:00:17. > :00:21.Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be
:00:22. > :00:25.With me are the Assistant Editor of the Times, Anne Ashworth
:00:26. > :00:29.and Tony Evans, sports columnist for the London Evening Standard.
:00:30. > :00:33.The Observer focuses on the Unite leadership battle,
:00:34. > :00:35.featuring an interview with the man challenging Len Mcluskey
:00:36. > :00:40.The Mail on Sunday leads with what it describes as the great
:00:41. > :00:42.foreign aid freeze - saying the government has agreed
:00:43. > :00:46.to halt new contracts after an investigation by the paper.
:00:47. > :00:49.The Sunday Times says the head of the rail union behind this week's
:00:50. > :00:51.industrial action has vowed to topple the Conservative
:00:52. > :00:55.The Sunday Telegraph also focusses on the unions,
:00:56. > :00:57.claiming Theresa May is facing pressure to curb their
:00:58. > :01:04.The Express says the high street is heading for a record-breaking
:01:05. > :01:17.Well, there you go. Probably a discussion we will be for another
:01:18. > :01:23.evening. Let's start with the trades unions because that really seems to
:01:24. > :01:28.be the dominant story of the papers tomorrow morning. If I didn't know
:01:29. > :01:33.this was December 2016, I would think this was 1978. The whole
:01:34. > :01:40.question of the union is dominating the front pages. We are going back
:01:41. > :01:45.to language like holding the country to ransom, tough talking, somebody
:01:46. > :01:49.needs to bring these people to heal. It's every single aspect of unions,
:01:50. > :01:55.the power struggles at the top. This interesting story in the Daily
:01:56. > :02:03.Telegraph -- Sunday Telegraph saying that Mrs May is being called the axe
:02:04. > :02:06.but she is reluctant. The line in the piece says that it is not just
:02:07. > :02:13.about Parliamentary time but that might not resonate with the public.
:02:14. > :02:18.A crackdown on new restrictions? Yes, new restrictions. People say
:02:19. > :02:25.that she should be banning strikes by essential workers. It seems that
:02:26. > :02:31.she's not minded to do that because of might offend the just managings.
:02:32. > :02:36.Tony, what do you make of this? Unions have never been weaker and
:02:37. > :02:41.get we have this sort on them. It surprised me a bit but it does
:02:42. > :02:46.deflect the problem of the economy and are not talking about austerity,
:02:47. > :02:51.we are not talking about the banks bringing down capitalism in 2008. It
:02:52. > :02:57.seems that there is a line which says that two form a Cabinet
:02:58. > :03:01.ministers under Margaret Thatcher. Brexit has called a loss of division
:03:02. > :03:07.and confusion amongst the Conservative Party and whenever the
:03:08. > :03:11.Conservative Party frightens themselves, the anti-union group
:03:12. > :03:18.will try and gain ground. I think we are seeing a lot of it here. There
:03:19. > :03:24.is pressure on Prime Minister me about the unions running rampant.
:03:25. > :03:30.This is interesting, that is the kind of other side of the coin, that
:03:31. > :03:35.something must be done is what we would have heard in 1978. And here
:03:36. > :03:39.we have a union saying the unions have to bring down the government,
:03:40. > :03:43.the idea that the unions are an anti-democratic force, the enemy
:03:44. > :03:47.within as Mrs Thatcher called them. It is interesting that you have to
:03:48. > :03:54.strive to replace the capitalist system with a socialist order. One
:03:55. > :04:00.wonders how many people in those unions actually agree with this?
