21/12/2017 The Papers

My guest is one of the most

successful crime writers ever. We

will be talking about the book The

Seagull. That is on Meet the Author.

Hello, and welcome to our look ahead

to what the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are Lord Digby Jones,

Former Trader Minister

and Henry Bonsu,

broadcaster and campaigner.

Tomorrow's front pages,

starting with this.

The Metro devotes its entire front

page to the engagement photo

of Prince Harry and Meghan Markel.

The paper wishes its

readers a Merry Kissmass.

The I claims that the Health

Secretary, Jeremy Hunt,

wants to take over as Deputy Prime

Minister following the departure

of Damien Green.

The Express headlines details

of what it's calling

a breakthrough on Alzheimer's.

The Financial Times shows

an image of Nikki Haley,

the US Ambassador to the UN,

who has warned that the US will not

forget countries who voted

against its decision to recognise

Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The Daily Mirror leads with a report

about an alleged russian spy

who visited Number 10 as part

of a Ukrainian delegation.

The Telegraph features claims

from Boris Johnson that Damien Green

was the victim of a vendetta

by retired Met Police officers.

The Times has a similar story,

alongside another picture

of the recently

engaged royal couple.

And the Guardian says that tens

of thousands of NHS patients

will have their surgeries cancelled

this winter to help avoid a crisis

across the health service.

So, let's begin.

The Telegraph. A Green vendetta from

the police.

Yes. Boris Johnson said

the former Deputy Prime Minister

suffered a police vendetta. This is

building up steam. Theresa May

echoed these concerns across the

political spectrum. It is putting

increasing pressure on Cressida Dick

to make sure things are properly

looked at. It does not tell us

exactly what laws the police may

have broken. It refers vaguely to

possible prosecutions and the

referral of this case to the

Information Commissioner's Office.

They are not serving officers, so

they have not broken the Official

Secrets Act, but there may be fines

if they leak personal darter to the

data to the public. -- data to the

public.

There is another aspect to

this article after that where it

says in other developments, talking

about Kate, you had a bit of

interview on your headlines, I think

there are a few things here where it

has not been her finest hour.

Firstly, she was quoted, The

Telegraph picked this up, she said

she did not want him to resign, she

wanted an apology. That is

incredibly naive. I think she

deserves an apology is that the I am

not talking about that. -- I am not.

She must have known that seeking one

would lead to the other.

Did she not

mean when she first took this

complaint to Downing Street sometime

ago she wanted an apology back then?

That was my reading of it.

I agree.

Quite right. The other point, she

has quoted here in The Telegraph,

she said I have been through such a

terrible ordeal since reporting

allegations that I advise other

women to stay silent. She should not

have an ordeal. This society should

allow a person, woman or man, to

say, look, you did this to me, that

is an allegation. It might be

proven, it might not. No matter what

happens, no woman must have a stay

silent. You will not stop this

dreadful behaviour by people if you

do not let these people make

allegations.

It can be heard talking

about what you can suffer by doing

this.

If you are in front of this

camera, and whatever you say,

whatever you do, I just have to come

out with one outspoken peace and be

politically incorrect and what

people want to do to me is amazing.

And I am low in the latter. I am

saying to people do not stop coming

out about this.

All of these

allegations inside politics, they

must have good, robust

whistleblowing procedures. People

will not feel confident to come

forward otherwise.

The Times. It is

in the same territory.

I worry about

this. That was a good summary. It is

quite similar. The Times has another

angle. The police themselves, Ken

Marsh, the chairman of The Police

Federation, he is turning around and

seen you should not have done this.

The reason he is doing this is,

tonight, there are policemen, good

and decent coppers, doing a good job

on the streets. A bond of trust

between society and the police, they

do not carry guns by right like

every policeman does in other

countries, they come from society

and a police society. And that bond

of trust... Some people will say are

you going to fit me up like Green?

It creates the impression the police

cannot be trusted. The moment you do

that it makes the police job more

difficult. Marsh is saying the

abhorrent actions... He is saying

you are making my job hard.

The

police are in a position of power

and have access to delicate

information they have to keep secret

and only use when the law requires

them to do so.

These two would say

they had public interest reasons to

do it which will be tested. The i.

Jeremy Hunt and his political

aspirations.

He said on your

programme he is a health man to his

core and passionate about his

current job and has been in it for

five years. But some of his

colleagues believe he is manoeuvring

and is touting his name around. He

believes he has not reached the

Senate of his career and is deeply

ambitious. He says he has a good

chance of greater things. -- zenith

of his career. What is the specific

job that Deputy Prime Minister is

to? -- Ministers do? He was a

Remainer, not a Brexiteer. He is

active in social media. I remember

from university days many years ago,

he is nice. He is a very nice and

bland conservative Christian chap.

Is that a compliment?

It is. But he

is the kind of person that, when

David Cameron... Yes. When asked if

he would implement in prison custody

budget, he said 20%.

-- 10% budget

cuts, he said 20%. There is no empty

seat at the moment.

There is a quote

on manoeuvring, putting the word out

he wants a job. That is a claim from

other colleagues. If you were in the

cabinet and wanted a job, get rid of

one of the people who wanted it more

than you. So you put the word out he

has been making manoeuvres. Politics

is a dirty game.

