0:00:00 > 0:00:00On Meet The Author, our guest is one of our most celebrated writers.
0:00:00 > 0:00:06William Boyd will be talking about his new collection of short stories.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be
0:00:18 > 0:00:22bringing us tomorrow.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25With me are Nigel Nelson, Political Editor at the Sunday People,
0:00:25 > 0:00:31and political commentator Jo Phillips.
0:00:31 > 0:00:37I have to say, we have been treading in a minefield slightly, because as
0:00:37 > 0:00:41expected, lots of allegations and rumours and it's a lot about
0:00:41 > 0:00:46Westminster. Nigel, kick us off with the Sunday Telegraph. May's aids
0:00:46 > 0:00:52sacked on allegations of Tory sleaze.An allegation... Not an
0:00:52 > 0:00:57allegation... We use this word all the time. But Gavin Barlow, now
0:00:57 > 0:01:01Theresa May's chief of staff, used to be in the width's office. What
0:01:01 > 0:01:08the Telegraph is saying his concerns were expressed in the whip's office
0:01:08 > 0:01:12when Gavin Barlow was there. This is about Michael Fallon. Separately,
0:01:12 > 0:01:18there was the former Chief Whip who is now the Defence Secretary,
0:01:18 > 0:01:22Williamson, and questions about what he knew about things that had been
0:01:22 > 0:01:26going on. This is one of the things they will be looking at when they
0:01:26 > 0:01:31start bringing in a whole new safeguarding system. The whip's
0:01:31 > 0:01:35office doesn't know things. They use it to try and pressurise MPs to do
0:01:35 > 0:01:44what they want them to do. Whips argues they are disciplinarians.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47That will have to change of Westminster.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51Part of the problem of this is people who work for MPs and
0:01:51 > 0:01:55political parties have nowhere to go. They are not employed by the
0:01:55 > 0:01:59Palace of Westminster, the Parliamentary estate, like the
0:01:59 > 0:02:03cleaners and security staff and people like that. So if you work for
0:02:03 > 0:02:06an MP in that end he is the person you want to complain about, who do
0:02:06 > 0:02:15you go to? Do you go to the whip? BNP? It is ridiculous parliament
0:02:15 > 0:02:19doesn't have a system the rest of us would take for granted, whether it
0:02:19 > 0:02:23is the BBC, a newspaper office or in financial services. There will be
0:02:23 > 0:02:30interesting to see how they deal with this.Change on Monday. Of the
0:02:30 > 0:02:33seven party leaders, they will meet to thrash out a new system. That is
0:02:33 > 0:02:38one of the things they will address. MPs will no longer be in sole
0:02:38 > 0:02:41control of their staff.What is also interesting about this is this sense
0:02:41 > 0:02:47of where does the trails stop? The worry, the next question will be,
0:02:47 > 0:02:50who knew what and why did they not report it?
0:02:50 > 0:02:54And it's that thing of knowledge is power. If you know something about
0:02:54 > 0:03:02somebody, as Nigel said, the whip, they have this information.
0:03:02 > 0:03:08Jo move us the Mail on Sunday. A wonderful segue. This concerns,
0:03:08 > 0:03:21top Tories bathrobes pass at male aide. This is a story based on the
0:03:21 > 0:03:27recollections of a former Olympic rower and conservative activist,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31Alex Storey, who has been talking to the Mail on Sunday and tells a story
0:03:31 > 0:03:35of how he went out for a drink with Mr Pincher, was not an MP at the
0:03:35 > 0:03:39time, went back to his flat and felt deeply uncomfortable about what
0:03:39 > 0:03:45happened. Mr Pincher, now the MP for Tamworth, said if he had ever felt
0:03:45 > 0:03:50offended by anything he'd said, he can only apologise. But again, it
0:03:50 > 0:03:57comes back to this whole thing about power and whips. Because Alex Storey
