26/02/2016 The Papers

football as well as rugby league and cricket and the massive boxing

bout. That's all coming up after The Papers.

Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers

With me are Martin Lipton, the Deputy Head of Sport at The Sun,

and the writer and broadcaster Louise Scodie.

The Times says Boris Johnson has backed away

from the suggestion that a vote to leave the EU would force Brussels to

The Telegraph says the mayor has appealed to Cabinet ministers

backing the campaign to stay in the European Union to "think again".

The Independent focuses on George Osborne's warning, made to

the BBC, that he may have to impose deeper cuts in public spending.

the Guardian leads on allegations of abuse and bullying at a G4S-run

The FT focuses on the latest losses at RBS.

The Mail reports on a new biography of Tony Blair and his government's

And the Express says leading European

politicians fear the migrant crisis in Europe could destroy the EU.

Starting with George Osborne, who is on a trip to China at the moment to

meet G20 ministers. The Independent has taken its headline from

something he said today. George Osborne proposes new cuts as the

economic gloom deepens. Several reasons for this, he thinks. He has

explained what they are but it will really make people's hearts sink.

Certainly maybe the Independent's hearts sink. George Osborne

described as taking a fateful decision. Posterity hasn't been

hugely popular and I don't think that's going to change, if anything

it'll get worse over the coming months. -- posterity. The

interesting thing here is when the Independent right that the steep

reductions in public spending had reopened the Chancellor to the

charge that he is slashing back the statewide chill -- for ideological

reasons. Is that something more widely bandied about? That something

the papers have talked about. Stephen Golding has tweeted and

says, what about the recent surplus? Now you are prepping us for more

unnecessary austerity. I am trying to work out who is to blame. Now

cuts are the fault of the global economy, as opposed to the

government. Surely it was the global economy last time as well. A lot of

people were willing to accept cuts over a short period, especially then

feel they were in fact it upon them. I'm not sure this will be an easy

sell for any government and this is increasingly difficult for Osborne

to talk about the necessity of these things when it doesn't look as

though we are all in it together. That certain people are allowed...

When you've got huge companies paying zero tax, why should other

people suffer? These sort of issues will get a go. The global economy

impacted on the personal economy. It does become a question people will

be looking for answers to. Surely he will say that he has made a start

with the likes of Google. Not compared to France. France have

demanded the huge sum. There is a genuine feeling about we were

willing to accept things to a point, but perhaps that point has

been reached. It will be a difficult issue for George Osborne to answer.

I think there were people who were worried about the effects it was

having on the more vulnerable members of society, for example.

There's a lot more empathy around. People vote with their own pocket

books. Not necessarily. Certainly anecdotal output from people from

the start is that they've been very worried about people they may not

even know that well, but they know will be affected by the austerity

measures. Staying with the Independent. They can't believe it's

not Sepp Blatter. Fifa pics a new head for football's family. Another

Swiss man... -- picks. It is certainly mostly masculine. We

shouldn't be surprised by that. It is a male sport in the main. The

Football Association has just appointed a head of communications,

who is a woman, and she will do an excellent job for the FA. But I

think there are only two voters today after the two 270 voted that

are women. Two members of the executive committee have been women

in its history. We've now got this new head of Fifa and his job is to

be more transparent and accountable and stop the corruption. Indeed. I'm

not the biggest football fan in the world, under -- understatement, but

I think international organisations should be transparent and Fifa have

let a lot of people down. They've let the fans down and let's hope

this new leadership will turn things around. Do the fans feel let down?

