04/11/2017 The Papers

On Meet The Author, our guest is one

of our most celebrated writers.

William Boyd will be talking about

his new collection of short stories.

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are Nigel Nelson, Political

Editor at the Sunday People,

and political commentator

Jo Phillips.

I have to say, we have been treading

in a minefield slightly, because as

expected, lots of allegations and

rumours and it's a lot about

Westminster. Nigel, kick us off with

the Sunday Telegraph. May's aids

sacked on allegations of Tory

sleaze.

An allegation... Not an

allegation... We use this word all

the time. But Gavin Barlow, now

Theresa May's chief of staff, used

to be in the width's office. What

the Telegraph is saying his concerns

were expressed in the whip's office

when Gavin Barlow was there. This is

about Michael Fallon. Separately,

there was the former Chief Whip who

is now the Defence Secretary,

Williamson, and questions about what

he knew about things that had been

going on. This is one of the things

they will be looking at when they

start bringing in a whole new

safeguarding system. The whip's

office doesn't know things. They use

it to try and pressurise MPs to do

what they want them to do. Whips

argues they are disciplinarians.

That will have to change of

Westminster.

Part of the problem of this is

people who work for MPs and

political parties have nowhere to

go. They are not employed by the

Palace of Westminster, the

Parliamentary estate, like the

cleaners and security staff and

people like that. So if you work for

an MP in that end he is the person

you want to complain about, who do

you go to? Do you go to the whip?

BNP? It is ridiculous parliament

doesn't have a system the rest of us

would take for granted, whether it

is the BBC, a newspaper office or in

financial services. There will be

interesting to see how they deal

with this.

Change on Monday. Of the

seven party leaders, they will meet

to thrash out a new system. That is

one of the things they will address.

MPs will no longer be in sole

control of their staff.

What is also

interesting about this is this sense

of where does the trails stop? The

worry, the next question will be,

who knew what and why did they not

report it?

And it's that thing of knowledge is

power. If you know something about

somebody, as Nigel said, the whip,

they have this information.

Jo move us the Mail on Sunday.

A wonderful segue. This concerns,

top Tories bathrobes pass at male

aide. This is a story based on the

recollections of a former Olympic

rower and conservative activist,

Alex Storey, who has been talking to

the Mail on Sunday and tells a story

of how he went out for a drink with

Mr Pincher, was not an MP at the

time, went back to his flat and felt

deeply uncomfortable about what

happened. Mr Pincher, now the MP for

Tamworth, said if he had ever felt

offended by anything he'd said, he

can only apologise. But again, it

comes back to this whole thing about

power and whips. Because Alex Storey

said he has decided to speak out

because Mr Pincher was a government

whip. Politics is about patronage.

That is a real problem. This is

especially affecting younger

researchers, people who may be doing

their first job.

People wanting to

get on and wanting to please.

That

is it, the getting an bit. One of

the problems about the new

safeguarding system they are doing,

they might be up to protect them in

the sense against bosses or people

who are paying them too much

attention. The problem is an awful

lot of these people and wanting to

be MPs themselves. What they don't

want to do is somewhere in the

future have a black mark against

them. That will be a very difficult

cultural change for the Commons to

make.

We were talking through the

evening about the development, the

resignation of a minister, MSP Mark

McDonnell. The Sunday Post, that is

understandably because of the

Scottish angle, the main story.

Showing this is not just Westminster

but a wider issue.

Absolutely, and I

dare say there will be more to

follow across the UK. Mark McDonnell

has resigned, saying apparently his

behaviour may have been

inappropriate. -- Mark McDonald. But

we don't know whether what it refers

to. According to the Sunday papers,

another complaint from a

Parliamentary administrative

assistant about a backbench MSP as

well.

A statement has come in from

Mark McDonald.

He says it's been brought to my

attention is on my previous actions

have been considered inappropriate,

where I have believed myself to be

humorous or attempting to be

friendly, my behaviour might have

made others uncomfortable. My

behaviour is entirely my

responsibility, I apologise

unreservedly to anyone who I might

have upset or who found my behaviour

inappropriate. Some clarification.

Innocence that is the nub of it. As

Michael Fallon said when he

resigned, whether or not it was

acceptable 15 years ago or what

somebody...

Which it wasn't.

Of

course, but to apologise for

something that is now being brought

to somebody's attention because it

was inappropriate then... It's very

difficult, because this whole area

is a minefield of what is now

appropriate.

And raising that issue

about the nuances about what defines

harassment.

