22/01/2017 The Papers

Everything is a bit late in tonight, so we will see how we can do! We

will be taking a look at tomorrow's papers shortly, hopefully.

Theresa May has refused to say whether she knew about a failed

Trident missile test when MPs were voting to renew

I have absolute faith in our Trident missiles -

when I made that speech in the House of Commons what we were talking

about was whether or not we should renew our Trident.

Trade, Nato and Brexit are likely to be high on the agenda

when the Prime Minister meets Donald Trump this Friday.

President Trump and his White House team have launched a furious

attack on the media, accusing them of lying

about the size of the crowds at his inauguration on Friday.

A court in Iran rejects an appeal against a five-year prison sentence

given to a woman with dual British and Iranian citizenship accused

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

With us, broadcaster Natalie Haynes and Deputy political editor of the

Independent Rob Merrick. Luckily I remembered where you both work

because it was not written down on my autocue! We are starting so well.

Are we dealing with plain facts tonight? Yes, plain facts. I am so

glad! The Financial Times leads with more

reaction to the Trump administration's hard line

against what they are calling The i says the prime

minister's post-Brexit plan The Daily Express has claims

from a leading Brexit campaigner that up to a million EU migrants may

head to the UK over The Metro says Theresa May is ready

to challenge President Trump over sexist remarks when she meets him

at the White House on Friday. The Telegraph says a free trade deal

with the United States is likely to open the door to US jobs

for British workers. The Times reports that rural

enterprises will be the biggest losers in upcoming business rate

rises in England. And the Daily Mail claims terrorists

and criminals are able to travel to Britain without crossing border

control because of a loophole Would you be surprised if I said we

were going to start with Donald Trump? The Financial Times. Trump

sets tone for presidency with attacked and dishonest media. We of

course got to see that last night on the News Channel when that press

conference took place, the press briefing. Sean Spicer, a man we will

get to know the well, I am sure. An interesting press briefing. Yes,

perhaps contrary to popular opinion what the spokesperson tries not to

do in Britain is to live. They might not tell you the whole truth. The

obscure the truth, of Christ -- not do in Britain is to li. They do not

want to be caught lying because that is devastating and their reputation

a shot. We will not have the same ability to speak to the media again

-- the obscure the truth, of course. This person has walked in and told E

Bald lie about the inauguration and I guess this is just the new

reality. Kellyanne Conway, his adviser, you know, if you wanted to

say it was the most watched inauguration, that is probably true

because of the people watching online and on TV, but not

necessarily there in person. Yes, an alternative two facts, I guess, like

an alternative medicine. Once it has been tested, it is just medicine.

That is the route they have gone with and it is a strange choice.

