:00:13. > :00:15.Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers
:00:16. > :00:21.With me are Jack Blanchard, Deputy Political Editor
:00:22. > :00:25.of the Mirror and Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor
:00:26. > :00:36.Welcome to you both. Let's just run you through the front pages as we
:00:37. > :00:38.have them. The Financial Times says the number
:00:39. > :00:43.of people claiming unemployment benefit in the UK fell in July -
:00:44. > :00:49.confounding post-Brexit predictions, While The Metro's front page
:00:50. > :00:51.is dominated by the jail sentence for Sarah Williams -
:00:52. > :00:54.the woman who killed the partner The Mirror also leads on that story,
:00:55. > :00:59.with a picture that shows Williams in the background behind her victim
:01:00. > :01:03.and her former lover, Universities that aren't up
:01:04. > :01:08.to scratch could face having their tuition fees lowered
:01:09. > :01:10.by the government, The Express says there's been a big
:01:11. > :01:18.rise in the number of EU migrants While the Guardian leads
:01:19. > :01:21.with reaction to a Conservative Party report
:01:22. > :01:35.into allegations of bullying. And the Times says Theresa May has
:01:36. > :01:41.axed some plans to cut down on junk food promotion because they may hurt
:01:42. > :01:47.the economy. So let's start, let's talk about the universities, in the
:01:48. > :01:53.Telegraph. For universities face losing fees and the perception and
:01:54. > :01:57.what a lot of students say is that teaching at some British
:01:58. > :02:04.universities is not good enough. I will believe this when I see it, the
:02:05. > :02:06.universities minister saying the government has passed legislation
:02:07. > :02:12.which allows universities to raise fees in line with inflation from the
:02:13. > :02:17.high 9000 figure they are at already, and he says they will only
:02:18. > :02:24.be able to rise if they excel and some universities might have their
:02:25. > :02:28.fees lowered if they perform badly. It's true some people do not think
:02:29. > :02:34.universities are delivering what they are paying for. Whether it ever
:02:35. > :02:39.ends up a university is told they have to reduce their fees, most
:02:40. > :02:44.people may hope they did but I will believe it when I see it. It might
:02:45. > :02:48.be some are not allowed to raise their fees further, which is
:02:49. > :02:54.different. It smacks of trying to sugar the poll. This is their
:02:55. > :02:59.headline the Tories want, badly performing universities could lose
:03:00. > :03:02.fees, but the real story is that almost every university will be
:03:03. > :03:09.allowed to raise its fees further from the sky-high level already. The
:03:10. > :03:14.thing about teaching at universities is, festers and tutors are not
:03:15. > :03:18.really vocational teachers, they are more interested in research and
:03:19. > :03:23.writing books than teaching. Although some of the measurement is
:03:24. > :03:28.spurious, I did a history degree where we had virtually no tuition
:03:29. > :03:34.because most of it is meant to be something you do yourself, you have
:03:35. > :03:42.a bit of guidance. But then what are you being four? You are paying for
:03:43. > :03:45.that expert guidance, you don't need to be spoon-fed, some subjects are
:03:46. > :03:50.more laboratory -based where you need to have that tuition, so horses
:03:51. > :03:56.for courses in the sense of the difference. The other thing with all
:03:57. > :04:00.this is that the theory that students are consumers and can
:04:01. > :04:04.choose, but you do to with university, you choose before you
:04:05. > :04:09.get there, you do your research that if it turns out not to be good it is
:04:10. > :04:15.too late, you cannot up sticks having paid your money. Do you think
:04:16. > :04:20.people are going to think twice about whether it's worth going to
:04:21. > :04:26.university if the price is so high and that teaching is not good? That
:04:27. > :04:29.has been the worry with this policy since it was first introduced by
:04:30. > :04:35.Tony Blair and since then fees have gone up. Since the Coalition
:04:36. > :04:39.Government did shoot the increase fees, we haven't seen that reduction
:04:40. > :04:44.in people wanting to go to university that you feel we will
:04:45. > :04:48.start to see that. Does it give the return it is supposed to? The size
:04:49. > :04:53.of the debt students have is astronomical. I thought we had seen
:04:54. > :04:58.the first signs that the numbers were starting to drop because
:04:59. > :05:04.previously that wasn't the case. Some people will be thinking is it
:05:05. > :05:08.worth it and some employers are now offering schemes for A-level
:05:09. > :05:14.students to go updating. It feels like every time they increased the
:05:15. > :05:20.fees they say this is the absolute limit until next time. Another story
:05:21. > :05:27.in the Telegraph about a blackout of our TV screens, the nation's TV
:05:28. > :05:31.screens will go blank next week to encourage people to get out and play
:05:32. > :05:36.sport as part of the official celebrations of Team GB. I hasten to
:05:37. > :05:41.add that this not include the BBC News Channel. This sounds like
:05:42. > :05:51.another story hard to believe but I presume it is accurate as they going
:05:52. > :05:57.to do it. This is ITV. It is an hour on Saturday, August 27. Were not
:05:58. > :06:03.quite sure what time. I assume it's in the afternoon but the idea of ITV
:06:04. > :06:08.'s switching off its repeat of Colombo for an hour is going to see
:06:09. > :06:12.millions of people flocking into the streets to play hockey seems a
:06:13. > :06:15.little far-fetched. Maybe if they cancelled all the Premier League
:06:16. > :06:21.football matches that might get people off the sofa. It would be
:06:22. > :06:27.good if it did, it's a great thing if people go out and play more
:06:28. > :06:32.sport. We will talk about obesity later and clearly it is a good thing
:06:33. > :06:37.to encourage people to play sport, whether this will have an impact is
:06:38. > :06:42.a question. Hidden further down there is something less tangible,
:06:43. > :06:48.that instead of spending money on Team GB having a big open top bus
:06:49. > :06:52.tour, they will get lots of people into athletic centres and sports
:06:53. > :06:56.clubs to offer free sessions and try and get people don't and do sport.
