13/03/2016 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers

Including how often should you wash your genes? -- jeans?

With me are Martin Bentham of the London Evening Standard, and

Tomorrow's front pages, starting with: The FT says that

George Osborne will announce ?4 billion worth of spending

That story also leads the i, which says that the gap

between Britain's rich and poor is now wider than ever.

The Metro says that campaigners attacked Mr Osborne over proposed

Boris Johnson has called Barack Obama's plan to warn Britons

against leaving the EU a piece of outrageous and

exorbitant hypocrisy, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The Sun says that the BBC show Top Gear was accused of disrespecting

the war dead after filming a stunt near to the Cenotaph.

The New Day has an investigation on the cost of childcare.

It says nursery care for two children costs more than

The Daily Mail leads on the German regional elections,

reporting that voters have delivered a crushing verdict on

The Times also splashes with that story, reporting that the hard-right

Alternative for Germany had upended the political order.

That is where we are going to begin. And the regional elections for

Germany on the front of the Times. Angry voters flocking to a new anti-

immigrant party who not so long ago Angela Merkel didn't seem to be too

concerned about. They didn't exist not so long ago. They were set up a

bunch of academics who wanted to oppose the single currency, the

euro. Three years later they say things like... They have beaten her

and a lot of the areas,", which is very worrying for her because the

position is clear. They don't want any refugees and also they have said

that one of the things they might like to do if they couldn't stop

them coming in was shoot them at the border. Is this truly what they say?

Yes, and it says that in The Times, it must be true! This is a party

that is very right wing. They have never had such a right wing,

populist party do well in Germany before, and they are a serious

threat to Angela Merkel who is up for election nationally next year.

Even her own party, her own government, has thought again about

the massive immigration on such a huge scale. They did have another

populist party in the 1930s as I recall. Angela Merkel had a

generous, well motivated policy which has rather backfired

politically and indeed in general, because as you have said, the

government has to try to find solutions to this absolutely

unstoppable flow of people coming over, that is not just Germany, but

other countries in the European Union which are struggling to cope

with and are finding it very hard. You have had similar attempts to

restrict the arrival of anti- refugee policies in various other

countries on the route to Germany, and you have now got a new plan, of

course, where she wants to innocence have people being sent back from

arriving in Europe and returning to Turkey. She is trying to sell that

plan to the rest of the EU. This comes at that time, and basically

there is an enormous problem, on top of which she is now paying an

enormous price back home because although they have not won the

majority of the vote or anything of that sort but as you have said it is

a very significant vote for people who are from a perspective that

doesn't really... It is also an area that doesn't have many migrants in

it which has delivered the biggest vote towards this new party. To fill

you in on that, they once said that they should be shot at the border as

a last resort. Very moderating! Looking at the Telegraph, Boris

complaining about hypocrite Obama. This is Barack Obama, who is due to

come over here and will be reiterating that the US would like

us to stay in the European Union. Boris is saying actually, coming

from the United States which resist any kind of international

jurisdiction, and is very protective of its ability to run its own

affairs and so on, this is great hypocrisy and shouldn't be listened

to, in effect. That is in essence the argument he is putting across.

Lots of world leaders, the Chinese have also been asked what they think

about Britain's future, should we be in or out? Of course we will ask

them, and Obama says we should stay in because we would have an

influence on the world stage but here in the Telegraph, Boris, the

aforementioned he, is giving a whole lot of reasons why the Americans

don't kneel to almost any international jurisdiction and he

gives all sorts of examples of why the Americans do not and we have two

in Europe, which he is citing is one reason why he thinks we shouldn't be

staying in that, and he thinks the Americans should get off turf. And

actually, what the Americans think, and part of the reasons the

Americans want us skin is so they can exercise an influence with a

State which is sympathetic to their worldview, not in terms of economics

and International relations, which can exercise influence which they

will like the rest of the European Union. In other words, it is in bear

interest and not necessarily ours. And actually, with all these other

countries we might want to stay it is really our decision -- in their

interest. Before or after he had been to Cuba, I can't remember

which. Obama, not Boris. They don't get a chance to vote, but we can.

New attack in Ankara. Officials quick to blame the Kurdish group for

the latest outrage. There are various Kurdish groups, of course,

at which the Turkish government is trying to clamp down on. Well, there

is a massive problem with Kurdish groups in Turkey at the moment,

according to the politicians who run Turkey, they have a severe problem.