You are seeing more

manoeuvres than just one.

Yes. I

would say at the end of the day if I

was Theresa May I would take some

time and watch and wait. I am ending

stronger than many people thought I

would. I would just keep the powder

dry and watch others break cover. If

this does not work, they will break

cover, and you will see a scrap.

The

Daily Mail. Boris Johnson's cyber

war threat with the Kremlin.

It is a

real problem. We are in agreement

about this. What Boris Johnson is

talking about is incredibly serious

from the business point of view.

What I can tell you, one of the

greatest threats to business is

cyber-attack. Not only do they ran

some things, if you do not pay, your

products will be ruined, but also

stealing. -- ransom things. The

public sector, you saw the issue

with the NHS months ago. Interfering

with elections as wellthis goes to

the core of Western democratic

values. Russian-made not be doing

it. We have to be careful. -- Russia

may not. But someone is doing it.

This is it. You said it is a serious

story. It is. It is huge. But is it

serious when it comes out of the

mouth of Boris Johnson? I would

suggest not. We cannot taken

seriously, not just because he used

to all of this stuff, he is just

making silly gaffes and putting

lives at risk in Iran, Libya, all of

the things he has said in recent

months. He is going up against

Sergey Lavrov, a man who is hugely

experienced and close to Vladimir

Putin. Will he take Boris Johnson

seriously when he hears about a

threat of cyber war? GCHQ, we can be

serious thing see you, that's a

quote.

It is easy meat to say they

do not do these things.

Do you think

Boris Johnson would say this to

Sergey Lavrov to his face? Not at

all.

NHS operations axed to avert

the winter crisis. The Guardian.

Hospitals setting up makeshift

wards. We talk about this in the

previous hour with the Guardian

being more alarmist than others

Talking about the possibility of

hospitals turning areas into

temporary wards. This is temporary

at the moment. Simon Stevens, the

Chief Executive of the NHS, has been

made personally responsible for

winter services. Many elderly will

have the flu. We will see huge

operations, cataract removals, knee

operations, hip operations. People

need these. Unless they are

life-threatening, people will have

them postponed.

From the point of

view of the Guardian, the

anti-government alarmist... Yes.

Alarmist. This is complete alarmist

from the Guardian and does not

become them. What I congratulate the

NHS for is what do we always do? We

criticise them while they do

excellent work. For once, they have

said we are going to get ready for

this and we are going to plant this.

With great respect, important

emergency operations, nothing to

worry about. Those with an active

elective surgery requirement, it is

not necessary. It is great planning

from the NHS. It would be nice just

once or anti-government newspapers

to say something nice. -- for.

To be

fair, The Telegraph, you highlighted

them, they are not being

complimentary.

To be fair to them,

they said in it that it was actually

planned with no flu at the moment.

in

a short agreement is the 40 minutes

ago. -- let's go and other

a short agreement is the 40 minutes

ago. -- let's go and other note

a short agreement is the 40 minutes

ago. -- let's go and other note of

surefire

ago. -- let's go and other note of

surefire agreement. I will give you

a shorter period this time around,

EU plans, take it or leave it, if

Britain fails to clarify.

Two

things, the FT, which I take every

day, I admire their journalism and

reporting. I will worry that they

are falling down the chasm of

propaganda. They are too pro

remains. What I worry is, they quote

to EU officials, both saying

basically, we are in Lala land if we

think we are getting anything better

than a Canada deal. What I say is,

in Europe is starting its

negotiation. They would say this,

wouldn't they?

It is perfectly

reasonable for them to decide who...

Your favourite newspapers like the

Telegraph and the mail, they

editorialise. The Financial Times is

then your favourite, Brexit here.

They have an editorial line and that

governs who they choose to take what

is wrong, that is journalism.

The

FT's history was, it was to be

objective on the front page. The

point I want to make about the

actual trade thing is that this is

the EU starting off by saying where

it is a. This was the other way

around and this is what David Davis

said, the EU is in Lala land and

thinks it can do without Britain in

trade.

Guys, we have one minute

left. I just want to try and focus

on maybe one more.

Sport, maybe?

Let's go to the Metro. We rather

like this photograph.

Squeezed two

in the. There is a most lovely

photograph on the Metro. It is

lovely. These other photographs

released by the palace to celebrate

the royal engagement. There is a lot

of sadness in the world, isn't that

great?

It is a beautiful picture,

they look deeply in love. It doesn't

look staged.

And on the FT, we have

self driving cars being taught in

Boston, Pittsburgh and Detroit to

recognise a snowflake. The trouble

is, nobody has talked taught about

them -- taught them about snow. You

and I agreed that is what technology

has got to do.

Disrupt and leapfrog.

Very good. On that note of near

Harmony.

Thank you very much. And a

Merry Christmas.

Don't forget you

can see the front pages of the

papers online, on the BBC News

website. Seven days a week. If you

missed the programme any evening,

you have no excuse but you can watch

it later on the BBC iPlayer. Coming

up next it is time for Meet the

Author.