26/11/2017

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0:00:02 > 0:00:04That's all the sport for now. Now on BBC News, it's

0:00:04 > 0:00:14time for The Papers.

0:00:20 > 0:00:25Welcome to our look ahead is at what the papers have brought us to

0:00:25 > 0:00:27With me are the journalist and broadcaster Rachel Shabi

0:00:27 > 0:00:33and Peter Conradi of the Sunday Times.

0:00:33 > 0:00:38Before I speak to them, let's have a look at the front pages.

0:00:38 > 0:00:40The Sunday Telegraph claims that the Prime Minister has been

0:00:40 > 0:00:43warned by MP's not to retreat from a pledge to "take back

0:00:43 > 0:00:45control" of British laws from Brussels post Brexit.

0:00:45 > 0:00:47The Sunday Times meanwhile reports that top private girls schools

0:00:47 > 0:00:49have suffered a slump in exam performance.

0:00:49 > 0:00:51The Mail on Sunday alleges that there are links

0:00:51 > 0:00:53between Boris Johnson and Michael Gove's bid to persuade

0:00:53 > 0:00:57Theresa May to take a tougher stance on Brexit and a Russian tycoon.

0:00:57 > 0:00:59And finally the Sunday Express reports that Meghan Markle

0:00:59 > 0:01:01is being guarded by royal protection officers as the Palace

0:01:01 > 0:01:11prepares to announce her engagement to Prince Harry.

0:01:12 > 0:01:18It hasn't happened yet, but anyway, let's begin. Peter, will you start

0:01:18 > 0:01:22us off? This is a story in the Observer about island in the border,

0:01:22 > 0:01:27whether it should be on the mainland, down the Irish Sea or

0:01:27 > 0:01:36whatever.This is a crucial argument in this whole debate. It's a

0:01:36 > 0:01:40statement of the obvious rather than an exclusive front-page story, what

0:01:40 > 0:01:49they have got is the agricultural minister said another problem. If we

0:01:49 > 0:01:53have a hard Brexit, if we don't have a trade deal, if we crashed out of

0:01:53 > 0:01:58the single market, what is going to happen to Northern Ireland? The

0:01:58 > 0:02:02problem being that you either have a hard border between Northern Ireland

0:02:02 > 0:02:06and the Republic or have some arrangement when Northern Ireland is

0:02:06 > 0:02:09part of the Republic. Then what happens to its status within the

0:02:09 > 0:02:16United Kingdom? Lots of other things you can see a way of fudging it, but

0:02:16 > 0:02:22this one, I don't see how.There has been a lot about technology covering

0:02:22 > 0:02:26to people's rescue and it matter about borders in the old-fashioned

0:02:26 > 0:02:38sense.I think the reports about technology were widely dismissed. It

0:02:38 > 0:02:42was things like drones which people pointed out were going to be

0:02:42 > 0:02:48affected by things such as weather. It is quite a big thing and doing

0:02:48 > 0:03:06you can understand why islands is so concerned about it -- Ireland. The

0:03:06 > 0:03:09DUP have said they don't want to have a different set of regulations

0:03:09 > 0:03:17to the rest of the UK and the Republic is saying actually, we

0:03:17 > 0:03:24absolutely do need to have that. We need some sort of continuity in

0:03:24 > 0:03:26customs regulations otherwise there will be a hard border between us and

0:03:26 > 0:03:31that's the last thing that anybody wants, given the history, given the

0:03:31 > 0:03:36past and given the fact that it is a condition of the Good Friday

0:03:36 > 0:03:41Agreement. It does seem to be that because staying in the customs union

0:03:41 > 0:03:48and the single market in some shape or form seems to be such an anathema

0:03:48 > 0:03:53to the hard Brexit component of the government that it's actually making

0:03:53 > 0:04:04this intractable.Ireland want us to stay in the customs union.Of course

0:04:04 > 0:04:10they do. We are the biggest trading partners. If Brexit is going to be

0:04:10 > 0:04:16complicated for the United Kingdom, it will be even more competitive for

0:04:16 > 0:04:24the Republic. Anything involving Brexit, ultimately all the other 27

0:04:24 > 0:04:29member states have a right of veto, so if we don't keep Ireland happy,

0:04:29 > 0:04:36they can effectively veto any deal. Staying with the subject, perhaps

0:04:36 > 0:04:40you can start us off with the Sunday Telegraph. A warning to the Prime

0:04:40 > 0:04:48Minister? It's about British law is being taken back and we don't want

0:04:48 > 0:04:52European courts telling us what to do.It's interesting because it's

