0:00:00 > 0:00:01That's all the sport for now.
0:00:01 > 0:00:05Now on BBC News, here's The Papers.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be
0:00:18 > 0:00:20bringing us tomorrow.
0:00:20 > 0:00:25With me are Prashant Rao, who's Deputy Europe business editor
0:00:25 > 0:00:27of the New York Times and political commentator,
0:00:27 > 0:00:35James Millar.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39The Sunday Express says a crackdown on the subsidised drinking culture
0:00:39 > 0:00:42in Parliament is to be launched, in the wake of the
0:00:42 > 0:00:43Westminster sex scandal.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45The Sunday Telegraph says Theresa May's aides 'sat on'
0:00:45 > 0:00:47allegations against senior Conservatives.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49The Observer reports claims about Sir Michael Fallon -
0:00:49 > 0:00:52who suddenly resigned from cabinet last week.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58The paper alleges that a female journalist told Number ten
0:00:58 > 0:01:01that he had tried to kiss her in 2003 after a lunch.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04The Mail on Sunday leads on allegations involving the Tory
0:01:04 > 0:01:05whip, Chris Pincher.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08The paper claims the Tamworth MP made an unwanted sexual pass
0:01:08 > 0:01:10at the former Olympic rower and Conservative activist
0:01:10 > 0:01:16Alex Story in 2001.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19In a statement Mr Pincher said, "If Mr Story has ever felt offended
0:01:19 > 0:01:22by anything I said then I can only apologise to him."
0:01:22 > 0:01:23The Sunday Times details allegations dating back
0:01:23 > 0:01:26to 2008, that police found pornography on the computer of one
0:01:26 > 0:01:29of Theresa May's closest allies, Damian Green.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32Mr Green categorically denies the claims which he says
0:01:32 > 0:01:39are unscrupulous and untrue.
0:01:39 > 0:01:46Let's begin, James Millar, let's start if we can with the latest
0:01:46 > 0:01:50allegations about Sir Michael Fallon, who resigned as Defence
0:01:50 > 0:01:55Secretary in the Observer this morning.When you see the latest
0:01:55 > 0:01:57allegations, there are so many allegations to choose from, wordy
0:01:57 > 0:02:05start? This one is, yet, Michael Fallon has resigned after it was
0:02:05 > 0:02:16alleged he put his hand on Julia Hartley Brewer's knee. Another
0:02:16 > 0:02:22person has said that he did something very similar with her. In
0:02:22 > 0:02:26both cases, the actual incident wasn't that big a deal but it's a
0:02:26 > 0:02:33pattern of behaviour and the whole problem is that people like, people,
0:02:33 > 0:02:37shall we say, do stuff like this to women. And it builds up and builds
0:02:37 > 0:02:41up and that is the problem. It's not necessarily the specific
0:02:41 > 0:02:43allegations, though in some cases they are serious allegations and
0:02:43 > 0:02:47they are the problem. It's this overwhelming sort of weight of
0:02:47 > 0:02:53allegations and the culture and the attitude towards women.Prashant, is
0:02:53 > 0:02:57there perhaps a sense of relief in Downing Street this morning, that
0:02:57 > 0:03:02the claims are not worse's when that comes closest to the prime ministers
0:03:02 > 0:03:09the one that about Damian Green, before Secretary of State, which
0:03:09 > 0:03:14appears in the Sunday Times.It is so early days. I think caution...
