18/03/2017 The Papers

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

With me are Jason Beattie, head of politics at the Mirror,

and Tim Shipman, political editor at the Sunday Times.

The Express features the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

who saw their visit to Paris overshadowed by the

The Royals "continued defiantly with their

The Sunday Times also pictures the Duchess of Cambridge,

but its main story is that alleged rape victims will be spared

cross-examination in court, under new reforms announced

The Mail goes it alone with a controversial call

from a retired doctor for women to be able to terminate a pregnancy

The Telegraph says new evidence has emerged over claims that a pregnancy

testing drug has been linked to birth defects in

We'll come to court in a minute. Let's start with the express. An

exclusive from Caroline Wheeler suggesting there may be a snap

general election, hold on a medic, Theresa May has always said she

doesn't want it. And she has even given a date. As you know, there are

all sorts of obstacles before we can even think about a general election

matters because of the fixed term parliament act introduced by David

Cameron, she has to get two thirds of an MP who agreed -- to agree. And

Downing Street has been fully assistant that it does not want to

go early to look holes. The big card, Theresa May has up heard

sleeve, if things go wrong with Brexit, then we comply a general

election card. Why do it now? But there are many things to attract her

to it. This is a fantastic story. I spoke to use people in Downing

Street to said, we are not doing it, the Prime Minister is absolutely

firm in this, and yet, what Caroline has got tonight, art text between

senior members of the party, speculating about it. There are many

reasons why they might. They have 20 MPs under investigation, there might

be by-elections reruns if they are found to be breaking their spending

rules. Nicola Sturgeon is kicking off about another referendum. It is

hard to see the SNP doing as well as they did last time, they won all but

two seats, if they retreated a bit, it would Emad the Gulf for

independence to go ahead. And Theresa May is having to bow down to

backbenchers whenever they complain about anything. It is that she

impossible to get a tax rise on anything now. If ten Tory

backbenchers decide they don't like a policy, it doesn't happen. If you

have a general election, she would inevitably have a massive majority.

Inevitably? It looks that labels top Labour's internal polling suggests

they could lose 50 seats. Theresa May's people say that voters have a

way of punishing the party that is illiberal itself. If they call a

general election just to get a bigger majority, there is a danger

voters will punish them. Well MPs vote for this? A lot of MPs are

always resistant to this because they wonder however big their

majorities are whether they will still hold onto their seats. If it

is going to be me the fourth, they should get a move on. I think the

theory is Theresa May will trickle -- trigger Article 50 in the last

week of March, possibly Wednesday the 29th, five weeks before May the

4th, that is about when you call a general election as well. I don't

expect them to do it but it is interesting that senior people are

talking about it. The Star Wars date, May the 4th. The Telegraph,

where we are looking here. Hammond faces mutiny from Brexit ministers.

What they cross about? They across they haven't got enough civil

servants in that department. Having told us repeatedly they are well

staffed, they have all the officials they need, to help us past Article

50, now they are saying they need more staff and more money and dark

upset about the 6% departmental budget cuts the Chancellor is tried

get through. This is the first thing that Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and

David Davies have agreed about in six months, that they all want more

money. There is this additional pressure of their and this came

about when they did the U-turn on the national age as contributions,

it was partly a Brexiteer trying to destabilise and weekend the one to

lasting Remainer in Cabinet. They see him as the block and then trying

to get the Brexit they want because he is the realist. He keeps saying,

come down to earth, guys, this is what it is going to be like.

Anything they can do to undermine Hammond, they will do. There was

concern immediately after the referendum result that there were

not be enough people that was killed in trained negotiations. Well, we

haven't done if for 40 years. Most countries outside the EU have dozens

of these people. We are trying to hire them. We are tried to pay large

amounts of money to foreign experts to tell us how to do it. And the

civil wing of the civil servants, amazingly, they have included that

they need 30% more civil servants weeks after Brexit and we are still

not there. The Sunday Times, how many bylines have you got this week

on the French page, Tim? -- the front page. Just the two. Osborne

scuppers second jobs for MPs. He's got about six jobs. Why is this a

problem? What we have got this evening is the chairman of the

committee on standards in public life who is taking a dim view of Mr

Bourne getting all this money for all these jobs. He is investigating

this and they are saying they will hold a meeting on Thursday and open

investigation into second jobs. It turns out the parliamentary sleaze

committee which is a pal of a bunch of MPs are also writing and M --

report on second jobs which is looking at banning MPs from doing

anything out side of the hours that Parliament sits which would pretty

much do it for George Osborne. He has already been reported to see

whether he has broken a code of conduct with what he is doing. And

Iain Duncan Smith has been caught out comparing him to Gordon gecko

with the motif, greed is good. So not a great evening for Mr Osborne,

who appears desperate, from the friends I have spoken today, the

Klingon. As an MP. Yes, with all the money and that jobs, but I think he

will get a rude awakening in Parliament. Other MPs might have a

little earner on the side but to the tuna of 20,000. There is an MP who

is a lawyer down in Devon but he doesn't quite as much as Mr Osborne.