0:04:52 > 0:04:57another one of those red lines imposed by the hard right Brexit

0:04:57 > 0:05:07element of the Cabinet and their cheerleaders in our press. This is

0:05:07 > 0:05:10another one of the issues that needs to be resolved before we can proceed

0:05:10 > 0:05:17to the trade components. It concerned EU citizens and the idea

0:05:17 > 0:05:36was that there

0:05:36 > 0:05:39would be a situation where the rights would remain as they are and

0:05:39 > 0:05:45the hard Brexit element of the Cabinet is saying no because we have

0:05:45 > 0:05:50two be the ECJ because that is what we voted for. It's interesting to

0:05:50 > 0:05:53see how all these elements that could be resolved, we could move to

0:05:53 > 0:05:57the next stage of negotiations, are being impeded by the same group in

0:05:57 > 0:06:06government.All these words are being used. Cabinet ministers,

0:06:06 > 0:06:11politicians, but it never says exactly who they are. Talking about

0:06:11 > 0:06:16bouncing the Prime Minister. It sounds chaotic.It does, but

0:06:16 > 0:06:21underlying it is that this is something that is hugely important

0:06:21 > 0:06:26to a small group of politicians I think fundamentally. The average

0:06:26 > 0:06:31reader, the average member of the country is probably indifferent to

0:06:31 > 0:06:35whether the European Court of Justice rules on particular issues

0:06:35 > 0:06:43or it some other court. In such an arcane thing.You say that, but for

0:06:43 > 0:06:47people who voted for Brexit it was one of the things. We want our laws

0:06:47 > 0:06:52back and we don't want to be told what to do by Brussels.It was

0:06:52 > 0:06:58always a web thing to say about laws that Britain had a huge part in

0:06:58 > 0:07:05making and was beneficial to the UK. Its was a web thing to say about the

0:07:05 > 0:07:10ECJ, right?If you were to ask people how important is it to you

0:07:10 > 0:07:15that the ECJ has jurisdiction over British laws, I think it will be

0:07:15 > 0:07:26high on the priority list like things such as the NHS, immigration,

0:07:26 > 0:07:34the cost of living.Let's move on. The mail on Sunday, again there is a

0:07:34 > 0:07:44Brexit link, but as always, it's a personalising of stories. Boris and

0:07:44 > 0:07:49Gove. I have to admit I read it about four times before I understood

0:07:49 > 0:07:57it.Unravel it for us. It's a difficult one. I think the headline

0:07:57 > 0:08:03is the simplest bit. Essentially, they are building on a scoop that

0:08:03 > 0:08:10they had a couple of weeks ago in which there was a letter by Boris

0:08:10 > 0:08:14Johnson and Michael Gove to the Prime Minister with three key

0:08:14 > 0:08:26demands. One to force Hammonds to plan for Brexit, and also to sweep

0:08:26 > 0:08:37away all the bureaucracy around Brexit.

0:08:44 > 0:08:50It's all complicated. It's a suggestion of building on the

0:08:50 > 0:09:01previous crew and building on this Institute.Is it tied into Putin?

0:09:01 > 0:09:10No. There are questions to be answered and we need to know why

0:09:10 > 0:09:16they have such influence over this think tank and members of the

0:09:16 > 0:09:23Cabinet. It has a big stock in the Russian state-controlled gas

0:09:23 > 0:09:31company, but that could just be because they took advantage of what

0:09:31 > 0:09:36was called the short doctrine and capitalism would describe it as

0:09:36 > 0:09:46making hay, which was to go into Russia when it was just changing,

0:09:46 > 0:09:52they went in and bought up all state-owned utility companies.It's

0:09:52 > 0:09:58a long way from that to getting involved with Boris Johnson and

0:09:58 > 0:10:08Michael Gove.But they are free marketeers. They are into having a

0:10:08 > 0:10:13Singapore style type of tax haven. Let's turn the UK into that post

0:10:13 > 0:10:18Brexit. That is the hardline version of Brexit favoured by people like

0:10:18 > 0:10:22Boris Johnson Michael Gove. We do have to wonder why this Institute

0:10:22 > 0:10:29has so much influence.We have to remind ourselves that the mail on

0:10:29 > 0:10:39Sunday is a Remainer. It is. The agenda is skewed here.It is. I

0:10:39 > 0:10:45worked many years in Russia and I follow events the closely. You have

0:10:45 > 0:10:50written about Russia. Yes, thank you for mentioning my book. Anyone who

0:10:50 > 0:10:55has ever done business in Russia, if they are in the spotlight for any

0:10:55 > 0:11:02reason, its protein and used against them and they are turned into