:04:01. > :04:04.What we are seeing on the front pages is what you might call the
:04:05. > :04:08.French people, the hard left within the unions and I wonder if these
:04:09. > :04:14.stories would be read by quite a lot of dismayed union leaders who do not
:04:15. > :04:19.see this as the way to get what they need to get for their members? I
:04:20. > :04:23.wonder if, dare I say it because we are all guilty of it and the work in
:04:24. > :04:28.London and in the media, I wonder if this is all being seen through the
:04:29. > :04:31.prism of the frustration of the Southern rail action which has been
:04:32. > :04:36.difficult and bitter for all those affected but is not a picture of
:04:37. > :04:39.what is happening elsewhere? There is nothing like a London tube or
:04:40. > :04:44.rail strike to give the impression that we are on the verge of civil
:04:45. > :04:50.war between the far left and the far right. The reality is... A transport
:04:51. > :04:54.system in the capital has to run properly for the benefit of the
:04:55. > :04:58.whole economy and I think that whatever we might think about how we
:04:59. > :05:02.accomplish that, it is incredibly important. It seems to me that there
:05:03. > :05:07.will be an awful lot of people queueing for trains on those
:05:08. > :05:12.platforms who think that my job has changed radically, why can these
:05:13. > :05:17.drivers not accept change? I think, given the systemic problems within
:05:18. > :05:22.Southern rail, it's not quite as simple as blaming the unions. If
:05:23. > :05:26.change actually leads to get -- danger for passengers, we should be
:05:27. > :05:29.looking to keep things the same. It needs a proper analysis of what is
:05:30. > :05:33.best for the transport system and I don't thinks Southern rail are in
:05:34. > :05:37.the position to do that. The rhetoric that they are turning on
:05:38. > :05:42.the employees hiding a lot of systemic problems. I don't want to
:05:43. > :05:44.dwell too much on Southern, because people will be watching this and
:05:45. > :05:51.thinking it does not affect their journey. But staying on the union
:05:52. > :05:56.point, if we look at the Observer, this is quite interesting in the
:05:57. > :06:02.context of the balance of political forces. Those figures influencing
:06:03. > :06:06.the Labour Party. Because Len McCluskey, Unite union, one of the
:06:07. > :06:15.biggest in the country, perhaps the one most robust as -- in support of
:06:16. > :06:18.Jeremy Corbyn, he is effectively calling an election early. He didn't
:06:19. > :06:23.have to call this election and decided if he calls it now, it is
:06:24. > :06:27.suggested, he has a long enough term to carry up to the general election,
:06:28. > :06:32.and the union can continue to play the role he thinks it should play.
:06:33. > :06:36.There is no doubt that Len McCluskey is a man that people have to listen
:06:37. > :06:43.to at the moment? The Observer is saying that the man who wants his
:06:44. > :06:51.job, Len McCluskey, -- Len McCluskey's job, says that he is
:06:52. > :06:55.Jeremy Corbyn's puppet master. The language was reversed in the 1970s,
:06:56. > :07:03.but I'm not so sure about this story because essentially, this man who
:07:04. > :07:07.once Len McCluskey's job will say anything. I don't know whether use
:07:08. > :07:13.of emphasising Jeremy Corbyn's power within the Labour Party. I suspect
:07:14. > :07:16.that Len McCluskey could stay in that position for 100 years and
:07:17. > :07:24.still not get Jeremy Corbyn elected. Unfortunately. This is a spat
:07:25. > :07:28.between two union leaders and frankly, it is one of the least
:07:29. > :07:35.impressive fringe stories I've seen in the Observer for a long time. A
:07:36. > :07:40.real in the Beltway story? A story of one man wanted someone else's job
:07:41. > :07:46.who is going to be rude about it. The other side is that Unite
:07:47. > :07:51.represents the biggest number of people, working people in this
:07:52. > :07:56.country and it has got influence. It is involved in the industrial
:07:57. > :08:00.disputes we are talking about, the baggage handlers at the airport. It
:08:01. > :08:04.represents a variety of workers. There are people who will be
:08:05. > :08:09.affected by what Len McCluskey does. I would have liked to see a few more
:08:10. > :08:15.stories about Russia, about espionage, about hacking. This is
:08:16. > :08:21.all a little bit parish magazine for unions.
:08:22. > :08:24.You have alluded to what is happening in the United States and
:08:25. > :08:29.let's move across the front cover to that. That curious photo of Donald
:08:30. > :08:35.Trump, not the most interesting photo where seen of him but it is
:08:36. > :08:41.allowing us to talk about job taking waiting to task about missing drone.
:08:42. > :08:47.Basically he is saying you stole it, give it back. In a week when he
:08:48. > :08:53.misspelled unprecedented in a magnificent manner. This also allows
:08:54. > :08:57.the Observer to put the Strictly picture on with the minimum of ease.
