30/10/2017 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are Michael Booker,

Deputy Editor of The Express

and the political commentator Daisy

McAndrew.

Tomorrow's front

pages...starting with...

The FT leads on the first charges

made as part of investigations

into alleged Russian links

to Donald Trump's Presidential

election campaign,

featuring pictures of

George Papadopoulos

and Paul Manafort on its front page.

That is the top story in the

Guardian too, summed up in their

headline.

The Metro splash is that

the government is promising

a crackdown against sexual

harassment at Westminster.

It's the same lead for

the Daily Telegraph, which reports

that the story could turn out to be

more embarrassing for MPs

than the expenses scandal.

Ministers face being fired over

"inappropriate" behaviour -

which goes with the same story,

according to The Times.

It also features a picture of Kevin

Spacey, who today apologised for

inappropriate advances a young actor

claims he made when he was only 14.

And the Express focuses on a health

story. But paper this is a dose of

aspirin a day can halve the risk of

developing some cancers.

Let's start with the Financial Times

and the story we will be talking

about for months, the charges in the

Mueller investigation, Daisy.

I

think a lot of attention will be on

George Papadopoulos, but actually,

it is the Paul Manafort anger of the

story that I am more interested in.

This chap was Trump's chief of his

campaign from June until August

2016, some might say a small period

of time. But this story is about his

involvement with Viktor Yanukovych

in Ukraine, for whom he was working

for a number of years, taking

millions of dollars. I have spent

some time in Kiev earlier this year.

This man was a seriously unpleasant

criminal, running a country,

stealing billions of dollars, who

has now fled after he was unseated.

It was not a bloodless unseating.

100 were killed as a direct result

of his actions. We had the war in

Crimea and he is now being harboured

in Russia. He is a seriously nasty

piece of work and Trump's right-hand

man was working for him, getting

thousands of dollars every month. He

is now accused of laundering $18

million. I think that shows you the

type of man he is and we should not

underestimate the influence of

Ukraine and Russia on this story and

how entwined it all is.

But what is

difficult for people to understand

is how everything is linked. Robert

Mueller is meant...

If you listen to

Donald Trump, it has nothing to do

with him. Then when he heard about

George Papadopoulos admitting to

lying, he went a bit quiet on

Twitter. This was seen as indicative

that he may be a bit worried. But he

does not always show that he is

worried about anything. In the FT it

says it is a serious threat to the

president. The White House has

denied any tie-up, but these

indictments are digging away at the

side issues to get towards Donald

Trump himself. There were stories

over the weekend that he would not

bother standing in 2020, because it

has all been too much for him. He

does not like the spotlight on him.

And away the FBI are working this,

clearly Robert Mueller is only

bringing in his indictments when he

is certain. And as he gets these

people like George Papadopoulos, he

has gone towards them and they have

said, I will cooperate. Will

Manafort now start to operate will.

With his business partner? It is the

Al Capone way. You get them on tax

evasion and then see if you can get

them on something else.

The

Financial Times says the three

indictments revealed the twin track

approach taken by Mr Manafort in

this investigation -- the approach

taken by Mr Mueller.

He is being

clever and he has to be. Trump and

his administration want rid of him,

and you can see why.

Manafort is

under house arrest now. I assume the

FBI will not let him, but I am sure

he must be tempted to do as many

others do and go to Moscow and stay

there for a bit.

That story is

clearly going to run. Let's move to

the front page of the Metro, also

something I suspect has a lot of

legs on it. Pestminster crackdown.

A

lot of MPs are worried at this time

of night when the papers are shown

on television, because they worry if

they are the ones who are going to

be publicised.

But they will only be

publicised if they have done

something wrong.

And it sounds as if

a few of them have done something

wrong. In Westminster, Andrea

Leadsom was talking about how they

want to see a tough and independent

panel created so that victims can go

to them with complaints and then be

urged to go to the police. You would

think they normally should go to the

police, but in an environment like

this where there are powerful men,

women don't want to make complaints

because it can affect their career.

Hopefully, it will have some effect,

but 36 Tory MPs are accused of

sleaze. There are four Labour MPs at

the moment also facing separate

claims that they have sexually

harassed women. There is clearly a

big problem in society.

Let me bring

in the front page of the Daily

Telegraph, with the same story. They

are saying the sex scandal could be

worse than expenses. An

exaggeration?

It could be worse, but

there is a danger that lots of

different types of behaviour are all

lumped into one dustbin and all men

are being thrown into that dustbin.

