28/12/2017 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are broadcaster David Davies

and journalist Dina Hamdy.

Not a journalist, political analyst,

I'm so sorry. Let's get it right

shall we? We'll be talking cricket

later and Dina will hopefully learn

a lot from David.

The Times reports that

the best-paid family doctors

can earn up to seven

hundred thousands pounds.

The Telegraph reports

that the minister

for the constitution has accused

Jeremy Corbyn of trying

to rig the election.

The I leads with a

suggestion that drunk

revellers should be treated in,

what is described as, 'drunk tanks'

rather than our hospitals.

The Guardian leads with an MP

warning social media giants they

could face sanctions if they

continue to stall Parliament.

The Daily Mail's front page

covers a study suggesting

Britain has a growing problem

with addiction to

prescription drugs.

The Financial Times says worldwide

merger and acquisitions

surpassed three trillion dollars

this year

The Mirror is launching

a campaign to end

charges in hospital carparks.

The Sun reports UK supermarkets will

start selling bacon that doesn't

have harmful added nitrates. The

Daily Telegraph headline, got been

trying to rig the election. A

minister calling for an attempt to

block boundary reforms an affront to

democracy. Daesh Parliamentary

boundary changes are always, always

controversial. Another set is

scheduled for 2018. Most observers

think were they to be introduced to

balance up the size of

constituencies, at the moment we

have some constituencies with 51,000

voters and other constituencies with

90,000 voters. The idea is proposals

will cut the number of MPs from 650

to 600. And balance... Most

constituencies around 70,000. That's

the idea. Surprise surprise, the

party that would be more likely to

lose out on this would be the Labour

Party. Surprise surprise the Labour

Party are opposed, are likely to

oppose, the changes. Actually the

truth is that in the past you can

find other parties, big parties, one

might even say, that have opposed...

What could you mean?

Some remember

boundary changes in the 1970s and

80s. They make a difference to the

lives of people whose seats

disappear. A certain seat in

Islington under likely changes might

disappear. It might seek the current

MP, Jeremy Corbyn. That is why it is

inevitable there will be opposition.

Having said that, the background to

this was it all came into the

limelight. After the MP scandal. The

Tories had a majority then. Nothing

could have stopped them from doing

the boundaries, finishing it off.

And they didn't. Because it would

have been counterbalanced at that

stage by introducing the

proportional voting system which

they were not keen on. There is that

element to it.

Let's look at the i.

Facebook and Twitter warned over

inquiry into fake news. Not being

very forthcoming with the

information required of them.

It's

astonishing that they have been

asked to hand over similar

information in the US. Eventually

they did handover to Congress huge

amounts of data. They are

effectively snowballing and ignoring

the parliamentary committee here.

Now they are being threatened with

sanctions, not specified what

exactly sanctions will be. But it is

going to be perhaps targeting the

revenue, the advertising, and it

could really hurt.

The suggestion is

that Russian misinformation, as it's

described, was allowed on these

sites.

They've had a very bad

Christmas, the social media

companies. I mean yesterday they got

a bit of a battering from a former

president, Obama, in this

conversation with Prince Harry. And

today they are getting a bit of a

battering from Mr Damian Collins,

the chairman of the select

committee, that is looking into all

this. I mean, for me, they are the

victims of their own success, you

can argue. They haven't been very

forthcoming and they haven't been

very helpful to a committee. As

Deena has just said, what a select

committee in the House of Commons

can do about all of this, they have

no direct powers. Yes, they're

advertising could be affected. It

remains to be seen whether that can

and will actually happen.

The

Financial Times, EU set for new test

of popular sport of Italy gears up

for election in March. March four,

this is. Another and establishment

party is doing extremely well.

Indeed, this is called 5-star. It

was formed by a comedian in the past

and is now doing rather well. But

Italy is heading for, yes, as you

say, a general election. An

unpredictable outcome, everybody

says. A hung parliament is the

likeliest outcome. Then we'll be

back to the good old days of Italian

politics, when it was instability.

The most extraordinary thing about

this story in the Financial Times is

that icy a name, Silvio Berlusconi.

He of the Bongo Bongo Land two is.

On another comeback. How old is Mr

Berlusconi now?

God only knows. This

particular party is

antiestablishment in a different

way, not anti-immigration, just

antiestablishment and

environmentally, a bunch of

environmental activists. It isn't

similar to Ukip.

It isn't bad news

for the EU. Any instability is bad

for you.

Silvio Berlusconi is 81. He

doesn't look it I don't know why.

You might say that, I couldn't

possibly comment.

A little help...

