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