02/01/2018 The Papers

An empty newsroom but a very full

studio here! Hello, and welcome to

our look at what The Papers will be

bringing you tomorrow.

With me are Kate Andrews,

News Editor at the Institute

of Economic Affairs and Ned Simons,

Assistant political

editor at HuffPost UK.

It's great to see you both, happy

New Year. You have just returned

from the US and you are nursing a

hangover from New Year's Eve! It's

good to see you both, and I'm glad

you are both looking so well! The

Financial Times says...

that the UK

is looking to join a Pacific trade

group after Brexit.

Tomorrow's Metro leads

on the man jailed after

killing his third partner.

Theodore Johnson's last victim had

endured his violence for decades.

The I criticises the Transport

Secretary Chris Grayling,

who was on an official visit

to Qatar as rail passengers saw

the highest rise to fares

in five years.

The Telegraph's lead story -

the NHS tells hospitals to cancel

non-urgent operations to cope

with a flu outbreak.

The Daily Express reports

on thousands of foreign women coming

to the UK to have babies -

health tourism that could be costing

the NHS £16 million.

The Daily Mirror highlighting

pressures on the health service with

some children's teeth in worse shape

than those living in the developing

world. And with a dazzling picture

of the first super mean of 2018, as

its orbit brings our heavenly

companion extra close to us...

Let's begin with the Telegraph, the

NHS tells hospitals to cancel all

routine operations. It is winter,

the NHS are hugely overburdened at

this time of year but it is

particularly bad this year?

It is a

huge story, to cancel all

nonemergency operations, that's

about 50,000 operations until at

least February, with senior

consultant saying that patients are

being treated in third world

conditions among mass overcrowding.

There are some important points

here. We need to scrap the idea that

the NHS is the envy of the world, we

have consultants coming out saying

it feels like a third World country

but in this international

comparisons, when you look at the

NHS, it tends to rank in the bottom

third internationally. If we are to

fix this problem we need

honest and serious conversations

about the NHS. If you are to

continue to have a system that is

fundamentally based on rationing,

that's not really what they do in

the rest of Europe, you will run

into crucial situations where 50,000

people will be denied operations

that are crucial, a lot of these

people who are needing hip or knee

operations are in a lot of pain.

Weir there are some specific things

going on here. People are taking

taxis increasingly to hospitals,

they will have two ban the rules on

mixed sex roles, that is what people

like because of the pressure on the

NHS, there's always a winter crisis,

it doesn't make it any less serious,

the fact we get it every year, and

it doesn't seem to be getting

better.

It would be wonderful if we

didn't have a crisis, looking at

Europe, Germany, Switzerland, we

aren't getting the same stories from

these countries because the hospital

systems operate better for patients.

Poor doctors in A&E have to put them

in quarters, what a horrible

situation for them.

It is difficult

for the NHS, managers and officials

for many years have been saying that

they are not getting the funding

that they need. Does there need to

be a more radical thought process

going into how you deal with the NHS

and fund it?

The funding matters,

for a number of coalition years

there was a funding freeze. And it

is kicking in. I'm sure that as part

of what we are seeing now. Although

the freeze has ended, what we are

seeing coming through as a result of

those decisions.

Funding has

increased but at a different

proportion. I'm open-minded about

where we want to make our decisions,

maybe we should cut grandstanding

budgets but fundamentally, ranking

in the bottom third internationally

is not because you are a quid short

but because you need to change

demographics and look at the system

as a whole.

But there is a not

residual respect and belief in that

the NHS is a good thing. The polling

figure is normally pretty high?

People love the NHS for good

reasons. It should be allowed to be

criticised.

But it doesn't stop

criticism, that is key.

I think it

is extremely difficult to criticise

the NHS, if you look at our

politicians, they say it is the envy

of the world, but then we have

stories like this with patients

getting hurt. The principle of the

NHS is extremely important, free

access at the point of use, and most

of Europe has passed this.

I'm not

sure that it is right if we don't

dare criticise the NHS.

I think

politicians are terrified to

criticise it. They are the ones who

will fundamentally change it.

A

story from the express, four months

and £16 million NHS rip-offs.

Shockingly they do not like

foreigners in this!

Start the New

Year as you need to go on!

They say

women flock to Britain, cheating the

NHS out of £60 million by having

their babies here. In my mind, so?

I'm not going to begrudge a mother

who comes into the country to have

her baby for whatever reason.

It may

sound like a lot.

At least 2631 in

eligible foreigners had their babies

here.

The story was £1 billion being

wasted every year due to missed

appointments on the NHS. I think it

is completely right that this reeks

of an anti-immigration sentiment. £1

billion versus £16 billion, paying

your taxes you would feel a bit

resentful if someone came to take

something for free -- £16 million.

But we have a record number of Brits

flying abroad to access health care.

Health tourism has its benefits.

