19/11/2016 The Papers

We'll be looking at tomorrow's papers.

With me are the home affairs editor of the Evening Standard,

and the deputy head of sport at the Sun,

The Observer claims Europe's leaders are to force the UK

into a hard Brexit in a bid to see off any future

populist insurgencies that might lead to the break-up

The Sunday Times says the Queen is to invite Donald Trump to Windsor

with ministers hoping she'll help cement ties

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond will pledge to spend more

than ?1 billion in a road-building bonanza

in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday, reports the Independent.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Telegraph warns that the Autumn Statement may

include a tax raid on middle-class job perks,

such as health checks and gym memberships.

OK, let's begin with the paper review. We start with the Observer.

It would be the lead story here. The hard Brexit. What other European

leaders saying? They reported as thinking, although there are any

quotes, that they want to not make any concessions on free movement and

therefore force us into what is termed a hard Brexit. Why did they

say they are going to do this? Because they are worried that if

they make concessions, Angela Merkel said this week, if they make

concessions to the UK, every other country will start wanting its own

concessions and they don't want to go down that road. That is the

argument. Obviously, we have to wait and see as to what actually

transpires because the negotiations haven't started yet, there are

elections in France and Germany, which this story refers to. Martin,

we've got the Court of Appeal coming up in January. There is a thing

about making the challenge before we can go trigger Article 50. It is

interesting, the European leaders talking about a hard Brexit, at the

same time, Brexit members like Liam Fox and David Davies art keen on a

hard Brexit but Ford different reasons. Here, it's about trying to

keep everything together. If Britain suffers going down that road, it may

prevent Marine Le Pen women -- winning. We have a serious challenge

by the AFD to Angela McCall coming up. It is true, the European

leadership are trying now to make an example of the UK the Devon to run

away from their grand scheme, others in this country suggest we did

shouldn't be doing so. -- daring to run away.

The article talks about Marine Le Pen. She must be grabbing her hands

with glee. It depends with how the French people vote. Of course. What

Nigel Farage is predicting here, and he did predict the Brexit vote and

Donald Trump's victory, he is now saying that Marine Le Pen, the

inconceivable could happen, she might winds. Most forecasts seem to

suggest she will get to the run-off. Hitherto the centrists are. There is

a big... But hitherto what has happened, exactly as you say, the

left and right have come together, the hard right -- not the hard right

but the Conservative Party and the Socialists have come together to

stop the National Front winning. That is what is inspected to happen

again if she gets through to the second round in this presidential

election. He is suggesting all source of extra ordinary things have

happened and this could be other one, in which case, she was today

filed out of the euro and out of the EU. There would be no way you could

hold it together. It is too unlikely, to be frank, that this

would happen. There is an awful lot going on in Europe. It is quite

dangerous to say that. All the unlikely things! Discount nothing!

We are going to say with Brexit in a way and turn to The Times. An

interesting story on the front page of The Times. It involves Mr Blair.

What is the connection between Tony Blair and Brexit? Blair takes them

you that he needs to come back from the self-imposed wilderness and take

a pivotal role. Apparently, he thinks that Theresa May is a total

lightweight and Jeremy Corbyn is an utter. I don't think that Mr Blair,

who I think Robert Lee is quite toxic still, really would say that

Jeremy Corbyn is a nutter, even though he might well think that.

It's interesting whether Blair is the person who can bring together

the country, I find difficult to believe. I think he is still seen as

responsible for the chaotic mess that was the Gulf War and he will

always be tarnished by that incident, irrespective of anything

else he achieved in his 11 years as Prime Minister. He is certainly

toxic for many of the Labour Party activist's point of view. It is hard

to see him paying -- playing an important role there. Apparently, he

is due to meet Theresa May soon, at the same time, his people are saying

Theresa May is a light weight. That will go down well! He was to come

back and play awhile -- play a role. Of course, at the same time, we have

had suggestions last week that David Miliband might come back from needle

where he is currently running an international rescue charity. I'm

not go to quote exact what the paper says but essentially, the message,

via the source, is that the Tories are messing up, not the word in the

paper, messing up works it. And he is having meetings allegedly with

George Osborne. With everybody else as well. Girard Krishna. Also, he

has recruited Jim Murphy to become his adviser on how to get over and

get back under the Westminster bubble, to a degree. He probably has

more impact in the US than he is regarded here. He may actually have

an important significant role he can play there. And behind-the-scenes, I

think in public here it is problematic but behind-the-scenes,

he probably can. Whatever one feels about the end of his reign and the

fact that he was clearly tarnished by the Gulf War, he was a figure for

the first part of the century, he was one of the dominant political

figures on the planet. The paper associates currently looking for

promises of round Westminster so we will see how fat backroads. -- how

far that goes. Next, a stealth tax. We've got the Autumn Statement on

Wednesday. Lots of significant financial detail is going to be

revealed about the current state of the nations finances. There is some

talk that the Chancellor was to make it less of an event than it has

recently been and concentrate most things in the budget but what it is

talking about here is that you can forego a part of your salary to

receive things like private health and gym membership and so on. The

salary sacrifice scheme, and play less tax. Basically, it is saying

this is a middle-class perk, in effect, and he might be going to

clamp down on it. Jam, just about managing families. I've not heard of

that before. It's the new buzz acronym for the next couple of

years. It is the same group of people being differently branded,

oh, here we go again, more rebranding. But it will be

interesting. If you have the Telegraph criticising, and I think

they will do because it is their readers who are being targeted, the

male will go down that path and I suspect but less aggressive. Of

course, when the governors has limited money, it is bubbly right

that people who are more affluent don't have as many tax benefits as

when people at the bottom of the pile are perhaps not doing so well.

Everyone believes that people should sacrifice, but they don't believe

themselves should sacrifice. It seems that the Queen, not quite

sacrificing, but she is going to be the secret weapon to bring in Donald

Trump over onto our side, according to The Times. Talking about a state

visit as soon as possible. That would make sense, whatever people

think about him, he will be leading America bother next four years and

of course we should do everything we can to cultivate good relations. The

Queen camp where useful role in that. I got the feeling reading

through this it was almost as if it was trying to get one over on Nigel

Farage. The only quotes come from Nigel Farage. He has probably

arranged it! He tried to position himself as the link between the UK

and the US, Theresa May would not want that to be the case. There is

all this talk of special relationships once again. Talking

about the Thatcher Reagan relationship. The British government

need to be close to the American government, even if it doesn't

particularly like the American president, particularly in a post

Brexit future. Of course. We have to expand the English speaking markets

because they will be the easiest ones to get into. Another thing is

there has been controversy about the refurbishment to Buckingham Palace,

a slightly separate issue, but at the same time, the Royal family, the

Queen, Prince Charles, and Prince William, they have a significant

diplomatic role and they are quite useful to the country. They can do

something that other people can't, sometimes. We will continue this

conversation and pick it up at 11:30pm. For now, Martin and Martin,

thank you. We will be back again at 11:30pm. Coming up next, here on BBC

News, it is Reporters.