0:03:57 > 0:04:04said he has decided to speak out because Mr Pincher was a government
0:04:04 > 0:04:11whip. Politics is about patronage. That is a real problem. This is
0:04:11 > 0:04:14especially affecting younger researchers, people who may be doing
0:04:14 > 0:04:18their first job.People wanting to get on and wanting to please.That
0:04:18 > 0:04:21is it, the getting an bit. One of the problems about the new
0:04:21 > 0:04:25safeguarding system they are doing, they might be up to protect them in
0:04:25 > 0:04:29the sense against bosses or people who are paying them too much
0:04:29 > 0:04:33attention. The problem is an awful lot of these people and wanting to
0:04:33 > 0:04:42be MPs themselves. What they don't want to do is somewhere in the
0:04:42 > 0:04:45future have a black mark against them. That will be a very difficult
0:04:45 > 0:04:48cultural change for the Commons to make.We were talking through the
0:04:48 > 0:04:50evening about the development, the resignation of a minister, MSP Mark
0:04:50 > 0:04:53McDonnell. The Sunday Post, that is understandably because of the
0:04:53 > 0:04:57Scottish angle, the main story. Showing this is not just Westminster
0:04:57 > 0:05:02but a wider issue.Absolutely, and I dare say there will be more to
0:05:02 > 0:05:08follow across the UK. Mark McDonnell has resigned, saying apparently his
0:05:08 > 0:05:11behaviour may have been inappropriate. -- Mark McDonald. But
0:05:11 > 0:05:18we don't know whether what it refers to. According to the Sunday papers,
0:05:18 > 0:05:20another complaint from a Parliamentary administrative
0:05:20 > 0:05:26assistant about a backbench MSP as well.A statement has come in from
0:05:26 > 0:05:28Mark McDonald. He says it's been brought to my
0:05:28 > 0:05:32attention is on my previous actions have been considered inappropriate,
0:05:32 > 0:05:36where I have believed myself to be humorous or attempting to be
0:05:36 > 0:05:40friendly, my behaviour might have made others uncomfortable. My
0:05:40 > 0:05:43behaviour is entirely my responsibility, I apologise
0:05:43 > 0:05:49unreservedly to anyone who I might have upset or who found my behaviour
0:05:49 > 0:05:55inappropriate. Some clarification. Innocence that is the nub of it. As
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Michael Fallon said when he resigned, whether or not it was
0:05:59 > 0:06:06acceptable 15 years ago or what somebody...Which it wasn't.Of
0:06:06 > 0:06:09course, but to apologise for something that is now being brought
0:06:09 > 0:06:15to somebody's attention because it was inappropriate then... It's very
0:06:15 > 0:06:19difficult, because this whole area is a minefield of what is now
0:06:19 > 0:06:27appropriate.And raising that issue about the nuances about what defines
0:06:27 > 0:06:30harassment.That's right. I've been spending a lot of time this week
0:06:30 > 0:06:34talking to people who work in the House of Commons about where their
0:06:34 > 0:06:38red lines. It's very difficult. Some people don't like being touched by
0:06:38 > 0:06:43an MP, in which case they will keep away from that MP, unless it happens
0:06:43 > 0:06:47to be their boss. They may be in a bar late at night or something like
0:06:47 > 0:06:52that and get proposition, it varies between people and their experience
0:06:52 > 0:06:55of the House of Commons and how they deal with it. Some are happy to deal
0:06:55 > 0:06:59with it on their own, some of the younger ones are not.It seems a lot
0:06:59 > 0:07:02of people feel, even if they dealt with at the time, they feel there is
0:07:02 > 0:07:07now a culture where it needs to be highlighted.Part of this is about
0:07:07 > 0:07:13changing the culture. We've probably been there, you and I, Rachel, in
0:07:13 > 0:07:18those situations where it's been predominantly men, whether in an
0:07:18 > 0:07:22office or other environment and you feel vaguely uncomfortable because
0:07:22 > 0:07:26of the level of jokes or what they call banter, I would ban that word!
