16/05/2017 The Papers

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

bringing us tomorrow. With me Baroness Alterman, the former

Pensions Minister, and a columnist at the London Evening Standard. How

is the new boss going down? Well, he is making all of these changes. I

want all of the gossip! We will start by looking at the front pages.

The i leads with the launch of the Labour Party manifesto, calling it

the most radicals in the 1980s. The Times claims Labour's taxation plans

or in patterns after warnings that a 50p tax rate would fail to raise

funds -- are in tatters. They say that business leaders are dismayed

by Labour's promising of state intervention. Len McCluskey of the

United union does not believe that Labour will win the election, but it

will have fought a successful campaign if it has 200 seats.

Assurances given that the serial killer's Ashers will not be

scattered on Saddleworth Moor. The express criticises the amount of

money spent on keeping him alive. The prime suspect in the killing of

WPC Yvonne Fletcher will not be prosecuted, according to the

Telegraph, because police were blocked from using key evidence on

national security grounds. We will start with the Financial Times.

Labour pledges ?49 billion tax rise to fund a spending push. A lot of

comment about this. Are they able to raise all of the money that the need

for all of the promises and pledges for the tax rises? I mean, you read

through this manifesto and it is full of promises. We will spend

money on this and that. Even though they said they are going to raise 48

or ?49 billion in new taxes, many of the promises aren't actually costed

at all. They haven't said where the extra money is going to come from

for nationalisation, for example. They are going to renationalise the

railways and they are going to renationalise Royal Mail and parts

of the energy industry. So there is a lot of promise here. There are

costings, but you have to ask the question, you know, this is called a

programme of hope. They are kind of hoping that they can find the money.

It is difficult for parties in opposition. They don't have a

battery and Army of civil servants to go through all of the figures the

way that the Government can. Nonetheless, there has to be

approximation between what you want to achieve and what you can afford

to achieve. Absolutely. Of course they are relying on the people who

are being taxed, you know, the tax rate is going to go up to 50% for

those earning more than ?133,000, that they are not clever enough to

find ways of making sure that they don't pay that legitimately! It is

very interesting, they are going to also have an excessive pay tax on

companies, 2.5%, who gives packages of more than ?300,000 to their

employees. This is going to be... A lot of companies will have to find

ways of giving their employees more money and showing it in their

salary. Yes, the irony as well, the front page of the Financial Times

briefly mentioned this. Lloyds have been in public ownership since the

financial crash of 2008, they were bailed out with a massive amount of

money. It has now been sold. The taxpayer doesn't own it any more!

And the taxpayer made a profit. The Tories can point to that and say,

look... That was Labour's attempt at nationalising, which has been and

done now. We will be hearing about lots more nationalisation. That is a

very good point, it was Gordon Brown. Back to the times, Labour's

packs rein in tatters, plan to miss target by billions, expert warns. --

tax. More analysis of Labour's tax proposals. The Times have gone to

the expert, the IFS, Michael Gove said they do not want experts!

Labour said they can raise 4 billion from tax rises, the IFS said people

will avoid the tax rises, and they will only raise between two and 3

billion. They haven't got a contingency fund, so all they have

got. Something like 3-4,000,000,000, because people's behaviour changes.

They have got a contingency plan. They built in an assumption there

will be some behavioural change, they think it could bring 6 billion,

they are budgeting on 4 billion, but the IFS said it will be more like

two to 3 billion. They haven't said how they are going to pay for the

nationalisation, they have announced a lot of nationalisation, rail and

energy and so on. The French tried this. When President Hollande came

in, he introduced a 75 cents tax rate, it was a disaster. -- 75%. The

IFS shows that if you earn between 100 and 123,000, under the Labour

plans you will be paying 73.2% tax. We don't want experts discussing

this! What do people know?! Expect on this programme, of course.

Staying with Labour, the front page of the Guardian. Labour won't win,

says top union backer. The polls are suggesting that. But he says that

200 seats, if Mr Corbyn can keep 200 seats, that will be seen as a win

and perhaps he should stay on, the front page of the Guardian. Both of

those things are shocking. For Labour to say before the election

has even happened, we don't expect to win, is pretty astonishing. I've

not seen that before. But then to say... This is the union, not the

party. But these are the backers of the party. In a way to. The biggest

backers. Also to say that 200 seat is a success, that would be the

worst Labour outcome since 1935. Even Michael Foot got 209 seats.

Isn't there a strategy here that may be Corbyn supporters believe that if

they get that figure, if Corbyn stays on and the Labour Party that

will emerge will be remodelled as the Labour Party they really want,

because the whole thing of the Corbyn thing, we've lost our party.

It's a bit like the Leave campaign, we want our party back. If they get

that will be the launch pad for what they think will be... So they are

trying to engineer a split? The so-called Blairites, they want to

get them out. Some of them might lose their seats. This is a

believable strategy to a certain extent. If you are going to try and

get the sort of change that they are seeking, and McCluskey repeated the

point, the reason why Labour is not winning is because of the media. It

is the reasoning and arguing that Jeremy Corbyn should stay if he wins

200 seats. Neal Kennet got 229 and 270 plus. -- Neil Kinnock. Gordon

Brown left 258. Miliband left 232. 200?! And he wants to stay on as

leader. This is lowering expectations. If you say, as long as

he gets 200, he can stay, they are building expectation. A lot of

Labour people are hoping he will not stay, but there is a big support

element in the Labour Party that wants him to state. He can't be

removed easily. It is much more difficult now with the NEC changes.

And also the fact that actually there is a massive constituency

within the party, democratically elected, and huge support. That is

quite right as far as the party rules go. The Telegraph, blocking

drones delivering drugs and phones... I do apologise, we have

got to head over... Labour's election manifesto, let's bring up

the cartoon, I'm getting ahead of myself. How could we missed this

out?! That is not an internet ransom demand, that is the manifesto! We

are running out of time. Very quickly onto final story. Blocking

drones delivering drugs and phones. This is really interesting. At night

time there drones that dropping drugs, guns, phones come into jails

and detected. And here you have got a jail in the Channel Islands,

actually, spending money on putting up an invisible barrier, and

electronic barrier,... Like a force field! 600 feet high. If a drone

tries to cross it, it will be sent back to where it came from. The

video screen goes black, the operator can't see anything. It

stops the drone working. Not only is that interesting for prisons, but we

are also looking in the article about it perhaps being used to

protect nuclear facilities. Or other, you know, gas storage and

energy plants. Because apparently they could be subject to drone

attacks, you know, which have got a bomb or something. This could be

really interesting technology. Very interesting, a good news story.

Baroness Altmann and Mihir Bose, good to see you both. That's it for

the papers. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.