I

would like to see a breakdown of

these numbers.

Brits go abroad and

have their operations, that would be

on their front pages!

There is a

story and it is mostly about

immigration and putting more into

the system than they are taking out.

Andy the Financial Times, Tories

looking beyond Brexit, looking

beyond the continent of Europe! All

the way the Pacific Rim. Apparently

that will be a big training block of

eight, nine, 10,000 miles away?

The

transpacific partnership was big

news last year, when Donald Trump

famously pulled out of it. This

initiative was led by Barack Obama,

of all people. Criticism from the

left is a little hypocritical. There

was a lot of bipartisan support

before the RB lists took over and

pulled the US out of the deal. A

quote from Barry Gardiner, he said

this could be helpful but it isn't

the main event and I think that is

true. Obviously be priority for the

UK is to get a good trade deal with

the EU. This is one of the benefits

of Brexit, when we have these

negotiations going through, we can

look beyond Europe and that is a

positive thing.

In the Financial

Times, it was a Remained newspaper

and still is. A little dig at the

Daily Express earlier, maybe I am

thinking too hard on this but is

this the Financial Times saying

they've had to go all the way to the

Pacific, isn't this a ridiculous

situation?

I don't think it is a bad

story for the government. The

government argument is by leaving

the EU we can strike trade deals

globally. Whether it smacks of

desperation, as Tim Farron the

former Labour leader says in the FT,

or whether it is a good idea, it

shows we can do trade deals

everywhere and the Trade Minister's

quotes, he isn't saying this is what

we are going to focus on but this is

part of a package of things. It

isn't a story that the government

will be irritated about. It's a

narrative on what they want to say.

Depends on who the Brexit secretary

is! We do only have one at the

moment...

Give it a week!

I suspect

the Brexit secretary will not be

Chris Grayling if there is a

reshuffle! We want to avoid bad

news, and we go to extraordinary

lengths to avoid bad news. Chris

Grayling decided that he would go to

the Middle East to avoid the bad

news of the public announcement that

yes, rail firms are going up with

the biggest rise in five years.

This

announcement was always going to

come today! It was a long planned

trip, a cynic in me would say, was a

long planned? Because the rail fare

rise was long planned. But they say

it's striking Brexit deals with

Qatar...

So he is the Brexit

Secretary?

Not inside gossip! It

wasn't that he was on the radio or

television defending it, London

Bridge getting a nice new station,

but...

This is so shocking and

incompetent, there are strong

arguments for what happened today.

If you have a system like ones in

Europe with more taxation, you have

people on minimum wage and people

who are poor topping up those who

tend to be richer.

What about those

you were lauding minutes ago, higher

taxes!

In some countries yes but in

others know. But my bigger point

here is that you had to look at

whether or not it is a regressive

move and if you want those on the

minimum wage topping up commuters. I

don't think it is a hard argument to

make.

Particularly in the political

sense. It's strong ground for

Labour, their policy of

rationalising that the franchise has

come up. Is the policy Jeremy Corbyn

has adopted but it helps with the

move to the south of England. There

are a lot of middle-class voters who

have moved out of London and now

live in the Home Counties and Sussex

commuting into London, they would

not be natural Labour voters but

they care about commuting prices.

Great territory for Corbyn and

labour and great for the government

not to be ahead of this going into

today.

And Labour have a free pass,

in a sense, saying they will

renationalise the railways and

prices will come down. They aren't

talking about how costs will go up

for a lot of people but they got

away with it.

In America they would

say that the optics are not very

good. It does look bad. But finally,

the front page of The Guardian. The

Department exaggerated

qualifications for a university

post. He taught undergrads at

Harvard and Cambridge but did not

have a post there. That has meant

that disappointment -- this

appointment is looking we?

I think

The Guardian are making a mountain

out of a mole hill. Saying yes, I

taught there, not strip the

academic. It doesn't look like he's

trying to hide anything that they

are not happy about his appointment.

They clearly think that Toby Young

is too extreme. For me, this

fundamentally comes down to the

question of choice. Toby Young was

at the forefront of bringing in

three schools can he founded the

first in the UK, I believe. He runs

the free schools network, and he has

been at the forefront of putting

toys in front of parents to send

their kids to the right school. It

has proven successful and people are

nervous about that.

He has been

forthright in his qualifications but

the point is... The Department for

Education has not.

Also, another

surprising thing about Toby Young,

something, I don't suppose "Lavish"

things that he has said, some of the

things that he has said about women

and gay people -- laddish. It's

interesting someone totally

justified in writing strong columns,

but some of the things he has

tweeted and safe, makes you wonder

whether it is the right choice.

We

have two ended there. Thank you to

both of you, James and Kate. That's

all tonight.

Don't forget you can see the front

pages of the papers online

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Thank you to you at home for

watching, goodbye.