Partly of course there is a vague sense of delight something so

horrendous could happen. This press briefing, where it is not just one

thing that has gone wrong but ten things. The National Parks hadn't

given the numbers because they don't, the Metro at given numbers

because something was wrong, it was the first time they put white stuff

on the floor and that meant they had to be less people. Any screenwriter

with tell you with the five excuses, it sounds a lot less convincing than

it was before there is something compelling about watching somebody

lie in that incredibly barefaced fashion except that anyone who has

lived under an authoritarian regime will tell you, and indeed whether or

not you want to believe them, you can suddenly go back to your George

Orwell, that the trick of an authoritarian regime is to persuade

people that even incredibly inane things, however many fingers he is

holding up, reading it at school, even a benign thing you can be made

to lie about, so you see four fingers but say five. Even just

using the word lie makes me slightly anxious. Because we do not call it

that, do we? We have a whole range of different words for it, but no

people are becoming emboldened. This is not a great way for this

relationship to have started. If press briefings are going to prevent

journalists from asking questions, if -- there is already such a

terrible breakdown between the White House and the media, but where to

start. During the Iraq war Saddam have a spokesman who would stand up

and help barefaced lies about how Iraqi troops were about to defeat

the Americans and of course he got a nickname, Comical Ali. What you are

right. As a starting point between Trump and the press, you would think

it would be disastrous, but of course Trump boasts of that, his

millions of Twitter followers, he will carry on with that and he hopes

to community directly with them in a way that combines the traditional

media which has left rates than it used to. Sorry to have Cotten,

Twitter users number about 16% of people in the UK and I guess it is

roughly similar in the USA -- sorry to have cut in. Quite a small

minority of people. The piece that stood out for me today was that long

post put out by the great American elder statesman of American

broadcasting, basically saying that the Washington press corps better

get its act together and that they need to be challenging. If they are

not getting answers from the White House they need to challenge other

Republicans and they need to ask those questions over and over again.

I think a lot of us thought that with Donald Trump's press conference

a couple of weeks ago when he shut down CNN. It was CNN, wasn't it? And

I know it goes against the grain for journalists to band together as

opposed to a skidding each other but the right thing for the next person

to do was to ask this CNN question and if they do not band together it

will be divide and rule -- as opposed to out-scooping each other.

I think a scientist today said journalists need to teach people to

think critically. If you are cut off that is very difficult, as you say,

so it needs to be a collective effort. But it is forensic stuff,

being dog-eared, keep asking that same question. And we are often very

quick to decry war on another type of news organisation, this is fake

news, these ones are OK, this one is bad, but across the board this

morning American broadcast media were criticising, even Fox News,

they were seeing, these are not lies. I wonder how unhelpful the

Buzzfeed reports were, because did into anybody's Hans? He could see it

is fake news put out to discredit me. That does not help of a

journalists, does it? I think you're probably right. To publish those

allegations when he couldn't be proved, yes, it gave him some

ammunition to say, look at this, they cannot prove it. Another thing

that gets to me about today's events, the worrying thing, not

stepping away from his relationship with the press, it is just his

priorities. You mentioned his visit to the CIA yesterday and I read

about that on the way in and of course he has had this bust up with

the intelligence services... He says he holds them in incredibly high

regard. But also it was just a bizarre ramble. The whole speech,

going into... Getting into the crowds, how much they loved him, how

wonderful it was, speaking about the fact it had stopped raining, when it

hadn't... His mindset, it seems to be that, doesn't it, people love me,

a success, fantastic? He is still running a campaign, isn't he?

