14/12/2017 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are the political

commentator

Jo-Anne Nadler and the campaigner

and broadcaster, David Akinsanya.

Tomorrow's front pages.

The Telegraph features

a picture from today's

memorial for the victims

of the Grenfell Tower fire,

six months after 71 people

were killed in the blaze.

The Times front page also reflects

the Grenfell Tower memorial service

at St Paul's, as well as reporting

the collapse of a rape

trial after police failed

to reveal evidence.

The Daily Mirror reports that

Theresa May could be headed

for a second Parliamentary

defeat on Brexit,

following last night's vote.

The i front cover also predicts that

Brexit defeat could be

looming for the Prime Minister.

Disney's deal

for Rupert Murdoch's 21st

Century Fox assets is the lead story

on the Financial Times.

The deal between Disney

and 21st Century Fox

also leads the Guardian's front

page, as well as coverage of

the grief of the families affected

by the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

And the Metro reports

that homelessness is up

65% in seven years, according

to government figures.

Don't forget you can see the front

pages of the papers online

on the BBC News website.

A lot of the front pages feature

pictures from that moving service at

St Paul's Cathedral six months after

the Grenfell disaster. Also there is

the grief people are going through,

you can see that clearly. The tears.

Which is to be expected. The problem

is, I think, this is going to go on

for such a long time. When we have

inquiries, events like this that

happen in this country, I think

people who live those events often

find it is dragged out, it's long,

it really laborious process. I just

hope... They talk about it being

over a year before we start getting

any of the evidence together. I

think it's not good enough and I

think... I covered the Hillsborough

disaster, look how long it took to

sort that out and for the truth to

come out after we found the lose of

of people were lying.

The community

need answers quickly. Some of these

families will be in hotels over

Christmas, some in temporary

accommodation. This really isn't

good enough. This is what I'm

thinking about today.

It's a race so

many different question for society.

Absolutely, you used the word

disaster. I'm pleased to see the

Guardian used the word catastrophe

because it was on such a scale that

it's difficult, really, to report it

without falling into cliche. The

pictures on the front pages today

are very... At a very human level,

concentrating on people's grief. We

should remember in the timeline of

suffering, something as horrendous

as this, six months is really very

little. I take your point,

absolutely, about people wanting

answers. But inevitably if those

answers are going to be thoroughly

researched and the process is going

to be done properly, it may take

some time.

Let's look at the Times

front page. They also have a picture

reflecting the Grenfell service. One

of the interesting stories on the

front page is an Brexit. After that

Commons defeat, Theresa May is now

expected to back away from plans to

write the Brexit date into law to

avoid a second defeat in the Commons

next week, which would clearly be

very damaging for her government, to

have another Commons defeat.

Yet,

but from somebody looking from the

outside it looks like MS. I don't

understand why, for instance, Tory

MPs should be... We've heard about

asking for them to be sacked. I

think it's ridiculous. How do you

sack an MP anyway, you said that

earlier. I don't know, I just think

it's a terrible mess.

She was saying

today she's won 35 out of 36 Brexit

wrote in the Commons.

Basically, she

said to keep calm and carry on,

essentially. And stressed the fact

the majority of the votes have

passed. That's not to say emblematic

Lee what happened yesterday was

significant, though I think it's

much more about the emblematic

element of it than the actual

detail, which was pretty arcane. I

think this story in The Times, in

some ways, it is more significant if

she is to drop the suggestion there

should be an absolute day, March 29,

2019, that we exit. I think it's

more of a concession in a way than

what was done yesterday.

It does

show how after the election...

It is

vulnerability.

That fragile

majority.

When you have to go

through point by point, as we

welcome all these issues and Brexit,

then that is the vulnerability of

the government. I think it would

probably be shrewd if the Times is

right about this, then it's probably

a shrewd move under the

circumstances.

David, back to your

point about the way those rebel MPs

have been treated, the 11th Remain

MPs, the express front page says

their readers have joined cause to

sack Tory rebels who sided with

Labour. Sack rebel MPs and get on

with Brexit, that is the express

front page.

I don't know how you

sack an MP, I thought you had to be

deselected.

They have to be voted

out by the public.

This is total

hyperbole and doesn't really help

the express to move towards a clean

Brexit any time soon. Ramping up

these divisions. One of their

complaint is the MPs who won, rebel

MPs, were seen celebrating with a

glass of white wine in a Commons

bar.

Celebrating or perhaps soothing

their wounds, who knows?

There was a

lot of talk about how the wits have

been very hard line against rebels.

Allegations of bullying and so one.

Yes. There always is that kind of

talk when things go to the wire like

listed. Whatever they did, it wasn't

successful enough.

The mirror, let's

go on to that. Still on the Theresa

May theme. May Day is their

headline. They are combining... The

Prime Minister on the brink, they

say. Not only Brexit, but homeless

children up 70%. More people in A&E.

Knife crime by the young up 16%. A

second person Brexit defeat next

week, which we've already talked

about.

