15/07/2017 The Papers

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

With me are John Rentoul, political columnist for the Independent,

and Anne Ashworth, associate editor of the Times.

Tomorrow's front pages: The Independent reports a poll that

suggests that a majority of voters would be happy with a tax rise

to see the salaries of emergency services staff go up.

Brexit takes the front page of the Observer,

with a warning from civil servants of the challenges that lie ahead

The Sunday Telegraph leads with the soon-to-be published

salaries of the BBC's highest earners, suggesting

there are discrepancies in pay between genders,

and there is also a great image of Garbine Muguruza's Wimbledon

The Mail on Sunday says the French government and banking chiefs

are engaged in a plot against the British banking sector.

And the Times reports on the row following a Cabinet meeting

in which the Chancellor Philip Hammond referred to public sector

And I think we are going to have to start with that, because that is

going to really annoy so many people. Well, Hammond is on the Marr

programme tomorrow. How will he talked his way out of this one? And

also, mustn't Hammond really be concerned about how disloyal his

colleagues have been to him, because people are coming out of Cabinet and

just freely sharing what has been said. It seems as though the

Chancellor thinks that public sector workers are really overpaid,

ludicrously overpaid is how he describes train drivers. But this

seems to be on the basis of pensions. Now, we know that public

sector pensions are more generous, but he may be referring to some

quite controversial figures showing that the amount going each year into

the typical public sector pension is almost twice that of a private

sector worker. So one doesn't know whether the comparison was bad. But

that is what he bases his argument on. That is certainly the Treasury

view, that public sector workers do have that benefit that most private

sector people do not. But it is not how public sector workers feel,

because they have felt that he really squeezed for the past seven

years, and this is not going to go down very well. It is not at all,

and just to get the background on this, this took place, he said this

during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and this is coming out now. It is

the same one that he was reputed to have said that driving trains is so

easy that even women can do it. As I say, they may as well hold Cabinet

meetings in public. Why don't they all send us an e-mail, tweet it out

maybe? The Donald Trump way. And the Sunday Times, you are also going to

have an interview with the Police Federation chairman, and he will be

warning that actually if police do not get a proper pay rise, security,

national security, could be at risk. And yet you have got Philip Hammond

saying this. There is huge amounts of restive spirit of a public sector

pay. Wages have been frozen in lots of jobs, including the public

sector, it is very live and it is a very saw issue with a lot of people.

He seems insensitive, just at the time when you would think Mr Hammond

would be positioning himself to be the hail fellow well met person who

could be the next leader -- sore issue. There are people briefing

that Philip Hammond -- Philip May would like his wife, Theresa May, to

stand down. It is pretty undignified. It is, but as you say,

we have this poll in the Independent tomorrow which shows that the public

mood has changed on public sector pay. People do not agree with Philip

Hammond about this, and so this is going to be very damaging for him.

And it does raise the question as to who is telling the papers this kind

of thing. Because it is obviously people who want to stop Philip

Hammond becoming the sort of safe pair of hands option to succeed

Theresa May. Interestingly, in that meeting, apparently Boris Johnson

and Theresa May said that public sector workers... You should not say

that they are overpaid, so we are getting a lot of details. Your poll,

1500 people were polled and they believe that public sector workers

should get a pay rise. Not only that but 60% of them are prepared to pay

higher taxes themselves to fund it. They realise there is no free money,

and that does mark quite a big shift since the... We have been, when it

comes to polls, how was this poll fray as the? You have to be a bit

sceptical, but it is worth asking that question, and certainly if you

put... It was a question about emergency services, would you be

prepared to pay higher taxes to give them a pay rise? And that is an

emotive subject, what with Grenfell Tower, and so on. If you brought in

about the public sector workers generally, people are less willing

to pay more in taxes. The mood is shifting against the government on

this. And this is going to be Philip Hammond's problem come the budget in

the autumn. He needs to say something on public sector pay. He

knows he will be the leader -- who knows who will be the leader of the

party at that time? But people will be looking for him to make some

concessions, but also, what does it mean for the tax bill for everybody?

And also, if public sector pay workers on average earnings are more

heavily taxed, what is the point of paying them more? He will not say a

tax increase, is he? That is against Tory policy. It might be that there

is some stealth taxes. He is not a chancellor worth his name unless he

knows how to introduce some stealth taxes. We touched upon the

leadership. We have the Sunday Telegraph talking about David Davis.

Apparently he has the backing of 30 MPs who are backing him as leader.

In the same article we are told that he didn't want to be leader. He was

not seeking the leadership. What is going on here? Well, they would all

like all their colleagues to say you are the person who will rescue us on

the mess we are in. Seems as if there is disarray, just at a time

when we need politicians to be operating at the height of their

skills and to be thinking about Brexit and the Brexit negotiations.

