:00:00. > :00:00.This week on Meet the Author macro, I will speak to the author of
:00:00. > :00:00.Scarlet Thomas about to switch to writing for children and her
:00:07. > :00:17.creation of a world filled with magic and danger.
:00:18. > :00:21.Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be
:00:22. > :00:25.With me are are the broadcasters Penny Smith and Charlie Wolf.
:00:26. > :00:35.A quick look at some of those front pages.
:00:36. > :00:38.Boris Johnson's decision to cancel his trip to Russia
:00:39. > :00:42.The Mail on Sunday reports the criticism from the Kremlin
:00:43. > :00:44.as well as Liberal Democrat MPs here.
:00:45. > :00:47.The Sunday Times says Britain and America are preparing to accuse
:00:48. > :00:50.Russia of complicity in war crimes in Syria.
:00:51. > :00:53.The Sunday Telegraph says Vladimir Putin will be told to pull
:00:54. > :00:56.troops from Syria and drop support for President Assad in a UK-US plan
:00:57. > :00:59.The Independent says the European Parliament's chief
:01:00. > :01:03.Brexit negotiator wants Theresa May to consider a plan to help British
:01:04. > :01:08.people who want to keep their EU citizenship.
:01:09. > :01:12.The Sunday Mirror's leads with a story about the former Spice
:01:13. > :01:15.And the Observer leads with a story about Len McClusky,
:01:16. > :01:18.the leader of the Unite union, who wants the Labour party
:01:19. > :01:21.to investigate MPs who he says are plotting against him
:01:22. > :01:39.Let's begin. Charlie, can you start us off? The Mail on Sunday has what
:01:40. > :01:51.many papers have. As Johnson was meant to go to Moscow next week and
:01:52. > :02:00.has now cancelled for Rex Tillerson to go over. People are now saying he
:02:01. > :02:05.is now America's poodle. Yes. It's as he pulls out at has launched a
:02:06. > :02:08.furious attack on Boris Johnson after he cancelled his Moscow
:02:09. > :02:13.summit. They have accused the Foreign Secretary of making up
:02:14. > :02:16.excuses, making way for Donald Trump's diplomatic drive. I don't
:02:17. > :02:22.really see if there's a big problem with this story. If he wants to work
:02:23. > :02:26.with the Americans and let them handle this and I think it means he
:02:27. > :02:32.is a poodle. Except there is a suggestion in the Mail that Boris
:02:33. > :02:37.Johnson said he shouldn't be going because they were the people who did
:02:38. > :02:43.the bombing, so we would just be the hors d'oeuvre before the main meal.
:02:44. > :02:56.That thing about the poodle, the Lib Dems leader has also echoed that
:02:57. > :03:02.remark. I guess the Lib Dems, that's still where they have to reach two.
:03:03. > :03:09.Moving to the meat of the story itself. There is the suggestion that
:03:10. > :03:14.we and the Americans will say, this is what you will do, Mr Putin. They
:03:15. > :03:18.say he should withdraw military support from Damascus and begin a
:03:19. > :03:22.transition to a new regime, which is of course also a change. This change
:03:23. > :03:29.of regime, which has been off the table for a while. This claim of
:03:30. > :03:35.Russian combo city rests on analysis that a Russian drone flew over this
:03:36. > :03:38.town shortly before 1-off Assad's warplanes dropped a Serengeti bomb.
:03:39. > :03:50.They are investigating whether a Russian plane of the hospital. --
:03:51. > :03:53.sarin gas. Different from the days where you could tell Mr Putin after
:03:54. > :03:59.the election that he could be more flexible because he doesn't have any
:04:00. > :04:03.more elections to fight, as he told I think it was the Prime Minister at
:04:04. > :04:08.the time. That famous quote. I think this is Russia and Assad and others
:04:09. > :04:13.who will have to do some recalculating and that's a good
:04:14. > :04:17.thing. They are going to say, we have a president now who they may
:04:18. > :04:21.have written off as a foolish game-show reality star, property
:04:22. > :04:26.developer, but this is a guy who gets pretty serious about something
:04:27. > :04:33.and... Also a president who changes his mind pretty dramatically. He has
:04:34. > :04:41.done a complete reversal of what he said before the election and
:04:42. > :04:46.afterwards. In the Mail they suggest he reacted to a tweaked and that's
:04:47. > :04:51.what changed his mind. I'm sorry to have some effect on him emotionally,
:04:52. > :04:56.but at the same time when you are sitting around the cabinet table and
:04:57. > :05:12.you have your head of the department of defence, General Mattis, and your
:05:13. > :05:16.other advisers saying they were horrified by what has happened, it
:05:17. > :05:24.isn't enough to trigger what happened. People will also say that
:05:25. > :05:32.it's about him getting the people to stop talking about how close he was
:05:33. > :05:36.to Russia. That is another aspect. The one thing that will help the
:05:37. > :05:40.relationship between them is I think Putin at least has respect for
:05:41. > :05:45.someone who has power and know-how is to use it. They may not like each
:05:46. > :05:48.other in the end but at least there will be respect for the man that
:05:49. > :05:54.wasn't there before, we respect he didn't have for Obama. Presumably
:05:55. > :06:00.they realise they can't predict what he will do. And it will be
:06:01. > :06:06.interesting to see whether this does prompt any peace talks. After all
:06:07. > :06:11.that is what we want to happen here. We want the situation with Serie A
:06:12. > :06:19.to be sorted out. And diplomacy only works when it is backed up with
:06:20. > :06:29.force. Can you get us started on a follow-up to the Stockholm, the
:06:30. > :06:33.awful thing that happened there. They talk about the bomb that fail
:06:34. > :06:43.to go. They found a device this morning and that adds a whole new
:06:44. > :06:48.dimension. It is bad enough that someone could kill you with a car.
