27/11/2017 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are Martin Bentham,

Home Affairs Editor

at the London Evening Standard

and Victoria Murphy,

who's Royal Correspondent

at the Daily Mirror.

There's your clue as to what is on

the front pages!

Tomorrow's

front pages, starting with...

The 'i' which has a picture

of Prince Harry and and his fiancee,

the American actress

Meghan Markle who announced

their engagement earlier today.

The happy couple also makes

the Metro's front page,

with a close up of the engagement

ring which is decorated

with diamonds from Princess Diana's

collection.

The Telegraph reports how

the Queen's corgis took to Ms Markle

to Ms Markle straightaway,

according to Prince Harry.

The FT leads with how

the price of the Bitcoin hit

a record high today,

with the value of the virtual

currency rising more than 850%

since the beginning of the year.

The Daily Express goes

with the royal engagement,

and comments from Harry

that the stars were aligned

when he met Meghan.

The Mirror reports how Prince Harry

had proposed earlier this month

at his home in Kensington Palace

as the couple were

making roast chicken.

The Brexit secretary David Davis

could be in contempt of Parliament

by refusing to hand over in their

entirety the impact assessments on

Brexit, according to The Guardian

newspaper. The Times details

accusations that some of Jeremy

Corbyn's left-wing supporters are

facing for carrying out what the

paper calls an 'aggressive purge' of

centrist local councillors. So,

there's only really one story today,

as we have been reporting today, the

engagement, there had been a lot of

speculation about it, we didn't know

when it was coming, Victoria may

have known more! That engagement

today, Prince Harry and Meghan

Markle will be married in the

spring. It says on the front page of

the i newspaper, "Bride-to-be is

divorced American actress who will

be the first mixed-race member of

the Royal family". The Queen says

that she is delighted. What do you

think of it all, are you excited at

the prospect of a royal wedding?

It

is a big new state, and the fact

that she is very different, she

comes from America and is divorced,

she is an actress, and she has a lot

of personality, clearly, it makes it

quite an interesting and

eye-catching event for the public.

The fact that Prince Harry has been

able to choose freely the person he

wants, that is the defining thing. I

suppose if you think about his

father, there was a lot of pressure

on him at the time 30 years ago to

choose someone from the right

background. It's a good thing that

Harry can choose the person he wants

to be with and that she can do the

same.

Yes, there is no question that

this is a love match, you only had

to watch that interview today and

you can see how they look at each

other... Why make you could feel it

coming through the television. They

are clearly completely in love. They

said early on that they were

completely in love, he said she knew

that she was the one from the moment

that he met her. And I think it

reflects the fact that they have

been caught up in this whirlwind,

and they are completely besotted.

You can see that in their faces.

And

in the interview, you cannot help

but compare and contrast it with

previous interviews, whether it was

Charles and Diana or William and

Kate, that this time Megan was doing

most of the talking? -- but this

time Meghan was doing most of the

talking?

She is with the UN, she is

an actress and so one but she said

despite that background she wasn't

quite used to the attention of being

a royal girlfriend and now a royal

bride-to-be. Clearly she is

comfortable in talking in public.

Prince Harry himself has also spoken

in public quite a bit, probably more

than some previous royal family

members. They are both quite

comfortable in that environment and

the interview was very relaxed with

some nice anecdotes.

And she was

incredibly relaxed, I thought. So

comfortable and so open and free in

how they spoke about their

relationship as well. You can

contrast it with previous

interviews, and the most obvious

comparison is William and Kate's

interview. At the time there was

some handholding from William that

you felt that Megan was very

accomplished in speaking.

And the

ring... It was designed by Prince

Harry himself, apparently. Tell us

some of those details about the

diamonds?

We found out today, when

Meghan appeared wearing the ring,

when she came out, Harry designed

the ring and had it made by one of

the jewellers which works with the

Queen, he chose three diamonds the

Centre Diamond is from Botswana, a

place where they have holidayed

together, it's very close to Harry's

heart, he calls it his second home

and the two diamonds either side

were from Princess Diana's Private

collection.

They spoke about her, he

made the point that this is the kind

of occasion where he misses having

his mum around.

You would, if your

parents are at an engagement, it's

what you would like to have but what

is interesting is they calculated

the engagement ring is worth

£200,000... I'm not sure how they

have done that.

At least, I'm sure!

It's very difficult to put a price

on their own's diamonds!

And they

were roasting a chicken!

I love that

fact!

But also he almost couldn't

finish... Having plucked up the

courage to do it...

It's

interesting, the proposal was

clearly low-key and relaxed, which

is what we have said, they are very

relaxed, it was premeditated but not

in a fancy way. Webb he said that

they had dates in the cottage, they

didn't want everyone looking at them

outside so they did things in

reverse. The Daily Mirror with that

quote from Prince Harry, she tripped

and fell into my life...

