25/10/2017 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are Kate Andrews,

director of news at the Institute

of Economic Affairs and Joe Watts,

political editor at the Independent.

Thank you for joining us.

Tomorrow's front pages now.

The Financial Times leads

with a story about how companies

are raking in billions of pounds

from a boom in pension

transfers, as people cash

in their schemes for a lump sum.

The Times says the NHS could start

using spare rooms to house patients

under a scheme being proposed

by a private company to help free up

beds on hospital wards.

People could be paid up to £1,000

a month to provide accommodation

and cook food for patients

recovering from minor surgery,

the Guardian says,

but campaigners are warning it

could lead to patients being abused.

The Metro have the same story about

NHS Airbnb to free up wards. Daily

Telegraph looking at what they call

an excessive green tax.

The story dominating many papers,

Kate, the NHS, according to the

Guardian, might rent spare rooms to

ease the beds crisis. They are

calling it NHS Airbnb as shorthand,

it seems and is ordinary concept.

It

does, the Guardian leading with this

attempt by a group called Care

Rooms, we don't know who the people

would be but offering spare rooms

and meals, attention and time with

mostly elderly people who aren't so

ill that they need to be hospital

but they cannot go home because no

one else is there. I think there's a

lot to say about the story. I

applaud the entrepreneurial spirit,

the NHS is in perpetual crisis and

maybe ideas like this are part of

the solution. But ideas like this

are popping up because the NHS is in

such a poor state and the article

says 8000 deaths take place because

of bed blocking in itself.

It's a

way of dealing with bed blocking,

moving patients out of hospitals

while they are convalescing.

Talking

about people with minor procedures

but what does that mean, people who

have had their appendix removed or

are they going to have cuts and

scars that need tending? Will they

have mental health problems? It's

difficult to know who this is going

to be. Also is difficult to know who

the people are who are going to be

providing the rooms. If you are a

childminder and you want children in

your homes, you need to do more than

pass a common records check, you

need to be licensed and inspected by

Ofsted continually, you need

qualifications, passing tests.

Surely these people will have to

meet those standards as well, in

which case are they going to want to

do it, is it a viable business?

Some

people are wondering about it,

asking if it is social care on the

cheap.

I think social care is one of

the main thing is being targeted

here because a lot of people ending

up using this, they note that some

people would voluntarily opt into it

because they want this kind of

attention and company, people like

the elderly, people who are a bit

afraid to go home themselves after a

procedure. Not right to be alone. A

lot of things at work here. If it's

a business model, we will find out,

with the help of NHS Southend. An

interesting idea but it won't solve

the problems of the NHS.

Does it

past the sniff test? When you hear

the idea, do you think it's a

fantastic idea or are you not sure?

Do you think that Airbnb would have

passed the test? Staying in

somebody's home.

But these people

are ill.

These people may not be

ill, they are afraid to go home

after soldier E. -- after surgery.

This is a story about the Tory party

machine, looks like they might be

hiring Matthew Elliott, chief

executive of Vote Leave, to perhaps

get some more oil into the Tory

party machine after it didn't go

very well in the election.

Yes, he

certainly is one of the big

political figures of our time,

considering that he turned the

Brexit referendum around. There's no

doubt that one of the triumphs he

had during the campaign was to steer

the referendum and the Leave

campaign away from the high torque

of sovereignty and the Jacob Rees

Moggs of the world to maul bread and

butter issues like immigration and

things working class voters care

about. That is the area that Theresa

May must be in if she wants to win

the next election, keeping the

working class voters from going to

Labour. In that sense it may be a

canny move but there are areas where

it may not be so. For example, he

didn't get on with the other

Brexiteers, such as Dominic

Cummings, who was sidelined in the

campaign, a close ally of Michael

Gove and there are questions over

whether that rivalry may come back

out. And the Tories must target

young people if they want to do well

in the next election and really new

to the kind of Corbyn threat and I'm

not sure how Matthew Elliott fits in

-- Airbnb the threat --

Elliott has a history of bringing

along heavy hitters to push towards

a certain goal, he is very goal

oriented. To bring the party

together, he does not seem like a

bad pick. Also he has a very liberal

version of Brexit which I would

personally support, the idea that we

won't close the borders, we will be

open to the rest of the world, we

want to be more outward looking.

That is a nice way of looking at

this, especially when the debate

between soft and hard Brexit is

going on.

