13/04/2017 The Papers

moment on BBC News, it is time for The Papers.

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

With me are Laura Hughes, political correspondent

at The Daily Telegraph and the journalist James Rampton.

The Telegraph leads with suggestions that government no longer sees

prisons as places for punishment, after the phrase was excluded

from the first legal definition of a jail's purpose.

According to an investigation by the Times, staff at one

of the world's leading drug companies discussed

destroying supplies of life-saving cancer medicines.

The i reports new claims that more British youngsters than ever

are caught in a so-called "age of anxiety".

Holiday costs fall by 20% is the headline in the Express.

The paper claims summer breaks in Europe are now the cheapest

Don't forget, you can see the front pages of the papers online

Let's begin with that Sun headline. Laura Hughes, take us to the

coverage of this bomb dropped in Afghanistan? So, this is the largest

non-nuclear bomb that America has ever used. During his presidential

campaign, Donald Trump spoke about how he was going to protect

America's's interests, and not really intervene around the world.

But this is the second incident in two weeks showing that maybe that is

not the case. This maybe is a warning to North Korea, Iran, Syria,

that America is taking things really seriously now. And they are

prepared, Donald Trump is prepared, to go further than George Bush, he

never used these weapons, and also President Obama. May be questions

for Donald Trump supporters, who voted for him in the hope that

America might take a step back from dealing in these kind of issues. Is

that how you see it? Absolutely, it is the largest bomb that has been

dropped since blagger hour. Apparently it has caused a lot of

consternation within the warring factions in the White House. Steve

Bannon, his notoriously hawkish adviser, was apparently advising

against attacking Syria last week. I'm not sure he will be that happy

about this, either. Because the campaign was all about America

first, isolationist in the world sought itself out. But dropping the

largest bomb ever of a non-nuclear variety, is NOT not getting involved

in the rest of the world! It shows how unpredictable Trump is, and that

will make other nations nervous. If Russia and Iran and Syria thought,

we can do anything, he doesn't want to intervene, I think this is

showing that that's not the case. The target we are told, Caves hiding

IS fighters. But this is a device weighing more than 21,000lb. Yeah,

it is even heavier than me, it is a really big bomb. But I can sort of

understand why they dropped it on those caves. I remember the American

special forces after 911 had a heck of a time trying to find Osama bin

Laden, who was hiding in the caves in the correct. And in fact they

never found him" because it was such a labyrinthine network of places

which he knew about and enabled him to evade his pursuers. But some

people might say, it is taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Laura

Hughes, prisons are not for punishment, this is a quote taken

from a document about the role played by prisons? Yes. This is the

prisons and courts bill. This is the definition of what prison means. And

they have taken out the word punishment, which brings up the

whole question of what they are for. We know that the prison system is

under pressure and it seems to be failing. It seems to be failing

prisoners who go on to reoffend. We have seen massive cuts, this is the

old argument, what is prison for? If you look at countries across Europe,

the Netherlands and Sweden, they have got a bit of a crisis, in that

they can't fill prison cells. That is because they have taken a policy

of rehabilitation. So, when somebody goes into in the Netherlands or in

Sweden, they concentrate on getting them Rhys Gill. What we are seeing

is that reoffending rates are rising, crime levels are rising,

something is clearly not working. And this subtle removal of the word

perhaps signifies the direction of this government and what they want

to do and how they want to reform the justice system in this country

bridge be working. Liz Truss will be at used by some of going soft? I

would say it is a badge of honour for her that she is being attacked

by Mick Davies, the Tory MP. He's at using her of being one of the

liberal lefties, as he puts it. I don't know what are the sort of

lefties there are full stop it is a weird phrase. According to Mr

Davies, he says people having their freedom taken away is a punishment

in itself. Too many people, it is not. I really can't disagree with

that more. As you said, Laura, the point of prison is to stop people

going back in prison. Figures show that if prisoners go on

rehabilitation programmes and have education, taught music, drama,

dropped by 20% or more. We don't dropped by 20% or more. We don't

want people to go back to prison. If we are treating them like students

in a school of crime, and some of them here have been pictured

drinking alcohol and taking drugs, and even frying steaks, they're

never going to reform them. It talks about what the victims of some of

those criminal acts want to see done to the perpetrators. Of course there

is an element of retribution, and that's quite right, particularly if

you have been the victim of a terrible crime. However, if you want

that person not to commit that crime again, I would argue that you should

be treating them as potential reformees rather than as potential

criminals. Or as people who have been failed at some point in their

life. The question is, why are they there? Inside, this is Justine

Greening's views on grammar schools? Yes. I think Justine Greening in

many ways is an impressive minister, but she was with John Humphrys this

morning, trying to define what it means, ordinary working families.

