06/09/2017 The Papers

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

With me are Caroline Wheeler, Deputy Political Editor

of the Sunday Times and Jason Beattie, Head of Politics

The FT leads with a story that Downing Street has approached

Britain's biggest businesses to publicly state their support

for the government's approach to Brexit.

Jacob Rees Mogg's bid to become the next leader

of the Conservative Party has come under fire, says the Metro.

He has drawn criticism after a TV interview in which he said he did

not believe in abortion under any circumstances.

The Express focuses on a new study which it says proves that statins

can reduce the chance of an early death by 28%.

Hurricane Irma is the lead for The i, with the warning that

millions of people are risk in the Caribbean and US as

The Telegraph claims that Theresa May's Brexit plans

are in "chaos" as senior ministers distance themselves

following the leak of radical plans for immigration.

According to The Times, universities face being fined if they fail to

justify paying vice chancellors more than the Prime Minister. The

Guardian has revelations from leaked Brexit documents. And the mail says

a survey from the British Medical Association found around half of GPs

this book to our closing their lists to new patients. We will go straight

to the eye of the storm, may God protect us, the front page here, I

think that is a picture that has come from the international space

station. It shows just how big, angry and whipped up Hurricane Irma

is. Barrelling across the Caribbean from east to west and will probably

hit the British Virgin Islands next ballot has caused damage to places

like Antigua and Barbuda. And the fact that this is billed as the

biggest storm we have ever seen is significant about just how

devastating the impact can be and we already have the French President

basically saying it is going to be hard and cruel. That is because we

even see this gaining momentum as it goes across and it is only starting,

this is the beginning. We will see this move and towards the end of the

week it will move towards Miami and areas like that and already areas

are on a high state of alert. People stockpiling food and getting ready

for what looks like it is going to be the most devastating storms. And

it comes hard on the back of Hurricane Harvey and there is

another... Yes. Jason, lots of people's minds will turn to...

Doesn't feel like more of this is happening? Are we just reporting

that more? What are we reporting or not reporting? Over the past few

months we have had floods in India and Bangladesh. 1200 people dead, 6

million acres of crops destroyed and 14 million people affected and they

have not seen this leading any news bulletin. We do have this almost

West approach. That does not mitigate that the poorest people

will most often suffer, we can remember what happened in the

Dominican Republic. And a lot of people could lose their lives and be

badly affected but I wonder why we focus on this and we have ignored

completely almost what is happening in India. To be fair to the BBC, we

have reported it quite extensively, the floods in South Asia. But I take

your point as far as a lot of the newspapers are concerned. We had

this horrible weather season that began with catastrophic flooding

that caused amazing as dreadful landslides in Sierra Leone. And they

were very underreported, those deaths. I will mention Martin

Patience from the BBC right now. I will just throw that in. The

Guardian. The new league of Brexit papers reveals fissures between

Britain and the EU? We have a Brexit bonanza tomorrow, we have the bill

having the second reading in the House of Commons, questions to David

Davis to kick off and to make it more enjoyable we have Michel

Barnier launching new position papers in Brussels and doing a press

conference and the Guardian has an advance on some of those papers

which he will put forward. David Davis has persuaded, begged Michel

Barnier to show flexibility and imagination and he will come back

tomorrow and say, we are not being flexible and we don't have much

imagination. We are playing hardball. This is what the Guardian

is saying. One suspects that a lot of people looking at these

negotiations panning out, they might argue that the 27 through Michel

Barnier are not saying anything that they had not telegraphed months ago?

Equally, it does not feel like the message going the other way is

changing either. Given the fact that all along David Davis said we're

going to give them the mother of all frights in terms of changing the

timetable and basically, the essence of this, they are talking about

going in with the paper to be delivered on Northern Ireland to say

the commission will say you sort it out, it is your problem. Whereas

David Davis has consistently said, we cannot make progress on Northern

Ireland if you are so focused on only talking about the divorce Bill

and the withdrawal, we want to talk about our future relationship.

