14/11/2017 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are Laura Perrins,

co-Editor of the website,

The Conservative Woman,

and journalist and

broadcaster Rachel Shabi.

The Telegraph leads with a line-up

of the potential Conservative MPs

threatening to derail

the EU Withdrawal Bill.

The Express

claims Labour is secretly

plotting to stop Brexit.

The Financial Times says that Jeff

Sessions faced more questions about

contacts with Russia during the

presidential campaign.

The Metro reports

General Sir Richard Barrons' warning

that the Army is

dangerously underfunded.

The Guardian leads

with claims that Russia has been

meddling in British politics

via Twitter.

The i is concerned about

the rise in development

on areas of outstanding

natural beauty.

The Daily Mail reports that half of

pensioners take at least five drugs

a day. Let's begin and I think just

to get away from Brexit for a couple

of minutes, let's start with the

Metro and the front page, cuts, the

Army is 20 years out of date.

Quite

a big story, if not for Brexit this

would be believe an perhaps some of

the main newspapers. The dangerous

state of the British Army and how

underfunded it is, some say it is at

least 20 years out of date and that

it needs an injection of at least 2

billion a year, which is obviously a

very significant sum. Further down

it says that it is predicted that

the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

could acquire the capability to nuke

London within 18 months, which is

never something you want to read

about this late at night. Quite a

significant story and whether

they'll be able to find that 2

billion a year in the current

climate, we'll have to see.

Of

course there is a budget next week,

is this why the tightening of the

story?

I'm sure it is and I'm sure

there will be other stories from

other departments asking for money

from the Treasury. But the defence

of the realm is very important. Up

until recently you'd expect it to be

properly funded.

Worth pointing out

that this prediction is being made

by a former forces chief. Always

useful to have someone no longer in

office who feels they can speak out.

Of course, you'd expect them to do

so.

Let's move on, having ignored

Brexit for a couple of minutes! The

papers are full of it with that EU

withdrawal bill being debated today.

The Daily Telegraph, Rachel, a Hall

of shame for the Daily Telegraph.

This not at all sinister headline,

the Brexit mutineers, listing the

Conservative MPs who are planning to

rebel against Theresa May's idea to

put into law a date, and actual date

that Britain leaves the EU. And

these remain supporting Conservative

MPs, mainly, and they say it is

ridiculous because we are saying

that we don't want to leave, we

aren't trying to overturn the

rendered decision, where just trying

to ensure that believe safely and

get a good deal, that we don't rush

and leave just because we committed

ourselves to this arbitrary date.

The Labour Party is completely

opposed to the date, dismissing it

as a gimmick and as Theresa May

pandering to the Eurosceptics in her

party. Just kind of boring them a

fish to keep them quiet and stop

them from bickering and being

divisive. And at the expense of the

country. Not a great thing to try

and do and therefore no supplies

that she's facing this rebellion

from our own MPs. I would find it

very unlikely that this move to put

the date into law were actually

passed.

It's a very interesting

dispute. A number of things happened

today, not that I want to jump the

gun, but the Daily Express covers it

as well. There was a vote to repeal

the European Communities Act and a

plan to transfer all EU regulations

into British law on the day we

leave. And then the ultimatum

essentially is a vote for the deal

we have other Macs we -- or we will

leave without one. A question about

whether the date on the bill, the

date of leaving should be on the

bill. It would be unusual to type

parliament's hands in this way. It

is an interesting point of

conscience, some of these MPs wanted

to remain in the EU themselves but

represent leave constituencies.

Ultimately, I think it was Edmund

Burke who said you are a member of

Parliament and when you get there

you aren't solely a member of your

individual constituencies. You

should be voting, I think, long

constituency line but another part

of me thinks that if you feel this

is going to be very damaging to the

country and your constituents

themselves, then maybe you should

consider your position and resign.

It's a very difficult decision and

it comes back to the idea that this

was done by referendum and wasn't a

promise in the Conservative

manifesto, that all Conservative MPs

had to sign up to. When it was done

by referendum, these are always

difficult issues you come up

against.

Indeed, you mentioned the

Daily Express. It has a Brexit

headline, plan revealed of a new

plot to derail Brexit. What is it?

This is an almost wilful misreading

of straight facts. I don't know how

you can reach that conclusion from

what's being planned. Which is that

a senior Labour Party figure is

apparently saying that, you know,

they're is going to try and commit

parliament in these discussions over

the withdrawal bill that we're going

to be seeing over the next days and

weeks, to a two year transition

period. By any stretch, saying that

you want a two year transition deal

period isn't same as saying you want

to plot to stop Brexit. I think it's

symptomatic of the security of the

leave constituency and its

supporters in the right-wing press.

If they were more confident about

their own hand and their capacity to

take Britain out of the EU properly

and safely come in a way that

wouldn't actually cause massive

economic damage to the country, then

they wouldn't have to keep going on

and on about mutineers and traitors

and these Das Dudley plots to derail

Brexit because they'd understand

that this is a straightforward

parliamentary process of scrutiny

and accountability which is what

Parliament is there for. So this

idea that everyone is constantly

plotting to derail is what insecure

eyes are going to see.

Worth

pointing out that the Labour Party

is also split over Europe, isn't it?