0:03:14 > 0:03:18These allegations are still coming out. We don't know yet. They could
0:03:18 > 0:03:24be worse, we don't know yet what is to come out and it is important to
0:03:24 > 0:03:27say, of course, that one of the problems with this whole thing is
0:03:27 > 0:03:32that there has not been a reporting system in place that allows for
0:03:32 > 0:03:36these issues to come to light. And so a huge flood of them are coming
0:03:36 > 0:03:39now because, you know, finally people feel empowered and confident
0:03:39 > 0:03:43that they will be taken seriously. But one of the consequences of that
0:03:43 > 0:03:48is that we don't know how much is left in the system, how much is not
0:03:48 > 0:03:51been reported and is yet to be reported. So I certainly wouldn't
0:03:51 > 0:03:55feel relieved in any part of Government so I can't imagine anyone
0:03:55 > 0:04:00has any level transparency of what has been going on for 15, 20 years,
0:04:00 > 0:04:07the duration of some of these MPs' careers.Regarding Damian Green, the
0:04:07 > 0:04:13allegation that police raided his office relating to the Home Office,
0:04:13 > 0:04:18which he denied anything to do with, they found pornography on a
0:04:18 > 0:04:21computer, not necessarily his personally but a computer in use on
0:04:21 > 0:04:28his office.These are all... As you said, this but special fit a pattern
0:04:28 > 0:04:31comment about the weight of the cumulative allegations. Whether
0:04:31 > 0:04:38Damian Green has issued this statement in response, but it's kind
0:04:38 > 0:04:46of... Is obviously much more serious, but it harks back to the
0:04:46 > 0:04:52expenses scandal where Everest hard because the system has failed and it
0:04:52 > 0:04:55is incumbent on the entire class of Westminster to look and try to find
0:04:55 > 0:05:02a way to fix this. -- everyone is part because the system has failed.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06And that includes journalists. This is an idea, the media are saying,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09look at these terrible politicians, it's not just politicians. It is all
0:05:09 > 0:05:13industries, we're discovering in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein thing.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17But particularly, you mentioned the Sunday Times front page, most from
0:05:17 > 0:05:23pages are written by men, certainly all the Sunday political editors are
0:05:23 > 0:05:26written by men, we are men sitting around a table to give up this. On
0:05:26 > 0:05:33the front page, there's a picture of the women who accuse Damian Green
0:05:33 > 0:05:36looking over her shoulder. I've never seen a male byline picture
0:05:36 > 0:05:40where he is looking over his shoulder. There is a culture thing
0:05:40 > 0:05:49here which goes very deep. I have written a book cold The Gender
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Agenda about how we teach children, how we approach them from a very
0:05:52 > 0:06:00young age and teach them about male and female culture. It goes that
0:06:00 > 0:06:06steep, it just shows... How you fix it, it's a big ask, think it's fair
0:06:06 > 0:06:11to say.And we see in the United States, for example, increasingly a
0:06:11 > 0:06:15lot of this is happening in the United States that women, people who
0:06:15 > 0:06:19have been harassed and assaulted her final started to speak out. And a
0:06:19 > 0:06:24colleague of mine made a really important point, which was that it's
0:06:24 > 0:06:27important when also journalists have to face these accusations and people
0:06:27 > 0:06:30in the media, because these are the storytellers of her political age.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35The people who define the narrative arc politicians, in the case of the
0:06:35 > 0:06:40US president election, Bill Clinton, we had men telling the story of a
0:06:40 > 0:06:45woman and so this matters. -- Hillary Clinton. So it matters how
0:06:45 > 0:06:48we comport ourselves in these situations.And there will be people
0:06:48 > 0:06:55watching us now he will say, look, if this stuff was out there, if it
0:06:55 > 0:06:58was the common gossip of Westminster, some of it, not all
0:06:58 > 0:07:00that, have journalists at Westminster failed in their duty to
0:07:00 > 0:07:05be storytellers Kuzmenko is the culture such that, we used to talk
0:07:05 > 0:07:09about the lobby system, stories were given an attributable and
0:07:09 > 0:07:17anonymously to journalists as a sort a trade-off between what you could
0:07:17 > 0:07:22report and couldn't encase all your resources would dry up. I was asking
0:07:22 > 0:07:27a Hollywood journalists that well, have we as a profession been
0:07:27 > 0:07:34complicit?I, this week, had been amazed after prime Minster's
0:07:34 > 0:07:40questions, they had the Prime Minister smoke when an political
0:07:40 > 0:07:50journalists, and 95% of the people at the tables were members of -- the
0:07:50 > 0:07:52Prime Minister's spokesman. I have no doubt that if their World war
0:07:52 > 0:07:55women in the House of Commons, this would not happen. Not on this scale.