0:11:02 > 0:11:08Putin's pawn, which is a little bit far-fetched.Let's move on to the

0:11:08 > 0:11:16Observer. Fake online accounts driving anti-Muslim abuse.What is

0:11:16 > 0:11:19this about. It's following on from the mail on Sunday who have been

0:11:19 > 0:11:25running stories about Russian involvement in our political

0:11:25 > 0:11:31conversation in a few weeks ago they had a story about Russian troll

0:11:31 > 0:11:36farms pumping out fake news on Twitter. One of the things that was

0:11:36 > 0:11:40mentioned is that it was particularly bees trolls who are

0:11:40 > 0:11:44pumping into our political conversation supplies stories that

0:11:44 > 0:11:51were fuelling anti-Muslim hate. This is the story based on research from

0:11:51 > 0:12:00the anti-racist organisation that is looking into the impact of these

0:12:00 > 0:12:05tweets. It is skewed our national conversation by pushing up the

0:12:05 > 0:12:09influence of these sort of hate filled and anti-Muslim Islamophobic

0:12:09 > 0:12:15tweets, thereby creating the impression that there more support

0:12:15 > 0:12:20for the sentiments that actually is the case.Peter, what did you make

0:12:20 > 0:12:29of it?It was interesting and alarming that this is being

0:12:29 > 0:12:35artificially flamed up. They don't make the Russian connection, which

0:12:35 > 0:12:40is a missed opportunity. They are basically pinning the blame on

0:12:40 > 0:12:51American racist groups and Pamela Geller, a controversial activist,

0:12:51 > 0:12:59who is allegedly behind a number of these issues.We stay in the world

0:12:59 > 0:13:03of cyber matters. Let's go back to the Sunday Times front page. Peter,

0:13:03 > 0:13:12your turn. Cyber slackers doom at the UK economy. Is this the issue of

0:13:12 > 0:13:22people looking at Facebook, Twitter, e-mailing?One of the big stories

0:13:22 > 0:13:26that came out of the budget this week is that Britain has a problem

0:13:26 > 0:13:31with productivity. Living standards are depressed and will continue to

0:13:31 > 0:13:35be that way because we are not productive enough. They're having

0:13:35 > 0:13:44all sorts of explanations. Is it to in -- is it down to under

0:13:44 > 0:13:52investments? Or is it that we spend too much time at work on our phones

0:13:52 > 0:13:58on social media and shopping. A senior analyst that the Bank of

0:13:58 > 0:14:01England who wrote on the blog said that people are spending too much

0:14:01 > 0:14:07time at work checking the devices which leads to a crisis of attention

0:14:07 > 0:14:13which is leading to a drop in productivity. You are not checking

0:14:13 > 0:14:18your phone now, are you?It does make me a bit cross a story like

0:14:18 > 0:14:28this because we note that productivity has that line. We know

0:14:28 > 0:14:33that we are looking at lost decades where wages can't grow and indeed

0:14:33 > 0:14:38they are currently at levels lower than they were ten years ago before

0:14:38 > 0:14:43the crash. People up and down this country know that they are working

0:14:43 > 0:14:48harder for less pay under worse conditions. I find it insulting to

0:14:48 > 0:14:53all those people, all of us who are working hard to suggest that low

0:14:53 > 0:14:55productivity, which is something the government can fix with investment

0:14:55 > 0:15:04and stimulation, the blame is passed on workers spending too much time on

0:15:04 > 0:15:12the devices. It's an insult. There are ways to fix the economy. Germany

0:15:12 > 0:15:18is way more productive. Why is that? They have a government that invests

0:15:18 > 0:15:23in infrastructure. That is how you get innovation, creativity, where

0:15:23 > 0:15:32the efficiency.Last story, very briefly. Sunday express. Royal guard

0:15:32 > 0:15:41for Meghan.Will they announced their engagement? You know, it is

0:15:41 > 0:15:45widely tipped to be imminent. People are looking at all the signs of why

0:15:45 > 0:15:50this is going to happen. One of the reasons is this the as the story

0:15:50 > 0:15:56says, she has been given a wild card, Meghan Morkel. There has been

0:15:56 > 0:16:09speculation all week. -- Meghan Markle. She has moved her pet dogs

0:16:09 > 0:16:17to the UK as well.Very telling. Well, she has begun the process of

0:16:17 > 0:16:23sending her dogs to England.It takes a while. We will all have to

0:16:23 > 0:16:26keep checking on social media to get the latest. Thank you both very much

0:16:26 > 0:16:39indeed. We will take a look at tomorrow's front pages