21/12/2016 The Papers

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

With me are Lucy Fisher, senior political correspondent

for the Times, and commentator Henry Bonsu.

Tomorrow's front pages: The Telegraph leads

The paper says the prime suspect for the massacre was under covert

surveillance for months as a possible terrorist,

but police let him slip through their grasp

Anis Amri stares from the front of the Metro.

He is now said to be the most wanted man in Europe.

The Times says the authorities suspected Amri of preparing

a serious crime, endangering national safety, but red tape

The i says the German authorities are under pressure after a series

of blunders in their hunt for the killer.

The FT pictures some of the suspect's different identities.

Its main story is that the world's oldest bank is to be rescued

The Guardian says Amri was known to multiple

And the Sun has a pun on the Queen's cold.

Throne a sickie... It is actually quite good, that one. It is actually

quite good. But we are going to discuss it a little bit later on.

The Berlin massacre suspect was watched for months, on the front

page of the Times. We now know a hell of a lot about this guy. A lot

coming through compared to what we discussed in the last hour. We found

out he was put under surveillance in March earlier this year by German

prosecutors, but they abandoned the surveillance after about six months

because they decided that although they found out that he planned to

break in, taking money for automatic weapons to do one of those roving

massacres, when they put him under close surveillance the measures

produced no evidence to justify, in their view, any further expenditure

and further man-hours. They abandoned it. The same thing

happened with the French attackers last year. Initially they came to

the notice of authorities and were put under surveillance but then

eventually they couldn't justify monitoring them any more. Other

things which have emerged, the man's father, Anis Amri, has described him

as a violent, drugtaking adolescent and we found out he was in jail in

Italy for setting fire to an asylum centre, an immigrant migration

Centre. So this picture has emerged of a guy... The classic, you could

say, a guy who has left his country, Tunisia, he has come into the

European Union and come to the notice of authorities and been put

under surveillance. He has done things which may in some

jurisdictions have justified and arrest or possibly a trial, but in

Italy and then Germany he seems to have moved on and got into the wider

community. But clearly he has got a history of crime. A lot of issues

there. The authorities in Germany wanted to deport him, even though

they couldn't stick the label of terrorist on him, because they kept

him under surveillance, they didn't find enough evidence. They wanted to

get rid of him but couldn't because the documentation wasn't there. That

is what it seems to be. It's extraordinary to find out today that

just 44 hours after this atrocity the passport arrived from the

Tunisian authorities, which meant the German authorities could have

sent him back. I think terror attacks like these throw out these

questions between the limits between liberalism, respect for the rule of

law and the desire to perhaps be more authoritarian, push measures

through and ride roughshod over that. Everyone needs to take a deep

breath and a step back a bit. While we are taking a deep rest, we have

to look at police procedure. Certainly, and why he was let go and

that doubt. Two the police talk about these gold and 24 hours after

an incident, and it appears they missed his temporary German

resident's permit, in the foot well of the lorry, for 24 hours. And

there are forensics all the way around the Christmas market and as a

result they pointed the finger at the wrong guy for 24 hours, adding

this guy the head start. On the Financial Times, this is a guy who

knows how to hide, so even though there is an arrest warrant out for

him, Europe wide, wanted Europe wide, with many faces, the thing is,

he has got many faces. He knows how to hide, the sky. It is

extraordinary looking at these four different mugshots. In some he has

put on weight, he seems to be screwing up his eyes, and he has six

different names, has posed as a Lebanese national, an Egyptian, as

well as Tunisian. In a way he seems to be the perfect criminal. A

history of petty crime, violence, drugtaking, as his father said, he

also has these bigger connections, to jihadis and Islamic leaders as

well. He can do anything now, maybe slimming his face, and this will be

a real test of the German authorities. How well do they know

their minority communities, their Islamic communities? They will need

human intelligence. If he is still in Germany. All the countries

bordering Germany, they will co-operate with Germany, and we have

Euro poll in the free movement of goods, services and people. Shang

will problem we eat toast in a few years time -- Schengen. They need

human intelligence to find out where guy is. There will be someone who

knows him. That is part of the argument about surveillance in this

country, in that there is a sense that the police have more contacts

within different communities and there is more of a willingness

within communities within this country to turn someone in, whereas

that link between officers and the public is not as deep, not there as

much, in places like France or Belgium, or indeed Germany. I think

that is certainly true. In fact people think that Theresa May during

her time as Home Secretary tried to build-up better relations with

ethnic communities within the UK. Different countries throughout

Europe have different race relations, different underlying

tensions between many communities. I think it is absolutely right to say

that in some countries those links are not there. It doesn't exist in

France, does it? In parts of Paris it just doesn't exist. The reason

for that in many European countries as they don't believe in

multiculturalism. We want to throw out the baby with the bathwater but

one of the reasons we have such strong links between communities and

between, you might call it, our institutions and minority

communities is because people have a greater sense of fairness. We talk

about this system no longer being fit for purpose, multiculturalism,

but if we went to French or German way, things might be even worse. A

hell of a lot worse. Which takes us to the other story on the front of