:06:57. > :07:03.The Olympics have been fantastic, we have done well but do you think that
:07:04. > :07:09.makes a difference? Does that translate into getting people out
:07:10. > :07:12.and playing sport? Research after the London Olympics suggested it had
:07:13. > :07:19.not had that legacy, there wasn't a great take-up personally you feel
:07:20. > :07:25.inspired. But do you go and play anything? Not more than normal, I
:07:26. > :07:32.watched some of the hockey, the women have won, I have not returned
:07:33. > :07:39.to the hockey field. You should get back out there. I suppose people
:07:40. > :07:45.enjoyed this elite sport but it doesn't necessarily mean they can do
:07:46. > :07:49.it. It can open people's eyes to sports that otherwise would never be
:07:50. > :07:55.on the radar. Most people watch a bit of cricket or rugby and that is
:07:56. > :08:00.it, then you are giving this wealth of different sports that you can be
:08:01. > :08:05.inspired by. People get into sports that are relatively obscure and the
:08:06. > :08:09.rules are quite hard to follow but people just watch it in their
:08:10. > :08:14.millions. Like anything, once you know about it it becomes more
:08:15. > :08:19.interesting and you understand the rules and the skill involved. And if
:08:20. > :08:24.there is a Brit involved, so much the better. Let's move on to the
:08:25. > :08:30.Financial Times, and they have a small story towards the bottom but
:08:31. > :08:36.this is about a tickets camp at the Olympics. An extraordinary story
:08:37. > :08:42.today that the head of Ireland's Olympic Committee, Pat Hickey,
:08:43. > :08:48.president of the Olympic Committee of Ireland, has been arrested in Rio
:08:49. > :08:53.wearing a bathrobe in his hotel room by police investigating illegal
:08:54. > :08:58.ticket sales, and a large scam. He has not been found guilty of
:08:59. > :09:04.anything yet but it is extraordinary and another worrying signs of the
:09:05. > :09:09.way the sport is being governed. We have had so many different problems
:09:10. > :09:14.with the Olympics. Also strange, the idea of ticket touts when we have
:09:15. > :09:21.seen a lot of empty seats. Who is paying sky-high prices? Somebody
:09:22. > :09:26.foolish, but there has been in the past various scandals where people
:09:27. > :09:30.have been given, this is an allegation, not proved, but there
:09:31. > :09:36.have been cases where people who had access to these free tickets had
:09:37. > :09:40.been handing them out to people for money and it's disgraceful if this
:09:41. > :09:48.is proved to be correct because we do want ordinary sports fans to get
:09:49. > :09:52.there. He was a member of the IOC until last week and it comes on the
:09:53. > :09:57.back of ridiculous boxing results and the empty stadiums, the diving
:09:58. > :10:06.pool going green, it has not been smooth running. But it has been a
:10:07. > :10:12.great games and we have enjoyed it. The Financial Times' Main Street is
:10:13. > :10:16.about, something confounding predictions, the fall in jobless
:10:17. > :10:21.claims and they say that confirms the forecast of jobs calls after the
:10:22. > :10:28.Brexit vote. Are you surprised about that? It says the unemployment rate
:10:29. > :10:32.is at an 11 year low. I'm not surprised that a lot of the doom
:10:33. > :10:39.mongering has so far not been proved correct. Clearly there's a long way
:10:40. > :10:45.to go and these are early figures, but some of the hyperbole coming out
:10:46. > :10:49.of that remain camp was nonsensical, we would end up in economic
:10:50. > :10:55.Armageddon, so it doesn't surprise me it is not as bad, but it would
:10:56. > :10:59.also be wrong to get too excited about early data when the real
:11:00. > :11:04.impact might take some time to be felt. I think that's right, there
:11:05. > :11:11.were two arguments before the referendum vote, that there would be
:11:12. > :11:15.a bad short-term impact and then a significant longer term impact, but
:11:16. > :11:18.so far we have seen some of the worst fears about the immediate
:11:19. > :11:25.impact have not been borne out at this stage, with the big caveat that
:11:26. > :11:29.this is one month's figures, for July, and better than expected, but