The phrase makes my skin creep. What does ordinary means? It has smacked

of patronising, I think. And also, it seems to exclude the very

disadvantaged, because it's people with a household income of around 30

3000. There are many people unfortunately are much less than

that. Is she saying she's only going to be interested in those people,

give them this supposedly up, and she is declining to say whether they

would be quotas? If she does want to change the class, if you like, all

those people who are admitted? That is the point, how do you redefine

policy to be seen through? And she policy to be seen through? And she

would not go that far this morning, when she was pushed! She said, we

will be setting it out in the white paper in due course. But something

is going to have to change. If you have grammar schools, often it

becomes a more affluent area, and it pushes people out. So children from

poorer families aren't living in the areas where they would have access

to grammar schools. If you have a bit of money, and you know there is

probably try and move there to send probably try and move there to send

your child there. And if you can afford to do so, you will then pay

for tutoring. That is the argument. The criticism of this policy, of

Labour, and of the teaching unions, is that actually we are seeing huge

cuts in schools, shouldn't we be focusing on putting more money into

the state system instead of building a whole new raft of new schools,

when the ones we've got already aren't doing the job they are meant

to be doing? Good points, yes. Let's take the front page of the

Independent, this picture of President Assad, the interview he

has done nearly he has gone arguably further than he has gone before, in

suggesting that the attack that we have all seen pictures of didn't

happen at all. I thought I could no longer be horrified by President

Assad, but I was when I saw this interview today. I was genuinely

shocked that he should claim it's fake news, and the outrageous

suggestion that somehow these children were pretending to be dead.

I think that's absolutely disgusting that he said that and I'm not saying

that I have the to that problem, but he is clearly, in my eyes, not the

solution. It's such a vile man and he has created such misery, half a

million people have been killed, half the population has been turned

into refugees. He is an absolute monster, as President Trump said the

other day, and today's interview only confirm that. In the Daily

Telegraph today, we are now referring to him as Assad, not Mr

Assad. Really? And that is something we only do for criminals. That's

very interesting. The Times, two stories I want to mention, Facebook?

The Times have been really going on this, and rightfully so. They

reported to Facebook that they could see inappropriate images of

children, child abuse, on Facebook, alerted the organisation to these

images, and yet they still were not reviewed. The NSPCC today are

calling for there to be a statutory code of conduct, so that these

social networking sites have to comply with certain standards. At

the moment, it seems they are making up the rules and constantly being

alerted and not taking action. You sense pressure is growing along

these lines? You do, and it plays to the idea that the internet to a

degree is still the wild west and that people do what they like and

think they can get away with it. Louise Haig, the shadow digital

minister, has written to Facebook saying that she thinks their

reporting regime is obviously flawed and has multiple failures. And

certainly the evidence uncovered by The Times and the NSPCC would back

that up. The other story on The Times front page is this drug

giant's secret plan to destroy cancer medicine...? I sound like I

made chuntering kernel from royal Tunbridge Wells, but I am very

shocked by this story as well! You're going to be constantly

shocked by everything we have! I am really shocked by this, the

allegation is that a drugs company has been possibly deliberately

hiking the price, and even, it is suggested, destroying a life-saving

drug, in order to facilitate a 4000% price-wise on a cancer drug. I find

that truly horrendous. I think it was that 4000% figure which struck

you both, Laura? Yes. It's just... It is truly horrifying, and there is

actually a lot in the paper that you want to get through. They have got a

printout of the e-mails. It is quite an extensive investigation? They

have done a good job. It says, I think the only option would be to

donate or destroy the stock. The e-mail ends, let's celebrate. It's

pretty sickening. But are other companies doing this? After 20

years, I think other companies cannot even buy the patent of a

drug, and therefore the competition has gone, and they can set the

prices. I believe there is some legislation going through Parliament

now which will allow the Government to intervene and make prices lower

if they think they are excessive. In the interests of fairness, the

company in question, the chief executive has said this, and I

quote... The price rises were at levels appropriate to promote

long-term, sustainable supply to patients and had been increased

from, quote, a very low and unsustainable base. You both seem

keen to talk about this, life on Saturn, possibly, from the Daily

Mail! Can you sing it to the tune of life on Mars?! No, actually! Even

with the quake and on the piano, that would be difficult. That's a

joke for the older viewers! Straight over my head! This is one of

Saturn's I icy moons. Called Enceladus. It sounds like a Rick

Wakeman album! They have found all the right elements, the water, the

ice, geothermal activity... They will find a shopping centre there!

With abandoned trolleys - in the icy Lake! I find it hard to get worked

up about this. We have got Nasa saying it is a new frontier. But

there is so much going on on our planet that I'm worried about. We

have got Mr Trump cropping the have got Mr Trump cropping the

largest bomb since the Second World War. The fact that there is an icy

like on Saturn... Mind you, if there was life on Saturn, that could be a

nice distraction. Talking of nice destructions, we have 30 seconds to

talk takes, break-off, Channel 4, etc? I love the fact that somehow

the Daily Telegraph has managed to concoct a row about it already. This

is massive, because the scrums are the Cornish fashion, which is jam

before Queen, and of course, that is heresy, if you are from Devon. --

jam before cream. And I don't think he has overstated this at all! Have

you got a strong view on it, Laura? It is jam on cream. So I think I am

Cornish on this one! I'm very glad that we're discussing this when the

world is being systematically destroyed! And possible life on

Saturn. , but there is nothing so important as the Devon versus

Cornwall scone row. Don't forget, you can see the front

pages of the papers online