the Financial Times, the European Court rules the indiscriminate mass

surveillance law to be illegal. Some things we have been seen in the news

suggest that tracking someone like this guy will be made much more

difficult if this ECJ ruling stands. It is a tricky one. The proposal

behind this law is it would allow authorities to track everyone's data

and forced telecommunications companies to keep records for 12

months of the websites every single Briton has visited, and their phone

records. It has been judged to be too illiberal in that it is not

targeted, it affects absolutely everyone, and in that way it is too

general and indiscriminate. What is interesting is that with many of the

terror suspect and proven terrorists in the last few years, the problem

has not been that they were not flagged up, the authorities were

tracking them with covert surveillance, but they slipped the

net. I think there are arguments on both sides here about whether we

need to have this dragnet that takes in the entire population. And what

is fascinating about this story is that David Davies on the back bench,

a champion of civil liberties, he brought this court case to the ECJ.

He ducked out of it since he became a minister. And he has said the ECJ

is not fit for purpose. He has moved on. And there is nothing wrong with

that, David, if you are watching. And if every website we visited and

all the data we have looked at was being tracked and held by all

these... Don't look at me like I have been looking at dodgy website!

By these organisations and telecommunication companies, the

kind of institutions which will have access to this data, HMRC,

intelligence agencies, the NHS, you were uncomfortable with this in the

last hour, nor am I in this hour. We assume that everyone working for

these organisations is untouchable, like Eliot Ness. But you can't trust

everyone with this information. I think this is a really interesting

story in the Guardian. Corbyn critic quits and triggers an election test

for Labour. Jamie Reedy was a critic of Jeremy Corbyn and is standing

down. He has had conflicts with Jeremy Corbyn over the nuclear

issue. The by-election is the interesting thing, I think, because

this will be a real test for Jeremy Corbyn and for Labour. And a test

for UKIP as well, it is a fascinating seat, Copland, in the

north-west. There are only about 2500 votes in it, it is very

marginal. The Tories in second place and UKIP not very far behind. It is

a golden opportunity for the Conservatives. It has been

interesting today to see how people have come out. Labour has been on

the defensive back foot. Conservatives have been quite

bullish, saying this could be a golden ticket for them and many

Labour MPs, perhaps trolling Jeremy Corbyn, have pointed out that this

will be the first time since 1983 that the governing party has won a

by-election when the main opposition party has resigned. I happen to be

at Euston station earlier, and Paul muscle was buying a ticket to

Copland. I made that up! But I would not be surprised if he is on a train

up their pretty soon. And I hear that this was a Brexit constituency.

Exactly, it makes it even more interesting. It is a test of Jeremy

Corbyn's attitude towards Europe, and his Shadow Home Secretary's

attitude towards the free movement of people. There are a number of

people, not least the head of Unite, Len McCluskey, who would want to end

free movement. This could be really bad for foreign Labour. When the

Times cover this? A couple of months? It could be shorter than

that. It is up to Labour to move the writ, but I think we could see it

taking place in January -- what is the timetable to cover this. They

could allow a longer lead time and allow their rivals time, less to get

on with it. Very quickly, I wonder whether Jamie Reedy will be the

last? There has been a lot of suggestion today it is a chicken

run, others will start to fall. Most of us get a cold, we are laid out

and it is no big deal. But the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh falling

ill, it is front-page news. I thought this is kind of tricky,

throne a sickie. It is quite amusing in a way. I suppose you can tell

that arch royalist... We are only express now. Health scare for Queen

and Philip. Yesterday or the day before we heard from Nicholas

Witchell, the Queen is dropping her patronage of 25 major charities and

people were saying does this mean she is going to start winding down?

Even though she is in rude and robust health, she is 90. Even

though they missed their usual getaway to Sandringham, at the

moment they are staying firmly put in Buckingham Palace, which means

they must be properly ill. You say properly ill, let's not cause anyone

there to drop their cocoa or whiskey or whatever you have in your hand at

the moment. Buckingham Palace says it is all fine. They will be

travelling in a few days. And of course, Sandringham a very big part

of Christmas for both of them. I just taken aback by what you just

said, not proper ill, don't worry! It is a cold. So yes, it is the kind

of thing which will be big news, considering he is 95 and the Queen

herself is in her 90s. It is true, and it's interesting, because royal

family worked like clockwork, it is such a tradition for them to go to

Sandringham at this time of year. It reminds me how much they are part of

the routine at Christmas. We are so used to the Royal Family, especially

the Queen, doing the same thing, that it feels a real disruption of

the norm. That is a good point, you get the turkey and open the presents

and the Queen is at Sandringham. Now the sun have a headline on this, and

I pooh-poohed this at the beginning, I have to say, but looking at it on

reflection, it is not that bad. What do you think, throne a sickie? It is

not too bad. We don't want to be flip with the Queen and Prince

Philip having a cold but as someone who never throws a sticky... Are you

suggesting, the implication from this headline, from the Sun, the

most widely read paper in the country is that they are bonking off

somehow? They just can't be bothered going to Sandringham this year? If

they were genuinely concerned for the health of the royal couple, they

would not be as flip is that. And the nation is reassured. It has been

great having you in to look at the stories behind the headlines. Many

thanks. Don't forget you can see us online

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