It seems that the Tories are in paralysis, wondering who they should

knife on the back and who they should support. Who is going to be

their leader? It is unedifying, it really is. No wonder we don't

respect politicians. On the question is whether it is sustainable, as

well. Immediately after the election I thought that is Theresa May

finished, she will have to go. But then the Conservatives could not

agree on anyone to replace her, so I thought well, actually, she will

survive until Brexit. But with this kind of story in the papers every

day, it is beginning to feel as if, you know, Theresa May won't be able

to carry on for much longer, because she can't get anything done. But is

David Davis the man who could go up against Corbyn? Does he appealed

because he is a single parent family, grew up in... That is what

his supporters are telling the Telegraph. Because he is perceived

as a man of the people. And in Brussels he has to reputation there,

a good relationship with the leaders. He is the only one of the

Brexiteers who has improved his reputation since the referendum.

Boris Johnson seems to be sinking like a stone and there is an

interesting poll which finds that Boris Johnson is the most favoured

to succeed Theresa May, but they also ask, if people had to choose

between Boris Johnson and David Davis, then David Davis wins, which

I thought was very interesting. I think that is because Conservative

supporters would prefer David Davis, as they think Boris has been

undermining the party somewhat. This kind of speculation cannot go on...

Well, it can go on for a very long time, but it is not very good for

the government, and it is difficult to know how they can pay attention

to negotiating Brexit when they are busy briefing papers on how dreadful

their Cabinet colleagues are. And while we watch that, we are taking

our eye off the French, who are taking their bankers out of Britain.

Apparently Mr Macron has spent the week being very nice to the trumps,

and he wants a really hard Brexit, to disrupt the city of London, a

crucial source of income tax revenue for the nation -- Trumps. And he

wants all his business transferred to Paris, and he is already

softening his stance on taxation. There will be further concessions.

There are a huge number of very powerful French bankers here who he

would like to have go home, and he would also like loads of fund

managers who want to operate throughout Europe to relocate the

whole of their businesses to Paris. But we always hear that they are

going to leave, they are going to leave. They don't leave, though.

Their kids are at school, they enjoy the life, they pay lower taxes

here... This is one of the big arguments about Brexit, is whether

the city of London can continue to operate at the level it has done.

And I think it will be quite difficult to undermine it. I think

it will take more than just a bit of disruption and a bit of tax cutting

and warm words from Mr Macron. What he may get, though, is more people

opening offices that, which they would be able to relocate the whole

of business to. So in a way he will be able to subtly undermined the

whole of the structure of the city of London, which is crucial to our

economy. It is a very important source of revenue. Love bankers or

loathe them. We won't answer that. The Sunday Times, schools... The

more difficult GCSEs that schools will be taking part in, and they are

wreaking havoc with the school system, according to the schools

chief, who said the real substance of education is getting lost in our

schools. It is a bit of a worrying thing. If that is actually true,

that we are losing sight of the real purpose of education, what is going

on here? Are we focusing on exams? It is an exam driven curriculum,

that people are being taught to the exam, as they say in the trade, and

they are not receiving a broader education. I mean, this is the head

of Ofsted, and she saw some classes where pupils were being taught the

marking system for the GCSEs rather than the actual subject they were

supposed to be being taught. And people are being encouraged to drop

subjects at the age of 13 because they feel they would not excel in

them in the GCSEs and get a start grade. Even when we were in school,

I lost geography very early on, it was too long ago. Contrast that to

the French, who tend to be educating with a broader curriculum for

longer, and thus are very well qualified for the workplace. Let's

look to the future. The Daily Mail has a lovely story. They have a tip,

the first female Doctor Who, a gorgeous picture of Jodie Whitaker,

the star of Broad church, St Trinians. I am a huge fan of Doctor

Who, but I don't know who Jodie Whitaker is, I am afraid. Is she

quirky? That seems to me the key ingredient for a convincing Doctor.

She is female, which is wonderful, but why are we making a big thing

about whether the next one is female or an ethnic minority? We were just

talking about this story out there, everyone seemed to know about Doctor

Who, and who they liked best. It is kind of like Bond. The conversation

about... OK, I knew this was going to happen. We are going to run out

of time, and we have left the best story until last. Thank you for

joining us on the papers. Don't forget you can see the front

pages of the papers online It is all there for you seven days

a week at bbc.co.uk/papers. And if you miss the programme any

evening, you can watch it later Coming up next,

it is Meet The Author. But that's all from me,

Anne and John for this evening. There isn't a single full

stop in Mike McCormack's