17/04/2016 The Papers

impeach their President, Dilma Rousseff.

She's been accused of fiscal impropriety in concealing the scale

Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be

With me are the former Sunday Express editor,

Eve Pollard, and columnist for The Telegraph, Tim Stanley.

The Daily Telegraph headlines a warning from the Chancellor that

public services including the NHS would suffer if there

The FT says there's evidence of a slowdown in hiring

and investment because of uncertainty over whether the UK

The Metro reports on the 14-year-olds charged with a double

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is to take a U-turn in the dispute

with junior doctors, says the Guardian.

The i leads with a fierce condemnation of Europe's

policy towards Syrian refugees in a recent report.

The Daily Express headlines a survey on migration into the UK.

71% of those asked thought migration has been too high.

The news that a drone hit a plane on its approach to Heathrow

And it's back to the EU referendum on the front of the Times,

with the Chancellor saying households will be over ?4,000 worse

So, plenty to talk about. Things being dominated by Brexit but let's

start with the Guardian, claims that Jeremy Hunt is in a U-turn over his

threat to junior doctors. Two different words, talk of an

imposition of a contract but now talk of an introduction of a

contract. Extraordinary because we've been hearing Jeremy Hunt

saying that he will impose the contract on doctors and now it seems

that the government lawyers, what have they been doing for the last

three months? They have said that legally he can't do that. He can

introduce the idea of a contract, he can't impose it. The whole point of

them going on strike was that he said he could impose it and the

government lawyers, it has gone to some kind of court, there is a

letter from government lawyers seen by the Guardian, confirmed by the

department, saying he can only introduce it. Strange way of running

things. There isn't long because the fifth strike will be on the 25th of

April. Yes, most people will be wondering why the strike is going

ahead, not just why are the doctors doing it, different issue, but why

the government is pursuing this line, if it didn't have the

authority to impose the contract. From what position is the government

arguing and negotiating? It isn't clear. If he can't impose it, what

authority does the government have? It has given into most of the

demands by the doctors, it has met most of the demands they've made. By

the time the strike comes around, if it goes ahead, it will affect all

services including maternity, accident, services affecting

children and the public are going to be wondering why the doctors are

doing it and why the government has allowed things to go this far. If

that's the case, as the Guardian says, it may mean that he has misled

Parliament. He might have misled all of us because he said that he's not

going to discuss it, he's going to impose it, if they can't agree, he

will impose the rules. Now he's going to introduce them. You wonder

why nobody spoke to the government lawyers at the beginning of this.

We'll wait and see what the response is. Quite scary if you have somebody

about to have an operation. We are going to go into the Brexit

argument, starting with the Times, the long-awaited report from the

Treasury about how much leaving the European Union is calculated, it is

alleged, to cost Britain and according to the Times, 4300 pounds

a household. Based on the idea that the economy would shrink because

things like trade and investment with the EU would be affected.

George Osborne is claiming that by 2030 the economy would shrink by 6%,

the equivalent of each household losing up to ?4300. Of course that

is a projection, the worse case scenario. It may be the thing that

this entire argument may be what wins the referendum for the

remaining campaign because economic risks and fear is their strongest

card but many people are going to be asking themselves why is it that the

government has pushed for renegotiation, why has it used such

Eurosceptic language if, having called the referendum, it is

throwing everything, the Treasury, the civil service, against leaving?

So you are sceptical? The other thing I would like to ask, if Mr

Osborne was here, why is it that the Prime Minister before he entered

negotiations told the public that he thought Britain could flourish

outside the EU and after the negotiation and he has decided he's

against leaving, he says it will sink? Do you buy this? I think that

4300 does not seem a lot. I've come back from America and for ages,...

At the moment, you get $1 for ?1 40. You don't feel rich in the States,

it used to be a much better deal and I think the same is true for the

Euros, you get far fewer euros to the pound and the Financial Times

has a story that hiring and investment have dropped a lot.

