:06:33. > :06:39.but they will be expensive. I know the Prime Minister has made
:06:40. > :06:43.available money for Cumbria, and money will be offered to Yorkshire
:06:44. > :06:47.in the coming hours but we have to ask is this enough and what can we
:06:48. > :06:51.do to stop these repeated events? I am not sure, at the moment, having
:06:52. > :06:59.looked at the response we have seen, that anybody yet has the answers.
:07:00. > :07:04.Corbyn in high-stakes reshuffle. Hilary Benn, who is he swapping
:07:05. > :07:11.with? It doesn't seem to give any answers. There was a bit of a power
:07:12. > :07:15.tussle, as I'm sure everybody is aware, last year, over the Syrian
:07:16. > :07:18.vote, will be have this extraordinary situation where Jeremy
:07:19. > :07:24.Corbyn opened the vote opposing air strikes and Hilary Benn closed it,
:07:25. > :07:28.basically calling for extra to happen. So, there has been a real
:07:29. > :07:34.spit and schism within the party there. There is talk of this
:07:35. > :07:38.so-called revenge reshuffle and Hilary Benn has been the focus of
:07:39. > :07:43.that because there is a need to bring unity to the front bench. It
:07:44. > :07:47.is going to be very difficult for him to move a popular figure like
:07:48. > :07:51.Hilary Benn from that kind of job and as it is one of the most senior
:07:52. > :07:56.jobs inside the Cabinet, one wonders what he could offer to him which
:07:57. > :08:03.would be satisfactory and which wouldn't cause all out civil war in
:08:04. > :08:07.the party. Yet again, we are focusing on Labour's internal
:08:08. > :08:10.politics, rather than putting pressure on the government in terms
:08:11. > :08:16.of flood defences or any other policies. I think Corbyn is dammed
:08:17. > :08:21.if you does, dam to be doesn't. He is acting like a leader, being said
:08:22. > :08:28.-- decisive, shoring up his leader, -- party, but it seems like more of
:08:29. > :08:33.the same with the internal wranglings of the Labour Party again
:08:34. > :08:40.and again. The Independent on Sunday, one of their very striking
:08:41. > :08:43.voters, damn you, it says. This is a tester in Bahrain, Birmingham the
:08:44. > :08:53.execution of the Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr ionomer. I have to say, 47 of
:08:54. > :09:04.them were Sunni in a Sunni kingdom. 45 of them. And two of them were
:09:05. > :09:05.Shia. The Independent is saying... They are calling on the British
:09:06. > :09:13.government to condemn these killings. All the focus is on the
:09:14. > :09:19.Shia cleric. But if we are condemning, what are we condemning,
:09:20. > :09:24.is that his killing of the other 45 alleged Al-Qaeda leader or Islamist
:09:25. > :09:28.terrorists? Really, we have to ask, how much of an influence can we
:09:29. > :09:35.possibly bring to bear on a place such as Saudi Arabia. If the
:09:36. > :09:39.Americans can't influence them. A lot of papers are asking how much
:09:40. > :09:41.influence does Britain and a lot of other countries you have a
:09:42. > :09:45.relationship with Saudi Arabia, how much influenced to their want to
:09:46. > :09:51.bring to bear because they all prize their relationship with Saudi Arabia
:09:52. > :09:55.for various reasons. That is the point the Independent on Sunday is
:09:56. > :10:00.trying to make. The whole issue of whether David Cameron condemns it
:10:01. > :10:05.not, but foreign and wealth office have that strongly, we oppose any
:10:06. > :10:10.country that has the death penalty. David Cameron made that very clear
:10:11. > :10:14.in October. He says he doesn't do agree at all with their punishment
:10:15. > :10:19.regime. This is more about the whole kind of fall out of the story
:10:20. > :10:23.earlier on, David Cameron, the prison contracts, how much do we
:10:24. > :10:26.want to be sidling up and ally ourselves to a nation that has an
:10:27. > :10:35.appalling human rights record Richard Mark but, as you say, where
:10:36. > :10:42.do you go on this. Iran doesn't have a great record itself. There was a