And those

details about the roast chicken

which everybody seems to like quite

a lot here. Can she carve out a role

for herself? She is slightly older

than Princess Diana was when she

became a princess, she is 36 and has

done a lot of charity work, can she

carry on that kind of thing?

Prince

Harry does his own Invictus Games,

all that kind of work. I think they

do both believe in doing things

above and beyond their royal duties.

Clearly they will do more royal

duties, he spoke that he felt that

she would be happy in that role. And

so on. It's essential, really, for

her, that she continues what she is

doing and there is a lot of

acceptance among everyone connected

that she is an independent person.

That is part of her attraction.

She

is giving up the acting, she said

that today, she sees this as a new

chapter. Part of the Royal 's work

is charity work. In the sense that

doing the charity work isn't a

departure from royal duties but part

of the same thing. She seemed

excited about taking that on. They

will be a real tour de force on the

public stage because they are both

so genuinely passionate.

And you

could tell that they felt that as

seeking the could further those

charitable causes -- they felt that

as a team. They talked about the

Commonwealth in particular.

Some

people would be sceptical about the

royal family but the fact of the

matter is that they have an impact.

They can open doors, they can create

good things, in places all around

the world. Whether you believe it or

not, that is the reality. The royal

presence, both of them, they can do

a lot of good and she can do that.

And The Guardian newspaper, they

have a picture on the front, a

comment piece, about the changing

faces of the UK as shoot towards

race, Meghan Markle is of mixed

race. They say that even 20 years

ago, this probably would not have

been acceptable. Victoria, do you

think that is true?

Well there's not

really the president to say it is

possible and now there is, it's

obviously factually correct that she

would be the first mixed-race person

to marry into the royal family,

family was made up of white European

aristocrats for generations and some

would say that Britain is

increasingly multicultural and the

Royal family has not reflected that,

this is a milestone. It was

interesting in the interview, they

were asked, do you think that he

represents something here? The open

question that gave them the

opportunity to say, actually, we

think we are in this way... They

chose not to do that and it shows

for them that this is not something

they want to be seen to be making a

thing off because it is not a thing.

That wasn't the reason...

Exactly.

This wedding, as it will be, is more

that he can choose someone

completely freely. It is more of a

social thing, then previously, there

was the social group where

previously members of the Royal

family could choose from here, as it

happened, they would have been white

Europeans from aristocratic

families. That would have been

defining. That's the biggest change

and as it happens, she is from a

mixed-race background. It's a

perfectly good thing and so on. It

shouldn't be the defining thing.

What should be a defining thing is

that the Royal family are free to

choose who they want to marry

without constraints. And a quick

look at the corgis, "The corgis took

to her straightaway". Prince Harry

said this, he has had them barking

at him for years, but she walks in

and they are happy about the whole

thing.

A very good sign!

And that's

the best photo, presented in the

best way.

I did a lot of tweeting as

things were announced and throughout

I was tweeting some of those lines

coming out. This thing about the

corgis, that is what has been picked

up on the most!

And one more story

before we go back to The Guardian

newspaper, some news about Brexit,

and the impact reports. This vote in

parliament, that the government had

to hand over these documents buried

somewhere in Whitehall, it turns out

they have handed over something that

MPs are not happy with?

It will not

contain things market sensitive...

Or Romilly embarrassing to the

government!

You sometimes get these

things and they are slightly

spurious arguments, but I certainly

think of things are published, as

much information as possible should

be available for Parliament to

consider and it seems regrettable

that that is not going to be the

case.

David Davis could be in

contempt of the house can he could

be dragged before the speaker if he

is not careful. They are not happy

with that, and one final story, on

the front of the Financial Times,

about easyJet reporting a 44.5%

gender pay gap?

Yes, it's

interesting -- 40 5.5% gender pay

gap. This is a particularly bad one,

much worse than the national

average, and I think it's

interesting, that even for a company

run by a woman, they have this big

gap. We were looking at why it might

be the case, and it's because they

have more female ones, basically.

What is interesting about the pay

gap reporting is it forces ministers

to address this. Who and where we

are employing.

It's opening up the

opportunity from the start for more

women to go into it, being

encouraged and thinking it is

something for them. And companies

feeling it is something they should

do. That's what gender gap reporting

would encourage people to do.

Those

are some stories that made it into

the newspapers! No doubt what is

dominating, pictures everywhere of

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. We

have more details about the wedding

tomorrow. You will be waiting for

that. It's another busy day for you,

Victoria. That's all for tonight,

don't forget you can see the front

pages online. It is all there for

you, seven days a week, on the

website.

If you miss the programme any

evening you can watch it

later on BBC iPlayer

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