13/03/2016 The Papers

That is all the sports and now, now on BBC News, here is Gavin with The

Papers. Welcome to our Sunday morning edition of The Papers. The

front pages: The Sunday Times says Palace officials have conceded the

Queen has been damaged by recent stories, strongly denied she favours

a British exit from the European Union. The Mail on Sunday have

disclosures from the new book from David Laws who describes this

simmering tension between the Prime Minister and Boris Johnson and

Michael Gove. The papers look to the budget with the mail saying the

Chancellor is under pressure to ditch tax cuts for the well. The

observer is saying this could have an effect on the EU vote. The Sunday

Telegraph reports the trains on the HS2 rail scream are in danger of

derailment. I'm not clear why they think the Queen has been damaged?

Has it damaged her? I don't think so. We have a second, third person

accounts of what she might have said. It is based on rumours. Even

if she said what they said she said, which is the European Union seems to

have a lot of problems and going in the wrong direction, it doesn't mean

Brexit does it? When was it said? I agree with her, it is fantastic. The

Palace fights to save the Queen's independence. Then you get the

sourcing of it and it is a friend of somebody and somebody who had a

relation who is one of the Queen's many ladies in waiting. It is based

on a book which refers to a conversation three years ago, is it?

The Queen had said something like a Scottish voters should think

carefully before they voted. Hardly surprising! What is the opposite of

that, don't think before you vote. But this goes back to the sun

newspaper and Tony Gallagher. He knew what he was doing and he was

reflect ding his master's voice, namely Mr Murdoch. He would know you

don't report private conversations. There is a protocol, particularly

strong about the Palace and the Queen herself. He chose to break it.

You have said it, his master's voice. A much more interesting story

is ministers sensational memoirs. Michael Gove is nuts and Horace is

after my job. I love that headline. Bring back Playschool. You do want

to read this story. I want to read the book. The series point is,

stripped of the abuse, it looks like the Conservative Party is fighting

its own civil war? It is very true. We have seen bits and pieces even

without looking at this book. We have seen the tussles. It goes back

to 2010, if not earlier. It has got worse as things have gone along. I

think Brexit has become a point where there will be a fair amount of

blood-letting. It is not going to go away. If you talk to people on the

Brexit side and put to them, what happens if you lose? They say, we

keep on fighting. It is a core issue of absolute belief for many people.

