30/06/2017 The Papers

We are usually late but tonight we are six minutes early. Sorry about

that. Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the the papers will be With me are David Wooding,

political editor of the Sun on Sunday, and Katie Martin

from the Financial Times. Tomorrow's front pages,

starting with... We start with the Daily Mail,

which looks at the rising staff costs at the foreign aid department

which have gone up sharply over The I features a picture

of a still smouldering Grenfell Tower with the warning

that the insulation used in tower blocks may be as flammable

as the cladding. The Express leads with the claim

that Brussels still wants to exert control over the UK once

the country has left the EU, through European Court

of Justice rules. The Daily Mirror follows up on it's

campaign yesterday to change The Telegraph is leading

with the concerns expressed by senior city figures

that the government is focussing too much on trade talks and is failing

to prioritise the financial services industry, one of the

largest contributors The Guardian leads on the council

head who has stepped down. The Sun has a large picture

of tennis world number one Andy Murray urging readers to rub

the picture and assist him in recovering from a hip injury,

ahead of the Wimbledon tournament He has got a bad hip. He did not

look good. We can start with the price. -- we can start with The i.

The threat in high-rises is being ignored by the government. It is not

just the cladding, it is what is inside the cladding, the insulation.

From what I understand every single tower block's cladding that has been

tested has failed. There is clearly a serious problem on our hands here.

Every single one is taking it to quite some level. There is a failure

somewhere in the building industry but also a problem within the

Council. Many papers are running on the fact that the head of Kensington

Council has quit and so has his deputy. There is a lot of criticism

about how the council dealt with the fire and housing the residents whose

lives have been disrupted. We are spoken to residents tonight who are

concerned that this is a sop. They have stepped down from the

leadership positions but they have not left those councillors, there

will not be an election triggered to replace them. Where does this leave

the leadership? The state of the Cabinet? They may have had something

to do with it. This brings the total number of people who have gone to

four. The leader and the deputy leader also the chief executive of

the council and the head of the organisation that ran the tower

block. The very least they can do is to go. They need to fall on their

swords but why has it taken them so long, it has been two weeks. From

what Nick Pagett-Brown was saying, once last night's meeting became

another political story, the fact he was intending for it to be a private

meeting and journalists got a court order to be allowed to attend to

make it a public meeting, he felt suddenly there was another issue

that was taking over rather than the problems itself that needed to be

resolved. If it had not been this meeting that had broken the camel's

back it would've been something else soon. The meeting went very badly. A

number of John Ellis had permission to be in the room. You can find the

footage online. There were questions about whether journalists were there

and it was very scrappy and promptly called to an end. The council did

not look in control. Not only have we had this massive tragedy but the

handling offer it afterwards by the government and the local council,

the way the whole thing has been handled in the aftermath has been a

shambles and it has put more agony on the per families. Theresa May is

under pressure. The Mayor of London says that should be independent

counsel was brought in to run the council and Jeremy Corbyn

questioning the scope of the inquiry. There have been moments

when people have gone over the top. John MacDonald the Shadow Chancellor

called a murderer, which is unwise. There is a bit of political

posturing on this. People died because of problems with planning,

sifting rules, fitting in contracts, whatever it was. A lot has gone

wrong. We need to look after these families and get them rehoused and

then we need to make the other tower blocks safe. We hear their is too

much red tape, but it seems there is a lattice where there are gaps that

these things can fall through. Buildings can be built or renovated

and they are not safe. Regulation and red tape has a bad reputation,

but this is the kind of situation that could have been prevented if

the materials had been fit for purpose and the building had been

fit for purpose. It is the same in financial services, there is a lot

of red tape out there but they are trying to stop people from losing

all their money. Can we look at The Financial Times for some stories.

Household savings rate at 50 year low. That is quite shocking when you

think that if interest rates go up people might have to rely on the

money they have saved to bridge the gap, but will be dear to put

interest rates up to control inflation if it will put an extra

squeeze on households? Interesting figures from the Office for National

Statistics. 1.7% of income is left unspent and has full budgets

according to numbers that came out for the first quarter. The average

for the last 50 years is more than that. It might be happening for a

number of reasons and you cannot draw a straight line between living

standards and saving rates, but this is like the situation will is to pay

-- it is a situation where limits to pay is making people very close.

There is also the suggestion that the UK consumer can get the UK out

of a hole. We are quite good at shopping and we have done well at it

over the last year. We have still gone shopping, but you have to

wonder at what point that will run out of road. We will have to make

some difficult choices. Probably some underlying issues here. If that

is the amount of money that they are putting away to save, how much I be

putting into pensions? Some people are withdrawing their cash lump sum

is out of their pensions to do work on their homes and so forth. Are we

building up another problem, which going back 15-20 years we were being

told we had not saved enough for our pensions but now because of the

taxes on pensions and the squeeze on income Ebor may not be saving enough

for their pensions. It seemed that the Bank of England which may be

drifting towards an interest rates sooner rather than later said it

will be later. It has been a big week for central banks this week.