:11:30. > :11:38.there were plenty of bad signs if you look at what has happened to the
:11:39. > :11:44.pound. Not necessarily bad. If you have just come back from holiday. It
:11:45. > :11:48.is showing confidence dropping in various sectors and there is a gap
:11:49. > :11:53.between confidence, like people who say they are not confident in the
:11:54. > :11:59.education system but their child goes to a good school, and there is
:12:00. > :12:05.a gap between surveys and how people behave. Donald Trump has taken a
:12:06. > :12:09.knock, never a man short on confidence, but not doing so well in
:12:10. > :12:16.the polls so he has a new campaign team. It's been received in the US
:12:17. > :12:23.as a panic measure, the chap he has hired to lead his new team, Stephen
:12:24. > :12:29.Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News, which has been
:12:30. > :12:36.Trump's main media cheerleaders, and very right-wing media organisation,
:12:37. > :12:41.it's been greeted with horror I a lot of conservative commentators. It
:12:42. > :12:47.is clearly not a good sign this close to the elections. Do you think
:12:48. > :12:53.it is slipping away from him? Recent events don't seem to have gone well
:12:54. > :12:57.for him but he has done all sorts of things that people would have
:12:58. > :13:02.thought using normal judgment they were catastrophic and he has ridden
:13:03. > :13:06.through those, so I wouldn't write him off but there was this attempt
:13:07. > :13:11.to make him more scripted, more responsible candidate and this
:13:12. > :13:17.appears to be a lurch back in the other direction, back to the
:13:18. > :13:22.original Trump. Just time to talk about what is coming out tomorrow,
:13:23. > :13:30.the government's long-awaited strategy on child obesity and our
:13:31. > :13:37.concern in The Express that it's all been watered down. That does seem to
:13:38. > :13:41.be the case, we were expecting tougher measures in this strategy,
:13:42. > :13:48.which has been hugely delayed, we were waiting months, it has been
:13:49. > :13:50.slipped out in August when no one in Westminster is around, which
:13:51. > :13:57.indicates how seriously the government is treating it. You were
:13:58. > :14:01.expecting tough measures and junk food, adverts, banning cartoon
:14:02. > :14:07.characters from selling junk food, none of that is in their and they
:14:08. > :14:14.have taken it out. Why do you think that is? A suggestion to May is
:14:15. > :14:19.worried about the economic impact. I don't know what is behind it, there
:14:20. > :14:24.has been a long-standing argument for the voluntary approach in
:14:25. > :14:29.respect of this and alcohol is the way to go, it does not seem to have
:14:30. > :14:34.delivered results and the test will be whether the firms can be
:14:35. > :14:39.persuaded to cut it in a voluntary weight otherwise we will have to
:14:40. > :14:46.make it more compulsory. One last story, also in The Express, Owen
:14:47. > :14:50.Smith during a BBC debate with Jeremy Corbyn, he talked about how
:14:51. > :14:56.Islamic State should be allowed to take part in peace talks. I agree
:14:57. > :15:05.with Jeremy Corbyn on this. Do you think it is crazy? It is interesting
:15:06. > :15:08.that Jeremy Corbyn did not answer the question that way, he has
:15:09. > :15:13.learned to be more savvy than that. Owen was involved in the Northern
:15:14. > :15:19.Irish peace process and seems to have been drawing on that when he
:15:20. > :15:24.made this suggestion but it has not gone down well and he was forced to
:15:25. > :15:28.clarify the comments, saying it would only ever happen if prices
:15:29. > :15:36.were to this associate themselves from violence... Which doesn't seem
:15:37. > :15:40.to be imminent! They also have the objective of siphoning off other
:15:41. > :15:46.states, it is inconceivable that could be a realistic consensus.
:15:47. > :15:52.Great to talk to you both, and good to hear you enjoyed watching the
:15:53. > :15:58.women's hockey. Jack Blanchard and Martin, many thanks to both of you.
:15:59. > :16:02.We will be back at 11:15pm for another look at the papers but now
:16:03. > :16:05.let's get a look at the weather.