Initially, David Davis accepted this timetable, we're just going to do

with withdrawal and then the future relationship and towards the latter

weeks of the summer, he then goes on this massive offensive, actually, we

cannot solve the Northern Ireland situation unless you allow us to

move forward and talk about other things. It is not just Northern

Ireland, they are talking about legislating to make sure foods and

things like Prosecco are protected so we cannot have cheap copies and

other things. The essential message is, the commissioner is saying, you

want to move on and talk about other things? No. We want to stick to the

timetable, if you want to use imagination, use your own. The

Telegraph, Theresa May's Brexit plans in disarray. I will return to

the scene that some people are pointing to... The EU had

telegraphed a long time ago that this was going to be their strategy

and for some reason, it might seem that we have always believed that we

can convince them otherwise. Why did we think that? Why did we believe

that in the first place? That is an extraordinarily good question, why

they were just so gung ho... It was not just the Brexiteers, some who

wanted to remain are wondering why the EU is so steadfast in pushing

this narrative? There are 27 of them and unless they have a clear line,

it is easier for them to unravel. They have to act collectively and

have one negotiator, Michel Barnier. What we're finding out is what was

obvious in the beginning, this whole process is extraordinarily complex.

Each question leads to another. This is why the problems are mounting for

Theresa May. You have divisions in the Cabinet, probably in the

country, on what sort of immigration controls we have. We have this

constant unresolved argument, Northern Ireland cannot move forward

on whether we should or not have a transition period and if we do, are

we members of the single market or the Customs Union? And for how long?

You have business saying, we want some sort of security so we can

start investing again. And all of these issues are, because you have

this internal conflict with the Conservative Party and in the

Cabinet, they are mounting without any clear resolution, overseen by a

Prime Minister whose authority has disappeared since the general

election. This double dynamic, and the Labour Party is not immune...

There are divisions in the Labour Party. On domestic policy... And

then international relations, this is leading to an extraordinary lack

of clarity. And the money issue. We are big net contributor to the EU

budget and is a sense that if they let us off the hook in terms of

talking about how much money we will pay them when we Brexit, that is

somehow going to be lost in the wayside and they believe some of

their bargaining position so we are at a massive impasse and it seems

difficult to move beyond that. The interesting thing about this is

actually, it is a Daily Telegraph that writing the stories, which are

raising questions about the success of the Prime Minister and her

ability to do with this. This is talking about the leak from

yesterday, talking about the immigration blueprint and splits

within the Cabinet over this, the likes of Amber Rudd and Damian Green

being much more resistant to big curbs on immigration. Actually,

there have been other stories today, if you wanted to do a negative

story. We have seen a number of stories being done in The Daily

Telegraph, probably a site from the express, the biggest flag waver for

Brexit... They are looking at this and raising questions. The Financial

Times, executives resist Downing Street's strong-arm bid for Brexit

backing. This is interesting. Business leaders, perhaps not

willing to give the kind of coverage that perhaps Number 10 would like?

This idea of organising letters of support feels very retro, it was a

tactic first used in the 1980s and dribbled into the 90s and we thought

it had died. Now, it is not exactly surprising on the back of the league

about the government's possible immigration strategy for Brexit that

big business and small businesses, who rely massively on the flow of

goods and people, are not exactly happy with the government's stance

on Brexit. They made that quite clear for some time. These are

number of leaks from within the business community and they seem to

suggest that they are not necessarily onside and are some

great quotes about saying, basically those who have been approached, you

would have to be manoeuvring for a knighthood to sign this letter,

somebody is suggesting! Another person from within the inner Downing

Street circle says, I had no idea who in Number 10 thought this was a

good idea. The Metro, abortion is wrong even after rape. This is Jacob

Rees-Mogg, speaking on television today. Yes, he did an interview this

morning he talked about his views on abortion and in some ways his

position on this is not that surprising given he is very vocal

about his ardent Catholic beliefs and he has voted pretty much in

every division you can see against gay marriage. Why this becomes a

story is that Jacob is being talked about more as a potential leadership

candidate, when and if any vacancy arises, and how that will set him at

odds with the modernising strand that was championed by David

Cameron. The Daily Mirror, gender neutral role, school bands skirts

and the head brings in a new uniform policy? This is fascinating. The

debate about transgender, this is a very good way of illustrating this.

It throws up so many questions, for example, they had the music awards

last week and they did not have any male or female category. In the

Olympics, if you transition, which category do you run in? Does this

give you an advantage or disadvantage and should be respected

or wish to do this? It is really quite interesting and not all these

questions have an immediate answer. We will have to end things. Thank

you both very much. 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.co.uk/papers. And if you miss the programme any

evening, you can watch it Thank you, Caroline Wheeler

and Jason Beattie.