The other story, one of

the stories in the Times, Britain

considering, they say, selling front

line warships. This isn't

interesting story because we've had

a line from the MoD, the defence

correspondent quoting them, saying

they are denying this, that there

are no plans to go below the current

strength in the Navy of 19 frigates

and destroyers. This story is

claiming that maybe they are talking

to Chile and Brazil about selling

the frigates but according to the

MoD, categorically confirming there

has been knowing casement with them.

On the one hand --

there has been no

engagement.

Some of the ships they

are talking about selling our

amphibious landing craft that would

possibly drop the Marines onto shore

and potentially cutting troops. At

the same time, while they may not be

engaging with the governments of

Brazil and Chile, the MoD is

engaging with the Treasury over the

budget coming up in a few weeks'

time and these sorts of stories are

handy for putting out and playing

your violin about how much money you

need.

So you think it's all

positioning by the MoD?

Who knows,

it is convenient timing.

The Daily

Telegraph have a story about, well,

excessive green tax forcing up fuel

bills. Consumers paying too much for

their energy because of excessive

green taxes added to bills according

to a government commissioned report.

A government commissioned report

which has a damning take on what's

happening to consumers of energy and

religious idiot home.

-- and the atrocity at home.

-- and electricity at home. The

Conservative Party are saying they

are going to address this, they are

saying it is an attempt...

The price

of energy is very political.

Green

taxes have been very efficient, and

putting at least £150 on people's

household bills alone next year. We

did a report showing that a little

city charges have risen 50% since

2001 in real terms as these

regulations have come in. You don't

have to be opposed to tackling

climate change to say that these are

not efficient or good regulations.

If you want to tackle it, bring in

the apartment tax, bringing

something that is simple and obvious

where the charges are coming from

but there are so many regulations

which always leads to prices going

up for people at home.

The key thing

to draw from the article, it is easy

to draw the conclusion from the

headline is that the report is

hitting out at the focus on green

energy, but actually the professor

behind it focuses his fire, if you

like, on ministerial decisions, bad

decisions, and how they handled

policy. This is a man who published

a book called the endgame for fossil

fuels. His focus is that coal fire

and fossil fuel power stations are

on the way out and we need green

energy, but in the right way.

The

FT, a fascinating week in China with

this party congress. President Xi

Jinping, who has emerged as a figure

who is the most dominant Chinese

figure since Chairman Mao. This

piece says there is no other are

apparent, no one else who comes

anywhere close so he's effectively

in power for as long as he wants to

be.

We talk so much about Brexit and

Trump in the west but we forget that

this is a big story. Many of us hope

that as China brought on more

liberal reforms, especially to their

economy, allowing China to be more

globally focused, that democracy

would come with it but here we see

there is no plan to increment a

successor.

The party seems to be

involving itself again.

Asserting

what they believe is the importance

of commenters, an ideology that has

killed millions over the years. --

the importance of communism. The FT

have done great work, saying how we

have closed our eyes to the work

they have done in improving their

economy and expanding.

I think

that's right, what it also says

beyond the succession story is that

the Chinese see the next period as a

critical one in their history, where

they are possibly going to

overshadow the United States, when

it comes to the biggest economy in

the world and one where they need

stability and that also speaks to

their own self-awareness of their

country, that there may be pockets

of the stability where they need to

be strong and push through.

It's

about self identity and strength,

isn't it, not just about coming is

the quality because we know it is a

country full of billionaires and

millionaires.

Absolutely, it's about

strength and stability. The

Communist Party of China, but it is

the single powerful body in China

and it is about keeping control and

stability and making sure that the

movement carries on. It isn't

recognisable compared to the

Communist Party is of the past, it's

a new kind of fiscal movement that

embraces many of the tenets of

capitalism but is moving forward and

I did -- undertake taught -- under

dictatorial rule.

Fats Domino, the

Independent there, a fellow

countrymen from America.

Yes, I'm

not from New Orleans, I wish I were.

He outsold every other artist of the

era apart from eldest.

He seems very

influential. Transforming modern

music in many ways.

I wasn't from

that generation but one of the first

things I listened to on a Sony

Walkman when I was Young was an old

Fats Domino tape that my dad had and

old rock and roll things from the

50s and 60s. He was an enduring

influence in music and I think that

will continue after his death.

From

New Orleans, during hurricane

country in -- hurricane Katrina,

they thought he was dead and he was

rescued.

An amazing story and really

a stable in history through that

experience and much earlier on. He

played a large role in moving blues

and jazz and rhythm into a culture

that was predominantly focused on

white artists. So he's has had those

influences at crucial times in

American history.

Thank you for

joining us.

That's it for the papers tonight.

Don't forget you can see the front

pages of the papers online

If you miss the programme any

evening you can watch it

later on BBC iPlayer.