The power point is an important one.

This is the behaviour that Harvey

Weinstein is being accused of, that

he was using his powerful position

to bully, attack and harass women

who he felt he had power over

because they wanted to be in his

movies. When you move that situation

to the House of Commons, of course

there are situations like that.

Sometimes, they are just clumsy men

who have had a drink too many and

are making a pass to a woman. That

is not the same thing. People are

now saying it is a witchhunt. Others

say it is just a way of getting men

off the hook. The truth is somewhere

in the middle.

It is this use of the

word inappropriate. Where does

inappropriate" and begin? I don't

think we have set those boundaries

yet as a society -- where does

inappropriate end and criminal

begin's you and I have both worked

in the House of Commons, Reeta.

I

was lucky enough never to experience

anything like that from an MP, but

the power balance was not there. I

was a journalist. I didn't want to

be a politician, so they couldn't

further my career apart from maybe

giving me a story, which is not the

same kind of power balance. Some of

these women are saying politicians

were trying to exert their authority

in an unseemly way by saying, if you

want to be a candidate, I can help

you.

In the Telegraph, they say two

women have left one minister's

employer because of his behaviour.

It could make or break those women's

careers. They may no longer think

they want to be in politics.

For

some people, the worms are turning

and saying, why didn't these women

report it? We all know why they did,

because they would become the story

and people would say, a

troublemaker.

I am going to stop you

there because we want to get through

a few of these stories. The other

story on the front page of the Daily

Telegraph is Kevin Spacey's house of

cards cancelled after harassment

claims.

They are doing a sixth

series at the moment. Netflix have

announced they will not do a

seventh. That was announced last

night on Buzzfeed when the story

came out from Anthony Rapp, who was

14 in 1986 and Kevin Spacey invited

him to a party and made a sexual

advance on him. There has been a lot

of controversy firstly about that

and secondly about the fact that he

says he can't remember it, but if it

did happen he is sorry and he said,

by the way, I am now living as a gay

man, which people have seen as an

attempt to somehow wriggle out of it

. But at the same time, he has

caused uproar by somehow conflating

making sexual advances against a

child with homosexuality, which for

a long time, the gay community have

been trying to get away from that

bigotry.

A miscalculation?

Certainly, because it looks so

cynical. If he provides the press

with the story of him coming out of

the closet, which is what he is

doing, he then stops the attention.

I have read a lot of members of the

gay community saying, this is

outrageous. They are not saying he

should have come out. But to come

out today seems very cynical. And

then to somehow link it, almost as

if to say, this is just what happens

if you are a gay man in the closet,

you make inappropriate advances on

young boys, no, it isn't. Nobody

believes that. He has made himself

very unpopular with the community he

has only publicly joined today.

Let's move onto the front page of

your paper, Michael. Aspirin cuts

cancer risk.

Well, it is different

to all the other front pages. This

is good, because a lot of people

take aspirin every day. This is a

study that has been done of 600,000

people who have taken this for at

least six months, and it seems to

have reduced the chances of being

struck down by a number of digestive

system cancers by up to 50%, things

like stomach, pancreas and bowel

cancer fell. We had the decision of

whether to go with something like

Kevin Spacey or Trump on the front

page, but that is all inside the

newspaper. This is the sort of thing

a lot of people will talk about as

well. And it has not been part of

the news agenda during the day.

Michael, we know the Express often

goes with a health story on the

front. You and your colleagues are

sometimes teased about that. But

presumably, it must work for you.

There must be a reason why you do so

many health stories. Is it because

you think people are bored of the

politics?

I think you have to

sometimes give people something

different. You know there are so

many newspapers that will go down

similar lines. This story is part of

something that is embargoed until

tomorrow morning, so no one will

have read it already. Newspapers are

all fighting for their lives, so if

you can give them something

different, why not?

And the other

different thing you have given is

the royal kiss. Is that news?

We

believe that is the first kiss on

the lips that Prince Charles and

Camilla have done in 2005. We have

been talking about how in recent

weeks, the Royal Family are getting

more touchy-feely. They are not as

cold as the monarchy used to be and

this is another example of it. She

has been at a yoga retreat.

She has

been doing her downward dog. 12

years, they have been married.

Doesn't time fly? Thank you both

very much. My client Daisy. That is

it for the paper tonight. You can

see the front pages of the papers

online on the BBC News website. --

Michael and David. And if you missed

the programme any evening, you can

watch it later on BBC iPlayer.

Bye-bye.