18/03/2016 The Papers


18/03/2016

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silencers her critics by safely riding clear. Football and rugby and

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more coming up in 15 minutes, after the papers.

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Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers

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With me are Susie Boniface, columnist at the Mirror and

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The Telegraph leads on Iain Duncan Smith's resignation,

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saying his decision risks throwing the Government into disarray.

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The Times says Mr Duncan Smith chose to resign despite a U-turn by

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George Osborne over the cuts which were kicked into 'the long grass'.

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The FT says Mr Duncan Smith has inflicted serious damage

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The Independent has an image of the arrests in Brussels.

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Its main story is a warning from Wales' First Minister that

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an English vote to leave the EU would prompt a constitutional crisis

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'Got him', is the headline on the Mirror, next to

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And the Express leads on the deal between Turkey

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and the EU to try to curb the flow of migrants into Europe.

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So, let's begin with this story that broke this evening and has taken

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quite a lot of people by surprise. Iain Duncan Smith deciding to resign

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from the Cabinet as the Work and Pensions Secretary. It opposes what

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seems to be a rift between the Treasury and his formative arm. Yes,

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there's nobody in Whitehall who doesn't seem to have a blade between

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his shoulders this morning. The other thing that happened today is

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that Iain Duncan Smith has been told for the third time by a judge to

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release some paperwork, which he didn't want to release. The

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paperwork is about internal reviews to how universal credit was going

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and what problems they had. The papers were expected to show a

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series of cock ups. He has been told today he really does have to publish

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them, as well as the Treasury briefing against him and his

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department and now we've had a really brutal resignation letter in

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which he blames George Osborne for everything that's happened in the

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past six years, while also saying he is proud of it, which doesn't make

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much sense. What is Iain Duncan Smith opposed to? Austerity itself

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or certain measures that were put into the budget this week? People

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who have been following this government for six years will be

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surprised by the discovery that Iain Duncan Smith could be a critic of

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austerity, it was he seemed to be the man in the engine room of

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austerity, the man making the wild case for austerity. While the

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shortage of money that it was necessary to reform now. Iain Duncan

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Smith approaches politics from a Christian, highly moral or most

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highly Tory perspective and he sees his job as reforming welfare to help

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people into work. Even if it causes hardship for some along the way.

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Yes, because any kind of welfare reform does that. Also it is simply

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necessary in order to reform a system which is now bloated. Here is

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the thing. He says that his well-intentioned policies were

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sometimes borrowed by the Treasury, inserted into a budget and used as

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an opportunity to save money. At the same time as the Treasury was

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carrying out other forms of taxation that gave the impression to the

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public that the government was both cutting money for welfare recipients

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and cutting taxes for the highest paid. So what Iain Duncan Smith is

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really doing is criticising the way austerity is being applied. He is

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walking a very fine line and isn't necessarily saying austerity is

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wrong, he is just saying that it has been hijacked by the Treasury and he

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feels that he is good plans and good programmes have been

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misrepresented. But also these reforms, which he has apparently

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resigned over, are ones that his department came up with and they

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were going to implement them in the future and he says they weren't

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ready yet, because he hadn't managed to convince everybody at. That

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doesn't mean he has a moral objection to those cuts per se, it

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just means he objects to the timing. That's not the moral objection

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you've got in his resignation letter and he isn't especially Christian

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Wade Christ reportedly said in the Bible to give to anyone who asks. --

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when Christ. This is before the welfare state. I can't defend him

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because he isn't speaking to my era and telling me what to say, but I

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would imagine that he would reply by saying that first of all don't

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forget the minimum wage hasn't gone up yet, so if you are reforming

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welfare this debate, it is wise to weight. -- wise to wait. The living

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wage might not affect certain people. But if they are working

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part-time they might be earning more certain. His point is that the

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welfare reform agenda was undermined because it was unfairly associated

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with cutting taxes for the rich and reducing payments. But it is the

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marketing of it. We are so engrossed in the conversation and forgetting

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to look at the front pages. I am listening and forgetting my job!

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Which is to show you the front pages. The Work and Pensions

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Secretary says that slashing benefits is indispensable. That's

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sure you what the FT -- let's show you what the FT started with. It

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leads with Europe gambling to stem migrant flow. Right in the middle of

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the paper. However, because this story broke this evening, the papers

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had a race on their hands to get the front page changed. Iain Duncan

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Smith quits over welfare cuts. How damaging it is for the governments

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generally and George Osborne in particular? It is incredibly

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damaging for George Osborne. The goal was that he would replace David

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Cameron. That was the gameplan. We had the opportunity to move to the

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Foreign Secretary after the election. He chose instead to at the

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Treasury. The budget has been a difficult one, with very confused

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messages. Both the left and right have made criticism. The handling of

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it has been controversial. Now that Iain Duncan Smith says this man is

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the enemy, of everything when it comes to social policy, it makes it

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much harder for him to replace David Cameron ago as he is now a toxic and

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controversial figure for many people within the Conservative party and

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Parliament. As Brexit emerges and Osborne will be out there everyday

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saying, if you vote for Brexit than held will emerge and the dead will

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walk and Britain will sink into the fiery pits, again he will alienate

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himself from ordinary Tory grassroots. The Guardian. George

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Osborne humbled by disability benefits. They've now said there was

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no mention of Iain Duncan Smith going. It was written beforehand. If

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the Treasury at first saying this morning that this is definitely

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going to happen, that the budget and that's what we are doing, for them

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to write back and say that actually we are going to think about it and

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consult and it may not happen after all, then in that context Iain

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Duncan Smith would have got what he wanted. He would never have been

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able to introduce those cuts further down the line. But he has Cameron

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and Osborne to write back and admit they were wrong. So there's no real

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reason to resign on that moral basis, if those cuts were imposed.