Instead of focusing on other things. Not realising he has won. Not

governing. Let's look at the Metro. It is interesting how journalists

will have to deal with this new way of governing. The Metro. This is the

claim that Theresa May will say the difficult things she needs to see if

she feels it is appropriate. I'm no Pussycay, challenging things Donald

Trump has said that our offensive. But she has to get the deal for

trade and Nato and the really serious things? Go for it. I was

going to say, I think there are a few things in the question, before

she got to the point where she said she would not be afraid to challenge

Donald Trump. Do we really think she will sit in the Oval Office with

Donald Trump and speak about his misbehaviour? She might do, but the

thing is what we think is a robust sort of approach gets somewhat

piloted in diplomatic language, necessarily, doesn't it? -- gets

somewhat diluted. And we have to bear in mind that Americans think

that about the British anyway. They think we spend our whole time

apologising and drinking tea, that is our whole thing. They basically

think we are Dowton Abbey. So she will be, who, Maggie Smith? A lovely

completely baffling women from another universe as opposed to a

relevant one, our best scenario. Trump said she would be his Margaret

Thatcher. Again, you start to not believe anything in the end. Perhaps

he believes that but the fact of the matter remains we are really little

country in relation to them and they see us as a sort of occasionally

adorable but sometimes irritating, you know, ancient aunt. But we might

be in for a decent trade deal. The Daily Telegraph saying it will open

the door to US jobs? As the door closes on the EU the open on

opportunities in the States? Does my face betray my attitude to that? It

does, I am afraid. Do you know about the chlorine and the chickens? Is

this some sort of code message? LAUGHTER

The myth is the EU did not want, or did not try hard enough to sign a

free-trade deal with America, and we will try harder and get one and we

will be incredibly rewarded, but one of reasons why the reported trade

deal with the EU collapsed is because the EU does not want to do

everything America wants it to do in a so-called free trade deal and that

means to accept much more environmental standards that they

have in America, much lower food safety standards... Which is how we

get to the chlorine and the chickens? Anyone who has eaten that

in America says it is terrible, full of sugar, and the outgoing Vice

President Joe Biden says he is not going to sign anything not wanted by

the chicken farmers in Delaware. The fact is they are to lazy to worry

about food standards all the way down the line to the supermarket

shelf like we do in Britain. That is a very big claim. I heard it from a

top politician. What they do is sit these chickens in chlorine, in

bleach, then send them out and they eat that in America X Factor I am

not saying chickens is the biggest part of a potential trade deal but I

think it is indicative of the sort of thing we might be persuaded,

forced, to do, to accept much lower standards in Britain than the

currently accepted cause we are so desperate to sign a trade deal with

Trump -- then they eat them in America. I am not saying. My

apologies if you are a chicken reader!

LAUGHTER -- chicken-rearer. I am delighted

not to eating chicken for 29 years, all I can say. The i exclusive,

Theresa May's plan to reboot British industry. How will this happen? She

is taking the cabinet out of London on an away day, to Warrington, run

to get across the point I suppose it is not all that London. And the idea

that she has other ideas to remake the country, not all about Brexit.

Completely separate to the European debate and tomorrow is the turn of

changing our traditional focus on the universities above all else and

trying to create a higher skilled workforce for the post Brexit

challenges ahead. Very good, Robert. I was not supposed to ask you about

that story, was it? LAUGHTER

It is very good. I threw that at you with no warning and off UN! Let's

deal with the ?40 billion question of the Trident cover-up as well.

Entirely my fault. -- off you went. This was in the newspapers last

night. Why did Parliament not know? Why were they not told? This missile

that went slightly astray. Always a phrase you want to hear, isn't it?

In close proximity to the word missile, slightly astray! Towards

America. In any direction would have been bad! America, that would

obviously have been particularly embarrassing with her going there

this week but it would have of course been bad going in any

direction whatsoever, I would suggest! This do these tests, to

find out. Why should we be too concerned? They will work out what

was wrong with the telemetry. We are setting the bar quite low for things

we would like to go right! On the BBC, I heard them declare it as a

success, the MoD! Did I hear that? They have absolute confidence in the

system. As far as everyone voted to buy new and more expensive ones

which probably will not go astray. Probably why they are ?40 billion.

Time and we do these tests every three or four mag years, so we have

not done another one since. -- and we do these tests. An extraordinary

situation. I do not know how many people watched that this morning but

Andrew Marr, he had her squirming, Theresa May. Her refusal to answer

the question came back to bite her and she looked very shifty. Four or

five times she refused to say whether she knew this Trident launch

had misfired. Doing what we all have to do, keep asking the question! If

you want to stay healthy, don't Brown to coast, although the Daily

Telegraph says it is a row over brown toast and crispy roast potato

cancer. What is the problem? What are we not meant to do now? We are

meant to have lovely golden toast and not crispy brown toast and

lovely golden potatoes rather than brown and crunchy ones because of

carcinogens when everything is crunchy. Do feel free to note the

Times headline does not say what you should have is non-brown toast,

which more of us know by its more ordinary name, bread. And your

potatoes cannot be too fluffy because it creates more of a surface

area? And no crisps either. Oh, dear. I had a crispy roast potatoes

I have ever had and they were also the nicest so I do not think that

will change. I think we all treat these cancer stories with a pinch of

salt. A pinch of salt! If that is not too unhealthy. Oh, dear, let's

have a bag of crisps. Before you go, these

front pages have come -- Don't forget, all the front pages

are online on the BBC News website where you can read a detailed review

of the papers. It's all there for you, seven days

a week, at bbc.co.uk/papers, and you can see us there too,

with each night's edition of the Papers been posted

on the page shortly Now it's time for Meet the Author,

and Jim Naughtie talks