Seamlessly going the next headline. The Financial Times head page that

FrontPage, another Brexit story. Says there is a 20% fall in hiring

in financial services. Why would be the -- why would we be the centre of

finance if we are not in the EU? The City would vanish. 20% of European

groups say they are not investing in Britain at the moment, they are

waiting to see what happens. It's quite interesting. In London, which

is different from the rest of the country, houses are not selling,

everyone is waiting to see what happens. One of the Sunday papers

today in the business section says that two large companies are looking

to float in London next year and they don't give a hoot about

uncertainty. It seems to depend on what you read. And what business you

are in. Why is there any surprise that there is uncertainty? There is

always risk involved in any kind of political decision, there is risk

when there is an election, there is an effect on the currency markets

when there is a threat of the Labour Party winning the election. What are

we supposed to do, not have a referendum? Our decision-making

should be entirely decided by this kind of calculation? I think that

families are right to decide, I mean, a lot of us don't approve of

the way the EU is run, thinking it is too large, overly bureaucratic,

we spend too much money on it, it isn't what we signed up to, but on

the other hand, the idea that the next ten years, perhaps, are going

to see us poorer, I think that the EU will be very angry with us if we

pull out. It will be very hard to negotiate deals. If they wanted to

enter that kind of game, if they are going to threaten us, we can

threaten them back. The idea that Europe wouldn't want to trade with

us, that they would stop investment if we left, it is nonsense because

we could respond and not invest in them. Staying with Brexit in the

Telegraph, George Osborne saying that because the country would

supposedly be worse off, it would lead to NHS cuts. The NHS has become

the eternal political football. You had those in favour of leaving

saying that we should take the money we give to Europe and put it in the

NHS, but they weren't entirely accurate about how much money we

give to Europe and how much money we get back. Lovely idea but I think we

have to stop dealing with the NHS as a political football. Would you

agree? Not the first headline linking the NHS to it. The EU

referendum may turn into a debate about something else, about the NHS

and priorities, which case the government is on a sticky wicket

because if it is going to argue that the NHS is imperilled, many people

why ask -- might ask why. Why is the NHS in a bad position, they might

ask? The Daily Mail talks about the drone that has been in the headlines

that was hit by a plane. They cost as little as ?25 and we are still

looking at legislation. Quite scary, isn't it? I bought a little one for

my grandson at Christmas, I didn't think it would get very far and

high. The idea that they can, bigger ones, more expensive ones than the

one I bought, could actually damage a plane, means we should legislate

pretty quickly. I think that they are an awful thing, I would ban them

all together, I don't like the idea of drones. I think in America they

will make you register them so that they know where it came from if it

crashes. The idea that it may fall into the hands of extremists, very

scary. Back to the Telegraph, Boaty McBoatface, this is what happens

when you asked the public what they want and they have said Boaty

McBoatface. Isn't it interesting, you ask the public and they don't

give you a ratio Nelson or whatever you thought you might have got --

Horatio Nelson. Obviously losing a sense of humour in this case because

this person says they are going to be looking at it, reviewing it. What

does that mean? It probably won't be called Boaty McBoatface. I wouldn't

have asked the public in the first place, it shows how immature they

have become. The idea of reducing every government decision to a kind

of version of the X factor, as if the public would only care if you

let them vote on it. This isn't democratic, it is the opposite, it

is a display of snobbishness to assume the only way you can in gauge

with people is to introduce an element of a talent show contest --

engage with people. I think it would have been a good idea to ask

children at school because they are the ones you want to interest in

science. They are doing the science lessons. Perhaps they might have got

a different response. You don't think it will be called Boaty

McBoatface? I don't think so. I think there is a horse with a

similar name in Australia. I know that Tim is very interested to talk

about the last story which is in the the i. Leicester City, what an

amazing story if they win the premiership and a late penalty saves

them a point, getting a draw. I don't care much about football but

this is a Hollywood story, isn't it, and I gather they have had interest

from Hollywood. Have they? It is little left of -- Leicester City

battling through and you can see it becoming one of those movies that

people will go and see. There are none of those six pointer fixtures

left. I wouldn't go and see the movie, I'm afraid. I can't pretend

to care or know anything about football so I warn people, it is the

equivalent of saying I don't do nude, I have a blank thing in my

head, when it comes up, I switch off. As an editor of two Sunday

papers Island more about football than I ever wanted to. It sells.

Thank you for joining us. We will be back at 11:30pm. Shortly we will be

having Meet The Author.