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But from his point of view he has been working on these reforms for

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years and within three days number 10 as announced they will never do

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it. So he may well in some sense have gotten what he wanted, but in

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the long run it must have been humiliating for the man. They have

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this SOI request as well. -- FOR. We have the text of a letter that the

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PM has said the Iain Duncan Smith, just a portion of it. I regret that

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he has chosen to step down at this moment. Together we designed the

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personal independence payment to support the most rollable and give

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disabled people more independence. We all agreed the increased spending

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should be properly managed and focused on those who need it most.

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That is why we collectively agreed you, number 10 and the Treasury,

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proposals which you and your department announced a week ago.

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Today we agreed not to receive the policies in the current form and

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instead work together to get the work right in the coming months. So

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I am disappointed that he has decided to resign. Listening to that

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letter, my ear picks up that when it was agreed they would pursue the

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policy last weekend when it was agreed they would back down from the

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policy, was he involved in the second decision? How collective is a

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decision as well? Someone has to be the boss. There is a hierarchy.

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Someone is in charge and says this is what is happening next and to say

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you are puzzled and disappointed... He said this was all your fault and

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he says you are part of it as well. Was there a Cabinet meeting this

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afternoon? I may have missed when it was collectively discussed. I

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suspect not. Iain Duncan Smith can also reply by pointing out that to

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some degree this sense of Cabinet leech analogy has already been

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broken by the Brexit debate, because he says he was denied access to

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certain civil servant documents and the pro EU members of Cabinet are

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allowed to speak to the media and say what they want and the others

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aren't. The arguably that Cabinet leech analogy has not been there for

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a couple of years. -- weeks. -- Cabinet division. There are only a

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few more months. He might as well get some airtime! So cynical!

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Realistic. Moving on. Let's talk about the story we thought we were

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going to be covering pretty much for the entirety of the review, which is

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the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, the 26 your old man who has been on the run

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since the Paris attacks. He is the main suspect following the deaths of

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130 people in Paris last November. The world's most wanted man is the

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headline on the Daily Mirror. He hadn't actually gone very far. No,

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he was living near where his brother lived in Marlon Pack in Brussels. --

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Moleenbek. It's a good thing they managed to get him alive, but the

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Brussels authorities seem to only have got him by accident. They were

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going after some counterfeiters that they thought perhaps was linked to

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the Paris attacks five months ago. They then got into a couple of

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flats, found they were under gunfire and realised they had managed to

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find him and shot him in the leg, which is not the kind of thing you

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aim for if you are policemen. He has been shot and found accidentally.

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Because they were very well armed this time and were taken by surprise

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when they went to that flat that they thought was empty in that

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certain area of Belgium. Today a different prospect. I was vaguely

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hearing on the radio before I came to the studio something about the

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boss and maybe they were given very short notice that he was in the

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area. I don't know. The significance of this is enormous because

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obviously it was one of the devastating attacks that has

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happened in Europe. Hundreds killed. His brother was killed in the

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attack. And I think this was an opportunity, when you capture

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someone live, not only to assess them for information and

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intelligence but to also address the issue of why he did it. For me

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that's the big question, the philosophical question that Europe

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has got to address. If you can catch a terrorist rather than kill him,

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you prevent him from becoming a martyr, you reduce him to the status

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of a normal human being in a court undergoing a mundane process,

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looking as haggard as anyone would do when they are in court. That's

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important. It is important for the families that they have their

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justice and their day in court and it is important for the Tera

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network, -- terror network, that the martyrdom is denied. Are you saying

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Osama Bin Laden should not have been shot? No, but the whole point of

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what we do as a civilisation is that that is the correct way to behave.

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But this man is a cold in the wheel of Islamic State.

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But this man is a cold in the wheel of Islamic State. Osama Bin Laden

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was the head of it. I think it was easier to take out a Osama Bin

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Laden. It was easier to take him out. But this is not the end of it.

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Francois Heartland said there were far more people involved in the

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Paris attacks then the authorities at first realised -- Francois

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Heartland. As well as addressing the questions you mentioned. And the

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network stretches across the whole continent, including connections to

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England, as well as into Syria, issues of border control, so yes, it

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is a huge issue. Brexit and the migrant issue on the front pages as

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well. We will try to do with those again tomorrow. But that is it for

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the papers tonight. Thank you to our guests for coming in. Now it is time

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for Sportsday.

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