Or are they more worried about their own individual clubs? Fifa organises

the World Cup, as far as most fans are concerned. That's been an

absolute mess! But the tournament is still a success. The voting is a

scandal, as they said before. We are happy to listen. What we have is an

organisation that is endemically flawed. It has, over the last 40

years, since 1974 when -- 1974, when it became a corrupt institution. How

likely is it that we will scrap it? This is the last chance for Fifa to

be able to reform itself. Who says, we can't have you doing this any

more so with the wind you up? I think potentially if class actions

from various organisations such as US authorities... This is where it

started. The American investigation into backsliding and deals... Last

May, the whole process began and it was inevitable someone else would

come in from that moment. It has taken nine months to get here. The

question for Fifa and football is whether it will be any better under

the new regime, given that Gianni Infantino only stood because his

boss was forced to resign because of the ?1.3 million payment. But he is

a standout candidate and could do well and speaks 11 languages. Time

will tell. Boris Johnson in Europe U-turn. He changes his mind and says

the art vote will be final. No means no. Yes, as opposed to the other day

when he said no means yes, we can change our minds, who knows? He has

had to publicly backtrack, which has made me feel delighted. The Brexit

story will go on until June 23. We have got months of this. I would

suggest that some of the coverage will be a little dry. Anything we

got that will embarrass the odd politician in the months to come is

very welcome. It is amazing how much sway Boris has over the debate. It

is also amazing how complicated it is for those arguing one way or

another. There are many things they just don't know. How difficult would

it be if we were to leave? If we were to vote to leave, and I would

be surprised at the stature if we do, but who knows, the costs of it,

the two years, could be pretty painful. The EU won't make it easy

for us. To encourage others not to go down that path, they will make it

as hard as they can. As let's be honest the British government would

have done if the Scots had voted for independence. But there are some big

names -the Brexit campaign who have got months to make the argument. --

behind the Brexit. Yes, no one is hitting us the facts just as they

are. Because there are no facts. There's opinion. Do the British

people want to remain part of an EU which some of them have doubts over

but might cling to like a comfort blanket, or can we go our own way,

when in the 40 odd years since we joined many of the markets, which we

had then, are no longer markets. Our main markets are now within Europe

and are we better being part of the huge trading bloc? Boris Johnson

says he would negotiate trade deals with other parts of the world. The

FT. Brussels flipped the switch to stop tea loving Brits from boiling

over. The idea that we wouldn't be allowed powerful toasters and

kettles, and powerful vacuum cleaners. For environmental reasons.

If there's one thing we British don't want it is an affront to up

tea and toast habit. We have an MP blaming Brussels for his four

attempts at his tea and toast ratio. I would like my tea and toast

protected. It almost sounds like a television show. Maybe they are just

giving us a bit of a break, they are trying to be nice to us. Also,

congratulations to both the forgetting that fantastic quote! The

quick look at The Daily Mail. -- to Buzzfeed. This is a new biography.

It is by the man who has put together a number of scathing

biographies of significant figures, including Gordon Brown and Simon

Cowell, more important these days! Looking at the clips, this thing

being tied to Tony Blair... In the book it is tied to a former

immigration official. He says he told Barbara Roach, the then

Immigration Minister. It isn't directly linked to Tony Blair's

decisions. Nevertheless, we know there was a view that in the new

Labour government they could make a point and try to be a more welcoming

and inviting country. They also said they haven't got an idea of what

immigration figures were at point and they apologised. Ed Miliband

seems to apologise for it quite a lot. It all seems a bit spurious. I

can't believe this has made it onto the front page. I like the wait has

been described, like it is the plot of a thriller. Tony Blair presiding

over a silent conspiracy to change the face of Britain forever. The

main aim was to make the country see the benefit of a multicultural

society. It seems highly unlikely and not a very good strategy and

certainly one that will backfire on the Daily Mail and its readers. They

are offering a chance to win one of Margaret Thatcher's iconic handbags!

Hold me back! Dozens of children with decayed teeth. This was a story

we looked at the time ago, we are still waiting for this obesity study

to be published as well. The second part of this story is that the

publication of the childhood obesity strategy has been put on hold. Any

parent with young kids will be concerned about the question of how

their children are, what their help is. We've also had this ongoing

thing about sugar and diets and the amount of soft drinks and how they

are having negative effect on mental health. There's a general concern

about the way are growing up. Also keep. We -- also teeth. So many

children have to have them pulled out. We are talking about children

aged five to nine. It must be absolutely terrible. There have been

a number of educational Alicia Keys from the government to try to get

families to think about eating healthier. -- educational

initiatives. We have the teeth issue and that compounded by the obesity

issue. They all link into each other. What is it that's missing? I

can't answer that question and I wouldn't there try. Vow of silence.

ENO, the choir won't sing in a dispute over pay. What is the

proposal? Basically they might have their contracts cut down to nine

months which mean they would lose a quarter of their salaries. They

earned just over 30 grand each and said they wouldn't be able to live

in London where they have to live or work if there is salaries are

reduced. Performers spent years and thousands and thousands of pounds

training to become a performer and often get paid absolutely nothing.

They will never make the money they earn back. I understand why they are

feeling unhappy. The idea is that they refused to sing? They will

refuse to sing all sing the wrong songs. When I was so bad, it was

banned. It wasn't because I couldn't sing! That teacher, who banned me,

shame on you! It will be a sell out now. There no publicity like bad

publicity. People will want to see the show to see what comedy costumes

the artists will wear. Maybe they will be dressed as chickens when

they aren't singing! Who knows? It's a way to drum up a bit more trade.

Lovely to see you. Thanks very much. Coming up next, Sportsday.