And this is their third considerably horrible attack in the capital and

the last six months. And Kurdish groups, of course, would say that

they are not treated fairly, not treated equally. Some arguing, some

commentators saying that this might push the government towards some

kind of negotiation with these groups. Well, they did have a

ceasefire agreement with the Kurdish groups until last year, it didn't

break down completely, as a result of the bombing carried out by

Islamic State, it was blamed on the Kurds. Was responsibility on the

Turkish government, the people themselves, or the Kurdish groups

responsible for these attacks subsequently, this one is one of

several, they have reacted against that crackdown by the Turkish

authorities in this sort of fashion. If this particular attack, which is

unconfirmed, is by them. Of course, the Turkish government has often

pinned the blame on them and so on. So it is a very, very difficult

situation which seems to be being inflamed and getting worse rather

than better. We are about to lose The Independent, which probably

means eventually it is not going to exist. Let's hope not. I hope not as

well because I think that front-page picture is probably the best of any

of the papers today. Let's go back to the Times, with three stories,

The Times is doing well out of it tonight, mathematics crisis is

putting British pupils at the back of the class. I feel like I have

read this headline many times. That is part of the point. This is the

OECD which is saying that we have a curriculum which is a mile wide and

an inch deep and the pupils only have a shallow grasp of the subject.

We have had numerous attempts to rewrite the maths curriculum. All

sorts of changes including more algebra and so on and yet here is

this conclusion is saying that actually we are not doing very well

at all. That actually one thing it says here which is quite

interesting, to our concern with financial education, one of these

things that they say everybody should be doing about, they are

saying actually we are spending too much time on the practical things

rather than actually understanding the real concepts of maths. It is

saying we spent too long on memorisation, and I think we learned

by rote, or we used to. I can still do my times tables. This is an

incredibly... I can't remember anyone like the OECD, the

Organisation for economic co-operation and development, and

this is their head of education who are saying it, so it is an

incredibly strong source. I look at secondary school maths, it doesn't

look that different from the maths I did. It is very different from the

Chinese, that is the point he is making. The Chinese learn for

example love of maths and using it in their lives. The evidence is

these days in grounding it in real life examples. That is what they are

saying is actually wrong, and that we need to know the theory and the

depth of the subject rather than practical things and how to apply

it. It says Chinese students can think like scientists. We are often

made to think that what the Chinese do is a very traditional, old-style

learning, with at all drummed into them and not actually thinking so

much in that sense. They are saying it is the opposite. If we looked at

our schools, it is very difficult to get good maths teachers and in fact

they are trying to offer bribes to get good people to become maths

teachers. I bet if we looked at the gender analysis we would find fewer

women do matter and certainly far fewer women become scientists so we

do have a problem. Now the question of the day, how often do you wash

your genes? -- jeans? I am slightly concerned that Daniel Craig is the

picture here. The thing you looked up was that you shouldn't wash them

at all. I had a quick look online about how often you should wash your

genes. Does Daniel Craig not wash his at all? I'm sure he does.

According to the CEO of Levi Strauss, the answer to how often you

should wash your genes is never. He never washes his. -- wash your

jeans. It has more to do with environmentalism than hygiene. You

should put your genes in the freezer once a month to kill off the

bacteria. Imagine how grubby and smelly they would be. We are

fascinated by this, aren't we? I am fascinated because I have learned a

lot about Martin and a straw poll of one person, two to three times it

gets worn and then washed. It is a great tease because it makes you

want to read the article so it has worked very well. I am a bit worried

about Daniel Craig. If I ever met him I shall ask him. It has worked.

And finally, Best in show. The picture on the front of the Times is

a very cute fluffy West Highland terrier who has won top prize at

Crufts. We have picked this because someone on Twitter asked us to say

something chirpy. It has been so horrible today. So this is your

chirpy bit. And of course I am Scottish and it is a West Highland.

Do you watch this? Know, and I don't have a dog however that is a very

good dog and deserves to be on the front page. It does look very

sweet. I imagine it has been washed and shampooed and conditioned and

blowdried to within a an inch of its life. Very cute, well done Georgy

girl. Most people have got elaborate -- Labradoodles.

We now know about Martin and his jeans. It was all right, we survived

it.