Is it just the money? I have some sympathy with MPs because it is a

typical Lord implement. A lot of MPs right for the Daily Mirror and

sometimes we pay them to do that. Are we going to say that as a second

job? Are we going to stop MPs writing for us. The charitable

concern. And Johnson has written excellent books. It is difficult to

say, you have a blanket ban on any outside interests. What Osborne has

done has slightly taken the Mickey here by taking every job going. Next

week, he will be presenting. We were saying, if he was a newspaper

editor, we could have him here. I am sure you will get full coverage of

this lorry when he becomes the editor. If the MPs earn a few quid

here and there, the whole thing will be spoilt by George taking the

Mickey. It would be an easy thing for him to do, to lose the ?74,000

from being an MP. That would be painful for him to do because he

doesn't want to lose his position in Parliament. He is keen to have some

fun, make some money, friends say determined to throw himself at this

and prove he's a good newspaper editor, he likes to be good at

everything. But if Theresa May falls under a us, George Osborne wants to

be in Parliament, in case he is required to pick up the pieces.

Staying with the Sunday Times, rape victims to be spared court ordeal

and a new Lord to ban grooming of children. There was a bill going

through on Monday, the second reading of the bill on courts and

prisons, and we have an interview with the Justice Secretary and she

is saying they have done trials with child sex cases where you allow the

victim and vulnerable witnesses to give evidence outside of the court

room on video, they get cost examined and video --

cross-examined, and this speeds up guilty pleas, it hasn't raised the

conviction rate at the defence lawyers look at the evidence and

realise they won't get off and its speeds things up and reduces former

for the victims. They are going to roll this out for adult rape trials

and sex offences. And they hope that will lessen that former for some of

these allegedly teams. I'm surprised we need a new law that bans the

grooming of children. This is one of these examples where technology is

overtaking where existing laws are. Anything that lessens the form of

rape victims must be a good thing. They are awful cases where Reykjavik

teams have appeared in court -- rape victims, and the alleged offender

wearing exactly the same close they were wearing when they committed the

crime. -- same clothes. It has been complained about for a long time.

The Independent, Scotland split over referendum before Brexit. Nicola

Sturgeon is let -- yet to win support for an early vote. You have

to be sure of your numbers. I'm not surprised by this is Rory. What

people think about this, they found out that three years ago, the

country was split, and three years on, they conduct a poll and find the

same thing. What is Nicola Sturgeon doing? She wouldn't want to do this

She has stuck herself into quite a She has stuck herself into quite a

whole. She is under Russia from people in her own party to move

things are little quicker. -- pressure. The more you up the

rhetoric, the more it you have to look like you are doing something.

People who know her well know she has a massive balancing act on her

hands and she has looked like she is going for a referendum whilst not

really going for a referendum. They were saying, yes we must have this,

and the will of the Scottish people must be respected, but we will talk

about that timing, so, yes, the will of the Scottish Parliament will be

respected, but will it be respected in 2018 or 2021? I think there is

evidence that whispers to will be able to resist this for quite some

time because of polls like this that show a lot of people in Scotland

haven't changed their minds on where they were before and a lot of people

really hate it -- hated the referendum process. This was a lump

of thing. We are obsessed with Brexit in England but most people

who have spent time covering Brexit and who followed what happened in

Scotland said it was much uglier in Scotland, families were divided, a

lot of people don't want to go through that again. Until the polls

show there is a real groundswell, Nicola Sturgeon is basically doing

internal party management rather than responding to a national will

that says we must either referendum. Sunday Telegraph again, stop

repressing Cornwall, the English have been warned. The Council of

Europe has finally recognised the importance of Cornwall, and my whole

family live in a tiny village in Cornwall and in favour of this. The

fact that we're not Devon, that is important. The fact that we now have

two make-up cream tea. It is extraordinary that you do jam and

then put cream on top, that is the correct way. And in Devon, it is the

cream first? Yes, they backwards. Apologies to people in Devon. How

can we help bolster Cornwall? Eat more Pastis. You wonder whether

there will be a referendum in court as well to break away from the

people of Devon. That is it that the papers this hour. I am sure it is

fine if you put the cream on a first. Jason and Tim will be back

later with another look at the front pages but first of all, Reporters.