:06:49. > :06:55.When the police went to investigate, a bomb could have gone. It is a
:06:56. > :06:59.horrible thought, but killers can get very creative in what they do
:07:00. > :07:04.and how they kill people. These are the sort of people, without making
:07:05. > :07:08.excuses for the IRA or defending them, at least there was some sort
:07:09. > :07:11.of an endgame, where there are certain things they wouldn't have
:07:12. > :07:16.done because it wasn't in their interest. The sorts of people we are
:07:17. > :07:19.dealing with now, there isn't any endgame, other than wanting to kill
:07:20. > :07:25.Westerners and expand the caliphate. It seems to me that we are dealing
:07:26. > :07:30.with people who may not even have a coherent idea as that. They just get
:07:31. > :07:33.attracted and they are the most days people of all. There was an
:07:34. > :07:40.interesting article recently saying that this is really just about
:07:41. > :07:44.gangs, an excuse to kill. And I suppose the sad thing is that we are
:07:45. > :07:49.talking about car bombs and lorry bombs, which is a fact of life in
:07:50. > :07:58.certain places in the world. Let's stay on the Sunday Telegraph front
:07:59. > :08:04.page. Keep charges. -- tip charges. Explained to us what is proposed and
:08:05. > :08:11.why. Councils are to be banned from charging DIY enthusiasts to dispose
:08:12. > :08:15.of their rubbish. Some councils are still charging unfair fees of up to
:08:16. > :08:21.four quid, despite Whitehall trying to stamp out the practice. This is
:08:22. > :08:26.because of the problem of even a small charge deterring people from
:08:27. > :08:32.going and getting rid of this stuff, so they keep it in beauty spots,
:08:33. > :08:40.parkland, anywhere. The end of the street. Anywhere. So they are
:08:41. > :08:47.saying, really, we need to stop charging for it. Sorry to correct
:08:48. > :08:51.you, but in a sense the real story is the fact that councils don't seem
:08:52. > :08:55.to have enough money because of what is being put on them, social care a
:08:56. > :08:59.prime example. They are trying to figure out ways to raise funds
:09:00. > :09:04.because they aren't getting it from central government. I'm sure you
:09:05. > :09:13.would find the same with And I'm Lebo Diseko in -- with Labour. You
:09:14. > :09:17.rely on the state more and more and it's a black hole that can't be
:09:18. > :09:24.filled. To be clear, it isn't just general waste, it is quite specific
:09:25. > :09:29.things. Things like soil and DIY materials, it's a grey area, isn't
:09:30. > :09:34.it? The sort of thing I would get rid of. You take a whole lot of
:09:35. > :09:38.shells down and think, what am I going to do with this? You put up a
:09:39. > :09:42.few of them and then you think, that looks rubbish, take them to the tip!
:09:43. > :09:46.We had a major clear out the other day. To be fair, there was a
:09:47. > :09:52.half-hour cue getting into my recycling centre the other day. I
:09:53. > :09:56.actually cut someone off because I thought they were parked at the side
:09:57. > :10:00.of the road and I didn't see all of the other cars! We've heard that one
:10:01. > :10:04.before! I appear to have jumped the queue! Very quickly, Labour MPs
:10:05. > :10:13.accused of dirty tricks in union votes. This is the Unite union Len
:10:14. > :10:20.McCluskey. I think he is the guy who owns... Well, his union contributes
:10:21. > :10:27.quite a lot of money. Yes. Anyway, he is accusing... There's a group of
:10:28. > :10:31.people made up of people in the right of the party who are using...
:10:32. > :10:39.They say they are using the dark arts. In order to do what? In order
:10:40. > :10:49.to elect his opposition, the opposition... There's another
:10:50. > :10:55.gentleman. Mr Coin. He is saying that... Remember those people who
:10:56. > :11:00.are running the campaign, the dark arts is in their DNA. Normally with
:11:01. > :11:04.political elections it is unique they have brought this in with the
:11:05. > :11:11.trade unions and he says they are trying to get Jeremy Corbyn out.
:11:12. > :11:17.They say what is most likely usually happens. In this case it may be the
:11:18. > :11:25.fact that Jeremy Corbyn isn't that great leader, unfortunately. You
:11:26. > :11:29.mentioned horses. The Grand National is coming. A wonderful story about
:11:30. > :11:36.what happened, the winner. Who owns the horse? Two owners, they are
:11:37. > :11:45.widows and they decided to come together, they have a spare ?60,000.
:11:46. > :11:52.They bought a horse. They said a lot of gin had been quaffed. Their
:11:53. > :11:59.husbands played golf together, hence the name. It is just a lovely story.
:12:00. > :12:07.Everybody is so chuffed. The funny thing is, my uncle bought me one
:12:08. > :12:12.when I was young, and his name was Arthur. The Grand National is
:12:13. > :12:19.something you don't vote on form. It's always that this one is an
:12:20. > :12:25.outsider. The one I would have backed! How many times have we heard
:12:26. > :12:34.that? Once I put a fiver on a horse and it came in as you -- and I got
:12:35. > :12:40.something like 870 quid back. That's The Papers for this hour. Coming up
:12:41. > :12:41.next, Meet the