I remember the American civil war. I wasn't personally there. But it was

the Confederates afterwards, the great lost cause and it went on for

the rest of the 19th century and into American politics. There are

traces of it today. Remember the Confederate flag over South

Carolina. Can I just say, this is desperate stuff. First of all, we

have to say somebody voted to get out of the EC, as it was then. We

could follow the example, Greenlands. -- Greenland. Greenland

is on top of the agenda for most. Ins and outs, now is your big

opportunity. I have been in clubs, pubs, railway stations and been

board the decades about both sides of this argument. Now is your time,

make your case. I am astonished at how badly they making it on both

sides. Given the importance of it. My friend Mike Jackson, has ago. He

wants to stay in? He is keen on England and southern tree. Going

back to the civil war analogy, it is this article of faith, kind of like

the SNP. We must keep going with Scottish independent. But going back

to the civil war analogy, what happens next? Do we get

reconstruction? Then is what we are doing a sudden strategy escalated

and accelerated. Then the Tories talk about cutting loose everything

and focusing on hanging on to southern England. The people will

decide. Talking of reconstruction, if you read the Observer, Osborne

tax plans will hand the money to the wealthiest. George Osborne is in

this newspaper saying we are doomed. Not quite, but because of world

factors, oil, the Middle East, China and dangers, all of which is

generally accepted, things are looking bad this year? Yes. I am

surprised he came up with this just now. Of course, he could have

started warning is more clearly after the general election. They got

in with a majority, a working majority, given the law which I

think is rather questionable, over all things being equal, parliaments

must run for five years, which is a mistake. This should have started

warning as then. Going back to something related in the Mike

Jackson piece, Mike Jackson says we have got to stick together as

allies. Alliances work things out. The big thing he points out, which

is related to the world crisis, it is the movement of people, the

migration crisis is part of a world crisis. This will cost us a hell of

a lot. We have had a bit too much of a sunny uplands in the preambles to

budget speeches by the Chancellor. I think it will be quite a tough

budget and I don't see him doing anything spectacular for two

reasons, which are alluded to throughout the papers. One is just

the general Brexit debate, which as you rightly say, is tearing up the

Conservative Party, whatever they may say to the contrary. The other

thing, he is part of the Boris, Cameron succession mix and he will

not do that to spoil his chances. If you go back to the Autumn Statement,

what is that about the conditions haven't changed globally that

drastically. So why wasn't this flagged up then? It was a bit more

optimistic in the Autumn Statement, although he did say there would

cuts. I agree it should have been flagged up last May. The policies

should have been put in place at that point. But having said that, I

don't see how he is going to present something radical or revolutionary

with Brexit pending. In terms of the gloom, Mr Osborne's gloom, he is on

the button as far as... It isn't just him, the president of China

says the same thing, the governor of the Bank of England, they all do it

in different ways. Knowing a bit about of Mario Draghi's background,

this has been a big fear that we could be in a long decline of the

euro. People around him really think the euro, we are going to see it

very soon, looking very unviable. The question is whether they have

any more clubs in the bag to do anything about it. The Telegraph,

HS2 at risk of derailing at top speed. These journalists -- research

says it could go wrong. It is like the zombie movies, it cannot die. It

keeps coming back. Leader-macro it is a terrible model, come on. You

mean a chest to is a model? The debate. HS1 seems to be OK. But this

isn't built yet. I think there is a fundamental here. The reason why,

the strongest case for building HS2, you cannot fix and upgrade the

existing track and use it at the same time. I know we're looking at

an infrastructure that was built for a nation, or a union of nations of

about 40 million at most and we're looking at a country of 70 million.

Things are going wrong all over the place, gas, floods, whatever. An

awful lot that is not resolved about HS2. I don't want to be, not in my

backyard, but my cycling track, I go from Euston. And that controversy is

roaring on. We don't have time to talk about the Heathrow Airport

controversy. There's an interesting piece in the Sunday Times, Niall

Ferguson. He says, President Obama tours blame on his friends while the

middle east fixes cracks. As Patrick Cockburn says in the independent and

what Ferguson alludes to, President Obama was having a go at American

allies in the middle east. Saudi Arabia is the problem. I think we

are on the same page on that, perhaps? The unquestioning support

for Saudi Arabia for not just the President Obama period, but going

back decades into the 40s, has been a major issue for all of us. I think

we are seeing the fruits of it. But also seeing the solution of it. He

is saying no blank cheque support to the Saudis. We have been talking a

lot about reconstruction, the real problem in the centenary is how are

we going to put this mosaic back together again? We are not. I think

Niall Ferguson's column, he's pretty cunning as a journalist when he was

moonlighting from Oxford. I think that comment has grown into a major

important. He has always got something interesting to say about

the USB. It is a compliment by the Patrick Cockburn piece. What

President Obama is saying, you have all got together and you have got to

sort this out. You, Europe, with the middle east powers, he is not

particularly articulate, but he is a thinker, a very deep thinker. I

don't think we will get as deep thinker after him whether it is

Hillary or Donald Trump. Ferguson uses the metaphor, because this is a

catastrophe waiting to happen. It was always built by Saddam Hussein

on the cheap. People knew it. It is very difficult to maintain. US

military engineers have tried to do it. But since the care of it has

been difficult under Isil, if this breaks, it will flood, I have got to

get it right, the Euphrates valley. It goes right down to bag dad.

Attends the 1.5 million could drown. General Lloyd Austin said to the

Senate this week, quoted by Ferguson, this would be a

humanitarian disaster. So, says Ferguson, quite rightly, if there

wasn't a humanitarian disaster anyway, nobody has a strategic view

how to do with it. It needs a brain like President Obama's. It will be

with us for the rest of our lifetime. Maybe it is one the

President Donald Trump. Can you imagine! We are going to get

President Donald Trump. One of the pieces is President Obama's motto is

don't do stupid stuff. He may have to rethink that one. We may see

Donald Trump recalibrating himself. Anorexia is not as says Joan Beckel.

She says the rise is a sign of growing losses and self regard. What

do you make of that? It is a difficult one. I am trying to be

sympathetic and take into account she grew up in the war years. Really

trying to pass off anorexia on narcissistic young people as I

think, doing the young people quite a huge disservice. The thing about

this that struck me was, what you are sort of saying is, it is your

fault you are sick. Which is unfortunate, because it is an

illness. Knowing the person personally, I don't think she would

say that. Joan is like a head girl. To set it in context, she was laying

out the sketch, she was drawing up the short list for the welcome prize

but the science of the. Very, very good prize. She was musing on this

thing about the obsession with diet and image. She is a grandmother, I

am pretty sure. She sees this. What she is trying to say which has come

out in her latest autobiographical volume is people taking charge of

their own destiny. That is what she is worried about, people and sixth

forms and so on. The blame culture. It is the buzzword of the day, she

has fallen for it. Everyone is narcissistic. After all, what are we

doing? This is an exercise in narcissism. But this idea we just

got on with it and keep calm and carry on, had its moment. But I

think let's say, not precisely what is needed right now. I slightly

disagree. Virtues that are encouraged not active, they are

intransitive or passive. Things like courage, taking responsibility,

risk. We have got the compliance Nat sees all round the corner. I am

about to fall over and microphone cord. I think what she is trying to

say is there is a lot of truth and sends in that, perhaps it didn't

come out the right way. We will get some compliance Nat sees Timmy you

at the door. Thank you both. We take a look at the next day's front pages

at 10:30pm and 11:30pm here on BBC News.

Good morning. It was a murky start with fog and mist patches around.

Those fog patches continue