All of the papers are loaded

with their own politics. At a time

like this they will drop. Don't

forget, as viewers and people

watching the news, we've been

overloaded with the big issues but

there are a lot of issues underneath

which I think are being ignored.

Homelessness is a huge problem.

Is

that because of Brexit?

I think

because Brexit it's taken the

headlines, a lot of drama it.

Political people always wanting to

bring up the differences and so one.

I think these other things have been

neglected and it's right for the

mirror to have picked up on some of

those things, they are the things

that affect us.

Homelessness is the

front page, since that was

mentioned. In the Metro.

Homelessness up by 65% in seven

years, a pretty harsh statistic.

Yes, a horrific statistic without

doubt.

It kind of links back to

Grenfell because I think it's about

social Housing and the fact we

haven't been providing it. I know

lots of people in London really

suffering, people working we've got

proper jobs, finding it really

difficult to keep up with the rent.

Landlords almost out of control at

the moment with the amount of rent

they can charge, and the very little

they are doing for housing. And

benefits changes have meant a lot of

people who were on benefits have not

had their landlords paid. It used to

be that you would pay them directly

but now because of the changes one

isn't getting to landlords, more

people are being made homeless.

Do

you blame the media for not

highlighting those issues enough?

Clearly Brexit is crucial to the

future of this country, isn't it,

and it has to be disgusting huge

detail every day.

That's what David

is saying, there has been a big

preoccupation on some of the

parliamentary dramas rather than the

substance of the issues. Across some

of the newspapers perhaps.

All of

those issues are political and can

be solved, but completely, but can

be helped with politicians backing

and people concentrating on those

issues. Knife crime in London is a

huge problem as well. I want to see

that discussed.

We know the Prime

Minister herself is very much

committed herself personally to the

issue of housing, improving housing

and homelessness. We've yet to... A

big budget decision was made only

two or three weeks ago in the

budget. Little was said about

changing planning laws, which is

where a lot of these things come to

bear.

Prime Minister on the brink,

they said, is she on the brink? She

was cheered by European leaders in

Brussels, we gather, for getting

through phase one of the

negotiations on to phase two.

Considering where she was after the

election, some people say she could

only survive a few more days. She's

still here.

She is still bad, the

longer she is there the more likely

she is to hang on until we go

through to another election and the

normal course of events. I'd be more

concerned about her future if the

panellist on the brink was in one of

the other papers other than the

mirror. You have to feel for her

because only a week ago she had a

breakthrough on Brexit. Looking at

how we felt she seemed to physically

look like the weight had lifted off

her shoulders. It lasted just a few

days.

That is the life of a Prime

Minister. Financial Times, this

extraordinary deal where Murdoch and

Disney... Murdoch, the man who has

acquired and built his empire,

built, built about, now seems to be

selling it off.

He's quoted as

saying he's pivoting at a pivotal

moment, which appealed to me. It

suggested he is acting in reaction

to changes in how we consume media

and entertainment.

Which is

changing.

Absolutely, through

streaming and Internet, rather than

the more traditional formats. Which

20th Century Fox were at the

forefront.

David, it's a fascinating

story.

It is. He still says those

people who know him know he is a

news man with a competitive spirit.

I don't know where put that now. It

looks like most of the new stuff is

going to go.

The last story we will

look at is the Telegraph. An

extraordinary story. It claims the

Russians may be posing a threat to

Britain's Internet access and trade

because of undersea communication

cables vulnerable to the Russian

navy. A warning from the head of the

Armed Forces in the UK. Suggesting

that Russians are going to be

cutting our cables.

Air Chief

Marshal Stuart Piech. I never

imagined that. I saw some thing

about it in the news a few weeks

ago. He is buying for money, he is

lobbying for money.

I think that's

why it's coming back up.

The fact of

the matter is there are these cables

under the sea. We haven't got the

right equipment to be able to...

Because of the cuts and

everything... He's pushing that as a

way of getting more resources for

the armed services.

He argues

exactly that, the Navy doesn't have

the appropriate... Planes and ships

that are capable of detecting a

particular type of submarine...

Cable cutters.

We're smiling about

it but it could potentially be a

very, very dangerous significant

issue. A way of undermining how we

do business, how we communicate with

each other. It's interesting they

are being so explicit about saying

danger comes from Russia.

Not to

sound facetious but if they were

cutting our tables, couldn't we cut

fares?

There is a lot of information

that flows over those cables. If we

think about what they were prepared

to do with the Internet during the

elections, maybe it is something. It

might be that we're giving the

Russians an idea because... Do we

know they are planning this?

I don't

think we would be likely to know

sitting here this evening. I think I

would be prepared to take the advice

of the air Chief Marshall on this

one.

Thank you for sharing your

thoughts with us. Good to see you

both. That is it from the papers,

you can see the front pages online

on our BBC News website. Therefore

you seven days a week. If you

happened to miss our programme, you

can watch it later on iPlayer.

Thank you Jo-Anne Nadler

and David Akinsanya.

Goodbye.