The Labour Party is also compromised

in that many of their MPs represent

constituencies that absolutely want

to leave the EU but at the end of

the day they aren't the ones in

power. Rachel is right, if it is

limited to a two-year transition

deal, then that ultimately isn't a

plan to derail Brexit but if the

plan behind it is actually to delay

and delay as much as we can, to hang

onto the two year transition and

maybe we can make it last longer,

then you are looking at something

more sinister. I guess MPs should be

upfront. There are some people like

Ken Clarke and a number on Labour

benches who feel that it is going to

be a disaster. You can deal with

that honesty but it is people who

are hedging their bets and trying to

push it into the future because it

lacks transparency.

Interesting that

these cross-party alliances are

being formed. In a sense, Labour and

Conservative are not really the

labels any more, it is leave and

remain when it comes to this debate.

The front page of the Guardian, the

story is that Russia backed Brexit

in fake Twitter posts. Every week

there is a new story about Russia

and its influence, either online or

elsewhere, in the democratic

processes in the West. What does it

say?

The story says there is concern

about Russian influence in British

politics, coming off the back of

Theresa May saying in a speech, we

know what you're up to. The Times

runs on it as well. We shouldn't be

under any illusion that this

influence people's decision to vote

to leave the EU, it wasn't about the

message on the back of the bus, it

wasn't about the tweets that Russia

put out.

I love the people genuinely

want to leave the EU and have power

returned -- a lot of people

genuinely want to leave the EU. It

is concerning if you have a foreign

country, the Guardian have shortened

the organisation unfortunately to

the IRA, influencing British

politics out of a number of accounts

suspended by Twitter in the US. That

may sound like a lot but it is a

tiny number of accounts compared to

what goes on on Twitter. I think

there is a select committee looking

into these things and it is right

that we know what's going on but I

think we should also be careful not

to exaggerate every influence they

might have had.

How worried about

this are you?

It is important to

keep these two things separate.

People vote in certain ways and that

needs to be understood, people are

making those decisions for whatever

reasons, that isn't necessarily to

be conflated with the hijacking of

our political conversation. Those

two things can exist separately. Of

course it's worrying if you have

Russian influence in our political

conversation in this way, especially

over Brexit. Not just that, it's the

kind of things that these bots and

troll farms, very divisive in

society. Anti-immigration. They have

tracked a Kremlin linked operation

which attempted to stir anti-Islamic

settlement around -- sentiment

around the time of the Westminster

attack. There was a bogus claim that

a Muslim woman was ignoring victims.

It wasn't true but it made a lot of

noise. That is the danger and the

worry. Politicians should be taking

this a lot more seriously and

calling for an investigation.

Let's

move on to the Financial Times,

another Brexit story. Davis soothing

city fears with this boat travel. --

with this boat travel.

Quite an

interesting story in that David

Davis wants to protect the city and

the vine, -- and the financial

markets so he has suggested they

post Brexit cavalry team allowing

them to travel freely across Europe

as Theresa May tries to reassure the

City of London. What happens post

Brexit, this is important to the

British economy. I think people

working for the same firm, if they

are switching between offices,

London and Brussels and Paris, they

will be treated in a different

manner to other workers. He will

want to streamline the system and

have as few regulations or

limitations on that form of

movement. Of course he has to get

Europe to agree to that and that

again will be another negotiation

point. He seems pretty sure that the

EU will want to play ball on this

because they will want access to the

London financial markets.

Let's move

on, naturally, away from Brexit and

onto the front page of the Guardian,

talking about Zimbabwe and what's

going on. Rumours of a clue.

Yes,

these are rumours and there are

rumours that Robert Mugabe is behind

it -- rumours of a coup. He is the

only leader that Zimbabwe has had in

37 years of independence. The

rumours are that these tanks and

lorries that the witnesses are

seeing, military personnel in the

roads approaching the capital have

been ordered by Mugabe. There's no

confirmation of that and I the

ambassador in South Africa has

denied that has said it is stable

and fine but it doesn't look great.

Deceiving South African diplomats

have said that the government in

Harare is intact and they have

dismissed of a coup. One more story.

Delia is in a froth over the rise of

the "poncy" chefs. Who are they?

I

don't think we are going to name

them.

Do you share her anger at

chefs who put six dots of sauce on a

plate?

When I saw the story I

thought she meant cooking at home,

that we shouldn't do the fancy

dishes at home and I certainly agree

with that. In fact she is

complaining that when she goes out,

it has become far too fancy and she

doesn't want these six dots on the

plate and I'd have to agree that I'd

rather like the chance to get out to

such a restaurant and I wouldn't be

complaining. If you don't want to

go, Delia, I'll go!

Rachel?

This has

been one of the things that is

surely to be celebrated about

British life, the incredible cuisine

that has boomed and blossomed in

this country and particularly this

modern British trend over the last

few years, I think it's been really

interesting. It is experimental,

maybe a bit.... Delia had a cookbook

all about boiling an egg,

essentially.

This is a different

chapter. Thank you both a rematch,

Rachel and Laura. That's it for the

papers.

Don't forget you can see the front

pages of the papers online

on the BBC News website,

and if you miss the programme any

evening you can watch it

later on BBC iPlayer.

Thank

you Laura Perrins and Rachel Shabi.

Goodbye.