Mark Carney give quite a strong impression this week that he would

be minded under certain circumstances to start thinking

about raising interest rates, which we have not done for ages. Only ten

days beforehand he was saying that specifically that now was not the

time to do it. There is not so much clear blue water between the

statements as may one appear, but there is a shift in mood globally,

both that the Bank of England and the European Central Bank and

elsewhere to say, we might be starting to edge towards getting

interest rates back to normal but everyone is saying but we need to do

this very carefully because we have not been in this situation before,

we have been sold for so long, we need to tread carefully. We can stay

with the FT that moved to the story, the picture story on the front page.

Pride of place, Germany legalises gay marriage despite of Angela

Merkel's vote. She gave everyone the option of voting. She voted against

the reforms. The first thing that shocked me was that I did not

realise Germany did not have equal marriage. I thought we were behind

them. A great picture on the front page, a lovely picture. It coincides

with gay pride, celebrations going on across Europe this week. The

shock there was Angela Merkel voting against the reform. I think it was

an open vote, a free vote, but it is not what we expected. It passed

pretty easily in the end, 393-226. I presume that Angela Merkel knew that

that would happen. This has been a matter of personal conscience

Fathauer and a reminder that a lot of social issues in Germany tend to

have a more conservative attitude towards than we are used to hear. We

can look at The Daily Mail. The stories also in The Sun. To do with

the foreign aid budget. The civil service bill rockets and it should

be spent differently. This is suggesting that the foreign aid

department bill, the wage bill for running it, has gone up by 40% in

seven years. The Daily Mail likes of the other newspapers has been

questioning whether we should be spending this kind of money, at any

kind of money. 40% of not very much is not very much. You with your

statistics and clarity. The bill has gone up by ?38 million. It is a drop

in the ocean when it comes to public finances. The Sun is making a

similar point. When you are talking about amounts of this size but we

have just given ?1 million to Northern Ireland 's, it makes you

wonder whether we are focusing on the right numbers. It will play well

with people who want to see the NHS is the recipient of this money.

David Cameron brought in the 0.7% rule. He did this to try and ensure

that the Conservative Party are not nasty and it is backed by the Labour

Party. In the country, they say charity begins at home. When we are

spending money on other countries they have genuine concerns about

that. The wage bill has gone up by 40%. The public sector workers are

all having their pay capped at 1%. That is now being brought forward.

The Conservatives are now agonising over whether they should lift the

cap on wages and this highlights the other side of the coin. It did not

get much action in the House of Commons, removing the cap. There was

a boat on that. Two stories in The Telegraph. BBC to take on net flicks

with cliffhangers and cricket. Cricket coming back to the BBC, and

Channel 4, it will be like the summer of our childhoods. The

cliffhangers were in the days before boxed sets and DVDs. Now you can

download the whole thing. You had to watch the TV at that time unless you

were wealthy and had a video player. It is quite fun that people will

gather around. The problem with not watching it live is that you hear

someone talking about what you see something about a dramatic episode

you are two episodes behind. The BBC can't be taking on some of the cost

that the streaming services are able to put money into. It is about

creating events and moments and being part of a family schedule, if

you like. The cricket deal is extraordinary. A lot of money has

gone to the England and Wales Cricket board. There is going to be

a lot of cricket on TV. It is a sweet idea that you have everyone

gathering around to watch the TV. Half of them on their iPhones. I

like to thank the BBC already has a programme like that. Finally, the

story keeps going, Rebellion spreads to the Lords. The speaker has said

that you no longer have to wear a tie in common is now a Liberal

Democrat peer is suggesting the same thing in the other place. It should

not be a huge surprise because John Burkle is quite well known for

having stopped wearing tights and wigs in Parliament. God knows what

the rest of the world thinks about how we dress of these things. I find

it difficult to get to animated about what people wear in

Parliament. Clearly there is a strong school of thought that it is

the thin end of the wedge in the usual characters are coming out to

talk about how unhappy they are. It is clear where people are going to

be in the debate. Apparently it is already happening on the BBC. On BBC

News watch an editor showed up with no tie and chest here. Where do you

draw the line? Would you be allowed to go to work without a tie? You're

representing accompanying you need to look smart. You cannot go wrong

with a tie, because no one will look at your hair. I think it is ordered

that one of the Lords is going to break the rules. Can you imagine all

the Lords wearing their costumes but not the ties. It is the way the

world is moving. Maybe we will see Jeremy Corbyn in a sheltered. It is

becoming more like a County Council, some have said. That is all from The

Papers tonight. Don't forget you can see the front

pages of the papers online It's all there for you -

seven days a week at bbc dot co uk forward slash papers -

and if you miss the programme any evening you can watch it

later on BBC iPlayer. Thank you for giving up your Friday

evening. Have a lovely night. The weather is coming up