:10:43. > :10:54.focus on the fact that one of those who was executed was accused of the
:10:55. > :11:02.attack on Frank Gardner. One of the people executed is said to have been
:11:03. > :11:07.the killer of the Irish cameraman who was working with Frank Gardner
:11:08. > :11:13.in Saudi Arabia all those years ago. The Sunday Times, PM must go if he
:11:14. > :11:16.loses a U-boat. I wonder how long David Cameron will feel he can hang
:11:17. > :11:21.around if he didn't winds the referendum. Whichever way we are
:11:22. > :11:26.supposed to vote, according to him. It is almost dead the obvious. I do
:11:27. > :11:36.see how David Cameron could hang on. -- stating the obvious. What do you
:11:37. > :11:39.think? I agree. In many ways, I think it is stating the obvious. I
:11:40. > :11:45.think the parameter would have to go. In any main ways, he has almost
:11:46. > :11:51.said that to his own Cabinet, that if he does lose, he will fall on his
:11:52. > :11:57.own sword in many ways. And by losing, we decide to leave the
:11:58. > :12:01.European Union? Unless the narrative completely changes between now and
:12:02. > :12:04.then. He is saying that is what he is seeking to achieve, he wants to
:12:05. > :12:08.get to a situation where we have a relationship with Europe that has
:12:09. > :12:11.undergone a transformation so that it is acceptable to the British
:12:12. > :12:17.public and if he doesn't achieve that, he has said that he will
:12:18. > :12:22.support it but we are a long way off that and as long as he keeps to what
:12:23. > :12:25.he says, and fights to keep Britain in but in a renegotiated Europe, I
:12:26. > :12:31.can't see there would be any other consequence to an advert. The Sunday
:12:32. > :12:36.Telegraph, pupils must know times tables by the age of 11. This is
:12:37. > :12:39.when they leave primary school. I think a lot of people will be
:12:40. > :12:47.surprised that this isn't already the expectation. I don't think I
:12:48. > :12:52.know them by the age of 35. So I am a little bit worried. It seems like
:12:53. > :12:59.a very retrograde step, really. What seems retrograde? Learning
:13:00. > :13:04.timetables by road. Is that the way to teach mathematics in 2016? To a
:13:05. > :13:08.new generation of kids who are competing with international league
:13:09. > :13:15.tables, we are way down in terms of mathematics and -- is this a step
:13:16. > :13:19.forward? I think this is also about a refocus. The government has been
:13:20. > :13:26.very focused on that receipt and phonics for a very long time. As a
:13:27. > :13:30.mother who -- of a six-year-old who was expected to be reading chapter
:13:31. > :13:35.books by the age of five, I have seen this massive focus on the three
:13:36. > :13:40.ours and maths has fallen by the wayside, and it is perhaps the kind
:13:41. > :13:45.of China and other countries higher up the league tables, there has been
:13:46. > :13:49.more of an emphasis. I think this will go down like a bucket of cold
:13:50. > :13:53.sick with the teachers who already feel like there is enough testing
:13:54. > :13:58.going on within schools are particularly primary schools. But
:13:59. > :14:07.without times tables, so much of maths that you need to be able to do
:14:08. > :14:12.is closed off to you. I agree, to that extent, but as you are saying
:14:13. > :14:17.about rote, I think it is one thing to be able to do it by Bert but to
:14:18. > :14:20.do it -- to understand what it means, that is different. If this is
:14:21. > :14:26.going to introduce a practical element, that is welcome, but I
:14:27. > :14:30.think if it is going back to it a row with the teacher with a ruler
:14:31. > :14:39.tapping their board, I am not in favour. What is eight times seven?
:14:40. > :14:44.We will get back to you. 56, says a voice in my ear. Do you see that?
:14:45. > :14:48.The brains behind the operation. That's it for the papers this hour.
:14:49. > :14:50.Thank you both. You'll be back at 11.30pm
:14:51. > :14:54.for another look at the stories