The daily Mirror is where we will go

next. It has launched a campaign to

axe hospital parking tax on the

sick. At times these are extremely

expensive parking charges. That

people have to pay if they want to

go as patients or visitors. - it

isn't the Mirror that has launched

the campaign, it was Mr Corbyn who

initially proposed it in May of this

year when he called it a tax on

serious illness. He would fund it by

raising insurance tax on private

health care. Some of these nurses

and health care practitioners pay up

to £100 a month in parking. Leading

to... Causing some nurses to rush

out between shifts to change their

parking lot so they wouldn't be

fined. Plus of course families of

the sick.

I would like to hear

somebody justify the level of these

charges. Because whatever they were

when they started, they have reached

ridiculous levels in certain parts

of the country, dare I say it, in my

own neck of the woods, in the West

Midlands, there are people who go

for cancer treatment that can last

all day who are paying fortunes to

park the car or the family car in

these car parks. The NHS is supposed

to be free at the point that you

receive it.

Staying with the daily

Mirror, -13 Celsius. Big freeze.

Snow chaos. Coldest night. This is

the problem, the next morning of the

ice which is so treacherous

it's

easy to be critical sitting here in

a nice one television studio.

Despite the fantastic efforts of the

gritters, and I here we have more

these days than we've ever had

before, and others, how we cope with

the winter weather in this country

is, frankly, not our greatest

achievement, because year after year

we go through all of this and we

have all the why can't we do better?

By the way we can't afford it. It

doesn't happen so often. The reality

is, hundreds of people in 2017,

2018, stranded at an airport

overnight. Some old, some young. Is

it acceptable.

Isn't it because we

don't have enough of it often enough

to be geared up for it? In a place

like...

We don't give it a priority.

We don't. We should do. The gritters

have done a fantastic job, worked

really hard. For those of us stuck

for four and a half hours yesterday

as an airport in Europe, we may be

worked up about this at the moment.

But honestly we come back and we see

all those lorries on the A14, not

some minor road, the A14. Clearly

not gritted in television pictures.

How is that defensible? I've never

seen you so vexed!

Is spent six

hours in the airport.

I thought that

would have taken the wind out of

your sails but no. To the Telegraph.

Asked Doctor Google before your GP.

That's what I was going to say. Not

a month ago I was reading the exact

opposite, that you would be told off

by the GP if you go in and know what

is wrong with you. Now you're told

please stay at home at all costs

unless it's really serious, then the

last resort is to see a GP. It's

very strange.

It tells you how

stretched they are.

Seek help from a

reputable, reputable online service.

Some of us know when we go online

with some little injury or whatever,

I had one not so many months ago, I

can still remember going online and

being bamboozled by this good

advice, bad advice, middle advice.

What is it?

I think they mean you

should go on the NHS website.

I

think they probably do but then you

could be guilty of something called

to two where you go online and

think, I've got that and that and

you think you are more ill than you

are.

Then they should call 111.

They

don't want you doing that either do

they?

Unless you live where I live

in the West Midlands and you have

the greatest pharmacist in the whole

world. She advises me and tells me

what to do. I get on and do it.

They

can often help you.

Straying into

dangerous territory, talking about

cricket. Before we came... Dina said

she didn't really get it, we were

trying to explain the rudiments of

the game. On the front of the times

we have Alastair Cook rising from

the ashes. What has he done? At

last?

He's scored the highest, made

the highest score over 200 runs,

20044I think. Not out. Still to go

in this morning as well. The highest

score by a non-Australian batsmen in

a Test match at the MCG, the

Melbourne Cricket ground. I'm not

long back from Australia where I

categorically failed to inspire the

England team in the Perth Test match

to great heights. The body language

of the England team and, dare I say

it come off Alastair Cook in that

match, was awful. It's so wonderful

to see him do this today. And my

instinct is he will retire pretty

soon. Maybe even at the end of this

series. He will go down as one of

the great English test batsmen, no

question.

Why did it take until now?

They've lost the Ashes, they are

trying to stop the whitewash. They

needed this three weeks ago.

If you

have the answer to this you wouldn't

be coaching the England cricket

team.

Why is it called a double

century?

100 runs is a century, he

got 244, so he got a double century

plus. If you'd got to 300, it would

be a triple century, have we piqued

your interest?

Indeed. I'm going to

go back and do some research and

start watching it.

We'll practice.

Start at 3:30am.

If anybody has a

bat and ball we could have a go in

the corridor. There is a nice long

corridor, we can try. That is it the

papers, if you come back with black

eyes, you'll know we didn't manage

to hit the ball much. Cyberchondria

and David will be back at 11:30pm

for a second look at the papers

because it is Christmas. -- Dina and

David will be back.