0:07:55 > 0:08:01There would be by people doing bad things, but it would be a different
0:08:01 > 0:08:07culture.I was struck, perhaps most of all today, I can't think of a
0:08:07 > 0:08:11previous occasion where one MP from a little party has written an
0:08:11 > 0:08:14article about the behaviour, alleged behaviour of another MP, and has
0:08:14 > 0:08:18done so because he says the whip's office, which he complained to,
0:08:18 > 0:08:25hadn't acted on it in his view. I don't want to get into the specific
0:08:25 > 0:08:31allegations, but it is striking.It is also striking because it is a man
0:08:31 > 0:08:34speaking, the men have a duty, we have a different position, added you
0:08:34 > 0:08:40to speak up about these things. But, yes, absolutely, it feeds into the
0:08:40 > 0:08:43Sunday Telegraph spot which is the centre of mine, which is that the
0:08:43 > 0:08:46whips have known about the stuff and have done nothing. I am not sure
0:08:46 > 0:08:54about that. The whips have known about, shall we say, bad behaviour
0:08:54 > 0:08:56and then there is obvious that the illegal stuff, I think the whips
0:08:56 > 0:09:02know the difference.I think if they had an allegation that somebody had
0:09:02 > 0:09:03raped somebody, you're pretty confident they would act on it,
0:09:03 > 0:09:10because that is a political -- a criminal matter?I don't think we
0:09:10 > 0:09:15can say with any certainty but traditionally, the view is that they
0:09:15 > 0:09:20would use things to get people to vote the way they want to...The
0:09:20 > 0:09:27little Black book they are alleged to have! And you mentioned is the
0:09:27 > 0:09:33American, there has been the odd congressional scandal, the use of
0:09:33 > 0:09:38pages, young man he worked carrying messages around, there has been
0:09:38 > 0:09:41suggestion that congressmen have acted inappropriately with them. Is
0:09:41 > 0:09:44there the same thing in that institution as well, the sense that
0:09:44 > 0:09:49people don't have someone they can go to? Is this a common problem for
0:09:49 > 0:09:53legislatures, political systems, to wrestle with'sit is, if you think
0:09:53 > 0:09:59about it, the way that the House of Commons is structured, I thought
0:09:59 > 0:10:03this was interesting that touched on in BBC podcasts recently, this week
0:10:03 > 0:10:08in Westminster, this is a tribal structure. There's a sense of us and
0:10:08 > 0:10:13them. There's a bigger game we're playing here we should, you know,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16leave this aside for the bigger goal which is getting into Government,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20passing legislation that will change the country for the common good. And
0:10:20 > 0:10:24these things, it's fine, we will sort it out, it'll be OK.You don't
0:10:24 > 0:10:28wash dirty linen in public in case it damages the party.Exactly,
0:10:28 > 0:10:34loyalty to the party good behaviour. What is acceptable in civil
0:10:34 > 0:10:40society...Moving on to the express, it talks about cracking down on it
0:10:40 > 0:10:44in their case, subsidised drinking culture. But there's a more general
0:10:44 > 0:10:47point about, we have this meeting tomorrow, little party leaders, in
0:10:47 > 0:10:50much of what you're saying, Prasad, but that, we don't want to lose
0:10:50 > 0:10:55sight of the bigger picture, is there a danger that the natural
0:10:55 > 0:10:57political tribal rivalries will make it difficult for them to agree a
0:10:57 > 0:11:02common set of criteria that can be used and actually applied and hand
0:11:02 > 0:11:08this over to an independent body? Absolutely, achieving that is gone
0:11:08 > 0:11:11to be tricky, because as you say, tribal loyalties. There is no real
0:11:11 > 0:11:16reason for them to work together other than for the common good, but
0:11:16 > 0:11:18as you say, gaining advantage, electoral advantage, they may not be
0:11:18 > 0:11:24inclined to do so. The set up a parliament is so weird and I don't
0:11:24 > 0:11:30mean that their sale in a pejorative sense, it is just odd, because staff
0:11:30 > 0:11:34don't work for Parliament, they work for MPs. And lots of people work for
0:11:34 > 0:11:39parties. So here is the external body they're going to be in charge
0:11:39 > 0:11:44of, will they be in charge of all parties, all Parliamentary staff?
0:11:44 > 0:11:48And this is talking about cheap booze, again, most workplaces don't
0:11:48 > 0:11:56have a couple of pubs in the basement. But MPs, as it stands,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00giving sitting hours, have to be there in the evening. They don't
0:12:00 > 0:12:04have to go there and drink but grown-ups can go there in drag, they
0:12:04 > 0:12:07don't have to be put in some sudden crash until it is time to vote! --
0:12:07 > 0:12:15grown-ups can go in there and drink. But becomes manager with any
0:12:15 > 0:12:20legislature is power. That is a huge part of it.Let's move on and away
0:12:20 > 0:12:26from the Westminster sleaze into something that some might say is a
0:12:26 > 0:12:32surprisingly important story, rather buried away, and this is on page
0:12:32 > 0:12:40Hopp, sorry, six and seven of the daily Mirror this morning.We have
0:12:40 > 0:12:45Gordon Brown's book coming out in a couple of days and there is except
0:12:45 > 0:12:50here where the former Prime Minister talks about the decision-making in
0:12:50 > 0:12:54the lead up to the Iraq war. Officer, the seminal decision of the
0:12:54 > 0:13:00time he was in Government. I would say certainly. And so Gordon Brown
0:13:00 > 0:13:05makes the case that there was a particular reports that the US
0:13:05 > 0:13:08Government declined, did not hand over to the Brits in the run-up to
0:13:08 > 0:13:11the war would would have influence with their not at least he would
0:13:11 > 0:13:17have decided to favour invading Iraq. So this is interesting,
0:13:17 > 0:13:23because Gordon Brown is, think we're a stage now where we're going to
0:13:23 > 0:13:26start reassessing his legacy, it's about a decade since he famously
0:13:26 > 0:13:31could have called the election, could have delivered him another
0:13:31 > 0:13:35five-year term in office and didn't. And so now we can step back and
0:13:35 > 0:13:39think about, who was Gordon Brown the Prime Minister? At the time, it
0:13:39 > 0:13:43felt like there was all this difference between him and Tony
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Blair, the Blairite umbrella. But you look up parliaments today and
0:13:47 > 0:13:52the true party tearing itself apart, Jeremy Corbyn. -- the Tory party
0:13:52 > 0:13:58turn itself apart. Gros it almost makes you started. They weren't that
0:13:58 > 0:14:01difference but we magnified it. There was at her in small
0:14:01 > 0:14:07differences. But the same thing. And Iraq was one-stop Gordon Brown was
0:14:07 > 0:14:10the second most powerful person in Government and by a further close
0:14:10 > 0:14:15margin. That was certainly the narrative. The whole idea that one
0:14:15 > 0:14:19report would have changed mind about invading, I find a bit questionable.