0:07:26 > 0:07:31It's very difficult to actually be the person that says, I don't find
0:07:31 > 0:07:35this very acceptable, I find it uncomfortable. Harriet Harman, who I
0:07:35 > 0:07:39think has done more than any other single politician in this country
0:07:39 > 0:07:43for the cause of within and women's rights, has been so often written
0:07:43 > 0:07:50off as a sort of misery guts, because she has been the person that
0:07:50 > 0:07:54very often is the lone voice that says this is unacceptable. That is
0:07:54 > 0:07:58easy for people to do when you are my age, it's not very easy when you
0:07:58 > 0:08:03are 23 and working as a researcher. The Sunday Express, you talked about
0:08:03 > 0:08:06the issue of the culture of the Westminster village. There seems to
0:08:06 > 0:08:10be at least one suggestion here and something that might help change the
0:08:10 > 0:08:14culture, talk us through its.The Sunday Express is saying it will be
0:08:14 > 0:08:24a crackdown on the subsidised drinking in Westminster. There are
0:08:24 > 0:08:27about 30 bars within the place. Westminster is like a small town,
0:08:27 > 0:08:2910,000 people work for, shops, bars, restaurants and all those things.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31The drinking culture that has been complained about for many years, and
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Andrea Leadsom wants to have a go at it according to the Sunday Express.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38It is an awful lot different than when I went to the Commons 30 years
0:08:38 > 0:08:43ago, the drinking culture really was something then. Now it's a lot less,
0:08:43 > 0:08:47but there's a particular bar called the Tatarusanu sports and cultural
0:08:47 > 0:08:52club. It belongs to the precinct, researchers drink there, and there's
0:08:52 > 0:08:57a feeling that this is not under control and a lot of people want to
0:08:57 > 0:09:02see it closed down.Jo, we are going to rattle through. The Sunday Times
0:09:02 > 0:09:07claimed to have an exclusive here with allegations again against
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Damian Green. We will clarify the moment his response. Say what you
0:09:11 > 0:09:16can about this story. This is a claim that has been
0:09:16 > 0:09:20strenuously denied by Damian Green, that a former police chief, Bob
0:09:20 > 0:09:31quick, former Assistant Commissioner at the net, claimed extreme
0:09:31 > 0:09:40pornography was found when he had his office raided. It was quite
0:09:40 > 0:09:43controversial, the police raiding him in 2008. They were investigating
0:09:43 > 0:09:49leaks from the Home Office at the time. Now it appears that there was
0:09:49 > 0:09:53some pornography, but it also goes on to say, the material was found to
0:09:53 > 0:09:58be lawful, but one of the investigating officers who viewed
0:09:58 > 0:10:04some of the images described some of the material as extreme. One
0:10:04 > 0:10:07officer... Nothing was ever done at the time, and its lawful, so it
0:10:07 > 0:10:13seems to be a little bit...Nothing to do with sexual harassment at. I
0:10:13 > 0:10:17Damian Green has been responding to these allegations, not least on his
0:10:17 > 0:10:19Twitter account, saying he categorically denies them, they come
0:10:19 > 0:10:24from the tainted source and amount to an unscrupulous character
0:10:24 > 0:10:31assassination.In the paper it says the claim was untrue and damaging.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34The observer takes us back to Michael Fallon, which one could say
0:10:34 > 0:10:40is going full circle again. I'm picking a bit about story, if you
0:10:40 > 0:10:46want to call it that.Suggesting that a kiss some time ago might have
0:10:46 > 0:10:53been the final downfall of Michael Fallon. In fact, generous called
0:10:53 > 0:10:57Jane Merrick and she informed Downing Street he apparently lunged
0:10:57 > 0:11:01at her and attempted to kiss her on the lips in 2003 after they lunched
0:11:01 > 0:11:06together. The trouble is, we are conflating an awful lot of genuinely
0:11:06 > 0:11:11serious things that are going on with things that are fairly minor.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14She may have been terribly upset about it, but when you compare with
0:11:14 > 0:11:18some of the other allegations happening out there, I wish we could
0:11:18 > 0:11:22get everything in a bit more perspective.Interesting, it comes
0:11:22 > 0:11:27back again, ties back to those original stories around Julia
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Hartley Brewer, Michael Fallon and denying some allegations and
0:11:30 > 0:11:33minimising others, saying they date from another time. Really saying
0:11:33 > 0:11:36what he thought was acceptable that he understands is no longer
0:11:36 > 0:11:43acceptable.It was an acceptable. And a lot of discussion if it was
0:11:43 > 0:11:47ever acceptable. Jo, we will bring things to a close with a slightly
0:11:47 > 0:11:52different story, a cartoon that ties the two together, at the bottom of
0:11:52 > 0:11:56the Sunday Times. Nursery education and the demise of the nursery rhyme.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01Exactly. I'm sure if we had more time we could all show off what
0:12:01 > 0:12:06nursery rhymes we remember. But the chief inspector of schools as
0:12:06 > 0:12:10children don't any longer than no old-fashioned nursery rhymes like
0:12:10 > 0:12:14the owl and the pussycat or Jack and Jill. They are not being taught in
0:12:14 > 0:12:18nurseries and schools, which is a great shame because research shows
0:12:18 > 0:12:21children who can sing a song and Noah story off by heart are better
0:12:21 > 0:12:25equipped for school. The cartoon around this story is, slugs and
0:12:25 > 0:12:31snails, the proper version is slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33They say slugs and snails and grouping and sexual harassment,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37that's what little boys are made of. That brings us full circle, with a
0:12:37 > 0:12:41smile but a serious issue as well. Thank you very much for now. That is
0:12:41 > 0:12:44it for the Papers.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47Thank you Nigel and Jo, you'll both be back at 11.30pm
0:12:47 > 0:12:49for another look at the stories making the news tomorrow.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51Coming up next, it's Meet the Author.