That's right. I've been

spending a lot of time this week

talking to people who work in the

House of Commons about where their

red lines. It's very difficult. Some

people don't like being touched by

an MP, in which case they will keep

away from that MP, unless it happens

to be their boss. They may be in a

bar late at night or something like

that and get proposition, it varies

between people and their experience

of the House of Commons and how they

deal with it. Some are happy to deal

with it on their own, some of the

younger ones are not.

It seems a lot

of people feel, even if they dealt

with at the time, they feel there is

now a culture where it needs to be

highlighted.

Part of this is about

changing the culture. We've probably

been there, you and I, Rachel, in

those situations where it's been

predominantly men, whether in an

office or other environment and you

feel vaguely uncomfortable because

of the level of jokes or what they

call banter, I would ban that word!

It's very difficult to actually be

the person that says, I don't find

this very acceptable, I find it

uncomfortable. Harriet Harman, who I

think has done more than any other

single politician in this country

for the cause of within and women's

rights, has been so often written

off as a sort of misery guts,

because she has been the person that

very often is the lone voice that

says this is unacceptable. That is

easy for people to do when you are

my age, it's not very easy when you

are 23 and working as a researcher.

The Sunday Express, you talked about

the issue of the culture of the

Westminster village. There seems to

be at least one suggestion here and

something that might help change the

culture, talk us through its.

The

Sunday Express is saying it will be

a crackdown on the subsidised

drinking in Westminster. There are

about 30 bars within the place.

Westminster is like a small town,

10,000 people work for, shops, bars,

restaurants and all those things.

The drinking culture that has been

complained about for many years, and

Andrea Leadsom wants to have a go at

it according to the Sunday Express.

It is an awful lot different than

when I went to the Commons 30 years

ago, the drinking culture really was

something then. Now it's a lot less,

but there's a particular bar called

the Tatarusanu sports and cultural

club. It belongs to the precinct,

researchers drink there, and there's

a feeling that this is not under

control and a lot of people want to

see it closed down.

Jo, we are going

to rattle through. The Sunday Times

claimed to have an exclusive here

with allegations again against

Damian Green. We will clarify the

moment his response. Say what you

can about this story.

This is a claim that has been

strenuously denied by Damian Green,

that a former police chief, Bob

quick, former Assistant Commissioner

at the net, claimed extreme

pornography was found when he had

his office raided. It was quite

controversial, the police raiding

him in 2008. They were investigating

leaks from the Home Office at the

time. Now it appears that there was

some pornography, but it also goes

on to say, the material was found to

be lawful, but one of the

investigating officers who viewed

some of the images described some of

the material as extreme. One

officer... Nothing was ever done at

the time, and its lawful, so it

seems to be a little bit...

Nothing

to do with sexual harassment at. I

Damian Green has been responding to

these allegations, not least on his

Twitter account, saying he

categorically denies them, they come

from the tainted source and amount

to an unscrupulous character

assassination.

In the paper it says

the claim was untrue and damaging.

The observer takes us back to

Michael Fallon, which one could say

is going full circle again. I'm

picking a bit about story, if you

want to call it that.

Suggesting

that a kiss some time ago might have

been the final downfall of Michael

Fallon. In fact, generous called

Jane Merrick and she informed

Downing Street he apparently lunged

at her and attempted to kiss her on

the lips in 2003 after they lunched

together. The trouble is, we are

conflating an awful lot of genuinely

serious things that are going on

with things that are fairly minor.

She may have been terribly upset

about it, but when you compare with

some of the other allegations

happening out there, I wish we could

get everything in a bit more

perspective.

Interesting, it comes

back again, ties back to those

original stories around Julia

Hartley Brewer, Michael Fallon and

denying some allegations and

minimising others, saying they date

from another time. Really saying

what he thought was acceptable that

he understands is no longer

acceptable.

It was an acceptable.

And a lot of discussion if it was

ever acceptable. Jo, we will bring

things to a close with a slightly

different story, a cartoon that ties

the two together, at the bottom of

the Sunday Times. Nursery education

and the demise of the nursery rhyme.

Exactly. I'm sure if we had more

time we could all show off what

nursery rhymes we remember. But the

chief inspector of schools as

children don't any longer than no

old-fashioned nursery rhymes like

the owl and the pussycat or Jack and

Jill. They are not being taught in

nurseries and schools, which is a

great shame because research shows

children who can sing a song and

Noah story off by heart are better

equipped for school. The cartoon

around this story is, slugs and

snails, the proper version is slugs

and snails and puppy dogs tails.

They say slugs and snails and

grouping and sexual harassment,

that's what little boys are made of.

That brings us full circle, with a

smile but a serious issue as well.

Thank you very much for now. That is

it for the Papers.

Thank you Nigel and Jo,

you'll both be back at 11.30pm

for another look at the stories

making the news tomorrow.

Coming up next,

it's Meet the Author.