0:14:19 > 0:14:27It's fascinating he does not dump on Tony Blair. He could have...He says
0:14:27 > 0:14:31we were tricked and he says Tony Blair was trip. He is not saying,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Tony Blair knew about this and lied to the Government and led us all
0:14:35 > 0:14:41into work, he says, we ruled trick. He says, can't be certain but I
0:14:41 > 0:14:44believe this report contained this information that would have
0:14:44 > 0:14:47suggested that actually, the American intelligence was not
0:14:47 > 0:14:51absolutely rock-solid, it was mostly inference based on assumptions that
0:14:51 > 0:14:55were made in the intelligence community and they built one
0:14:55 > 0:14:58influence on an assumption and before you know, you built up
0:14:58 > 0:15:03impressive body of evidence but isn't. But it is also striking that
0:15:03 > 0:15:10he takes Blair's side on this and says, there was no secret conspiracy
0:15:10 > 0:15:14between Blair and Bush, Blair was out of the loop.Is is an
0:15:14 > 0:15:17interesting type in the book to, it will be interesting to see held did
0:15:17 > 0:15:24received. He will get an easy ride in the mirror but he left office as
0:15:24 > 0:15:29probably the worst Prime Minister post-war, and now Cameron Orr Maher
0:15:29 > 0:15:33mixing it up down at the bottom of the league table! -- Cameron and
0:15:33 > 0:15:44Make. -- Theresa May.The Sunday Times, you're talking about gender
0:15:44 > 0:15:47stereotyping of children, young age, whatever happens to drilling nursery
0:15:47 > 0:15:53rhymes into them from a young age? It is interesting, I certainly find
0:15:53 > 0:15:57that I can't remember nursery rhymes, it's about 20 or 30 years
0:15:57 > 0:16:02since you had them and you suddenly remember them again. The chief
0:16:02 > 0:16:09inspector of schools, of Ofsted, she doesn't say this but the story says
0:16:09 > 0:16:12that youngsters would rather play pepper pic iPad games and find out
0:16:12 > 0:16:18what happened to Doctor Foster. A couple of things, one, it's not
0:16:18 > 0:16:23either or. IPad games are not necessarily bad. Second, Doctor
0:16:23 > 0:16:26Foster fell into a puddle, it's pretty grim! It's probably better
0:16:26 > 0:16:32for some children stop more sophisticated emotional connection.
0:16:32 > 0:16:38Prashant, do you have a favourite nursery rhyme?And I do think, not
0:16:38 > 0:16:43one comes to mind. But certainly, it's not black-and-white issue, yet
0:16:43 > 0:16:48alone exactly like we did in the 70s, 80s, 90s. Medical science have
0:16:48 > 0:16:51moved on, we do things differently in the hospital, when it in the
0:16:51 > 0:16:54school as well? It seems a bit strange to move on in this the
0:16:54 > 0:17:00starter.Were of the things we would perhaps have had in common is Sesame
0:17:00 > 0:17:05Street, the songs on Sesame Street. I can't remember now. Have you got a
0:17:05 > 0:17:14favourite nursery ran?Maybe if they build it into you at school... Temm
0:17:14 > 0:17:23says Michigan's learners.And they are all gruesome, nursery rhymes.
0:17:23 > 0:17:30Jack and Jill, Jack Trax his head open, doesn't he? Their horrible!
0:17:30 > 0:17:36Prashant and James, thank you for joining us for the paper review.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40Just a reminder, we take a look at tomorrows front pages every
0:17:40 > 0:17:43evening at 10:40pm here on BBC News.