:08:58. > :09:02.You can just lied it out under something more newsworthy. But there
:09:03. > :09:07.is a Christmas tree in the background, so there is something
:09:08. > :09:11.seasonal. We are now looking forward to job's misspelling of
:09:12. > :09:15.unprecedented becoming the norm. But he is determined to take on China
:09:16. > :09:22.for the moment. Until he gets bored of that. Massive risk. Massive risk
:09:23. > :09:27.for the moment, but he made back down on this. Total reversal of
:09:28. > :09:32.American policy, moving away from Russia. We all know about the
:09:33. > :09:37.Russian involvement in the American election and Putin's ablation ship
:09:38. > :09:41.with Trump. And now going to the Chinese bogeyman. It plays well with
:09:42. > :09:46.the rust belt where steel from China has had a huge impact. You can see
:09:47. > :09:51.the impact of it on the campaign Trail in those states that have had
:09:52. > :09:56.their industries hollered out over the last 30 years, but when it comes
:09:57. > :10:02.to actually delivering, confronting China, presumably there are real
:10:03. > :10:06.practical difficulties. Not least the amount of American debt that is
:10:07. > :10:11.owned by China. It could pull the plug on certain parts of the
:10:12. > :10:15.American economy without difficulty. We need to be careful taking Donald
:10:16. > :10:20.Trump to literally. During the campaign, what people said is that
:10:21. > :10:25.people taken too literally, but they don't take it seriously. We are
:10:26. > :10:31.still in the habit of taking him to literally. Is posturing. He knows
:10:32. > :10:34.where the interest of his own business are tied up. In a lot of
:10:35. > :10:39.the products for his businesses are made in China. He will not find them
:10:40. > :10:44.and he is doing sabre rattling to show you is a tough guy. Very much
:10:45. > :10:48.posturing for when the real negotiations start after the
:10:49. > :10:51.inauguration. It will be an interesting time to observe American
:10:52. > :10:57.politics. Fantastic, in a perverse way. What do the Chinese say, the
:10:58. > :11:04.curse of what living in interesting times. Interesting stories, we know
:11:05. > :11:08.what we will end on but let's talk a bit about this story about cold
:11:09. > :11:15.showers being to blame for the right in Birmingham prisons. On the face
:11:16. > :11:18.of it, most of the country will think, cold showers, they should
:11:19. > :11:22.have those everyday. The reality is that prisons have been outsourced to
:11:23. > :11:27.private companies that have been run down and this is the straw that
:11:28. > :11:33.broke the camel's back. We risk serious unrest. The problem is no
:11:34. > :11:37.one knows whether prisons for punishment or rehabilitation. We
:11:38. > :11:40.model along in between. We have too many people in prison and we should
:11:41. > :11:45.be thinking about getting people out of and people who get into prison
:11:46. > :11:50.should be in conditions that could make them come out and go straight.
:11:51. > :11:55.This is a plumbing problem, aren't we supposed to retraining people in
:11:56. > :11:59.prisons to give them the skills that will help them to be rehabilitated
:12:00. > :12:06.and return to the workforce when they get out? This brutalisation is
:12:07. > :12:11.no way connected to real and irritation which is supposed to be
:12:12. > :12:18.the Mission statement of the company who runs this prison. Is there an
:12:19. > :12:23.argument that it is quite convenient for the public authorities and
:12:24. > :12:28.politicians of all used to say that these people can't run a well store
:12:29. > :12:32.when the problems of resource related and also about the way that
:12:33. > :12:37.the prison estate has been managed over a long period when it was in
:12:38. > :12:41.the public sector? This is one of the big questions we will have to
:12:42. > :12:45.ask ourselves? What do we want prison to do? Do we have to many
:12:46. > :12:51.people in prison? What happens to them when they come out and how do
:12:52. > :12:56.we think, as a civilised society, we should treat prisoners? A lotta
:12:57. > :13:03.people would have an opinion on this and would probably not veer towards
:13:04. > :13:08.brutality and cold showers. Prisons should always stay under government
:13:09. > :13:13.control. Railways are another. But the prisons, certainly.
:13:14. > :13:19.Let me end on the story we have all been talking about on BBC News.
:13:20. > :13:32.There is a swelling of pride in the news that Ore Aduba and his dancing
:13:33. > :13:37.partner have one city come dancing. There was a feeling of Ginger Rogers
:13:38. > :13:41.and Fred Astaire this evening. It was lyrical, there was something in
:13:42. > :13:44.it for everybody. This is a great light entertainment show and
:13:45. > :13:49.everybody has found something to love in it. If it gets people
:13:50. > :13:59.dancing, it would be great. I thought part of a BBC presenter's
:14:00. > :14:04.job was being able to dance! We call this bit over there the catwalk,
:14:05. > :14:12.interesting -- interestingly. We are going to get Ore Aduba in. We have
:14:13. > :14:16.somebody dancing yesterday afternoon. Look up that one on the
:14:17. > :14:20.BBC website because it is quite a sight. I wish I could do what this
:14:21. > :14:26.man has done. Congratulations to him and to Ore Aduba and maybe bringing
:14:27. > :14:35.back the days of when we had proper dance floors. And people did dance.
:14:36. > :14:40.You're like me, you weigh disco man. Maybe we should dance like that
:14:41. > :14:44.again, it would be a great thing. We will practice our steps for the
:14:45. > :14:48.papers in one hour's time. Thank you to Tom and Aaron, we will
:14:49. > :14:52.see you again with the stories making the news at 11:30pm. Coming
:14:53. > :14:55.up next, reporters.