18/01/2018 The Papers

see you soon. Coming up in a moment,

it's The Papers. Good night.

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are Pippa Crerar,

Political Correspondent

at the London Evening Standard

and the French Journalist

at the London Evening Standard

and the French Journalist,

Benedicte Paviot - President

of the Foreign Press Association

in London.

Many of tomorrow's front

pages are already in.

The Telegraph says

the Foreign Secretary,

Boris Johnson discussed the prospect

of building a bridge

across the Channel between the UK

and France during talks held today.

The I headline as President Emmanuel

Macron's visit to Sandhurst, urging

the President to change its mind

over Brexit.

the President to change

its mind over Brexit.

The Guardian quotes

the Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn,

who wants to halt the 'outsourcing

racket' exposed by the collapse

of the construction giant,

Carillion.

The FT reports that the President

of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa

The FT reports that the President

of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa,

will allow missions into the country

to monitor election later this year

in a bid to renew ties with the UK

and the Commonwealth.

The flu outbreak could reach

epidemic levels within a fortnight

as 8.3 million people suffer

from symptoms, that's

the lead in the Mirror.

The sun shows a picture of Prince

William's new haircut. Paying £180

for his very short back and sides.

And the Express claims that playing

a person's favourite music to help

ward off the effects of dementia.

There is coverage of the Macron and

the May summit in the papers but

many other stories to grab the head

lines with flu and royal haircuts

sharing the headlines. But let's

start with the story of the day. The

meeting. Let's start with the front

page of the I, the new Entente

Cordiale. Benedict, you hot-footed

it from Sandhurst. Was it Entente

Cordiale or lukewarm?

It was very

good entente in the announcements.

It was a delayed press conference. A

long press conference, an

interesting press conference. I

would say that one of the two strong

moments in it, that caused a little

frisson, with not just the French

and the British ministers who, were

there and had come to see bosses and

sign treaties themselves, as well as

the UK and the British press, is

when Emmanuel Macron referred to in

French, when he said "be my guest"

this was very much about the City of

London having access to the single

market if you are not a part of the

the single market you cannot retain

them in that way.

That was a strong message. It is

something that he has thought about

a great deal. He repeated what the

French President, the French

Government have said before, that

there is great regret that the

United Kingdom is leaving the EU but

it's a British decision and

therefore, you need to see it

through if that's what you need to

do. I think it is interesting. Then

the reception was at the V and A.

Having come for the first time in my

life with a presidential convoy with

this amazing reception, to arrive

with all of the guests who had been

waiting, I don't know if they had

been doing very much drinking but so

happy to see the leaders arrive.

What was interesting, they made

short statements and Theresa May

spoke in French. I have tweeted it.

She talks about how Britain would be

a poorer country if the French, and

basically, she is saying the EU

citizens were to leave.

She had a slight pronounciation

trouble on the word country but we

can forgive her for that. But what

the French President is consistently

saying is that it is not an

accident, it is geography, not just

history. He very much was

emphasising, as indeed was the

British Prime Minister, the

bilateral relationship. Brexit was

not on the table but it will affect

the bilateral relationship.

And can I bring in Pippa with the

Financial Times which is presenting

the other side of today's events. We

have had the pomp and the ceremony

on the front page of the i but the

Financial Times, talking about

breaking hypocracy?

Yes. The

ententes, and the deals done on

defence, on security co-operation,

borders and culture but Brexit came

up at the press conference after. It

is what everyone is thinking about,

wondering be and Emmanuel Macron

represents the most stable leader of

one of the main EU powers at the

moment and therefore is instrumental

in what we do when getting out of

Brexit. Everyone wanted to know what

he thought. He made it clear to the

Prime Minister that it would not be

as repeating as Michel Barnier, the

EU negotiators said, about

cherry-picking and bespoke deals. He

was obviously making a big deal of

rolling out the red carpet to

British bankers, desperate to have

them there and pinch them from us.

You can't blame him.

Not desperate. He referred to it. He

said that this is healthy

competition.

That is, that our two countries

have, and emphasised, as did Theresa

May, what the countries have in

common, it was not just defence and

security, it was about science, it

was about research, medical research

and new advances there. And a young

generation getting to know each

other, so economy there as well. But

an important sentence that came out

very much in the press conference in

response to questions was the French

President and I had not heard the

line in that way before saying: I am

not there to reward or to punish,

I'm there, obviously, to defend

French interests. It is very much as

part of the EU negotiation. He made

that clear and military

co-operation. It is significant it

exists and intelligence agencies for

the first time, all five meeting.

That is important. Whether it is

here in the United Kingdom, in the

rest of the EU or indeed in Africa.

And there is more on that story

replacing May with Boris Johnson.

Getting on the front page of the

Telegraph, despite the fact that the

focus was not on him. But let's have

a look at this other story, the

Japanese flu strain running riot.

There is a fear that within a couple

of weeks we will have a flu

epidemic. Britain has been badly hit

this winter. We have heard of the

warnings of the Australian flu. A

strain of inflew ansa which caused

many deaths in Australia and has

arrived here and resulting in lots

of deaths in the elderly and the

young and has been a problem for the

NHS. The Telegraph is reporting

there is a second strain of flu

which is accountable for 60% of the

cases in hospital. Japanese flu.

They are suggesting that it has been

made worse by the fact that many

doctors have made a decision to cut

costs on vaccines and many health

officials are cut costs on vaccines

and ended up vaccinating people for

other strains of flu but not this

one and in the conditions that the

NHS is under, that this could be

virulent and bad, facing epidemic

proportions.

And the Daily Mirror head line has

the similar story. Flu epidemic in

two weeks.

Yes, hits 8.3 million people and

kills 149. And hospitals are

struggling with high levels of

admissions. So that is worrying. I

get nervous as a broadcaster,

especially sitting next to someone

on public transport, coughing away.

But these things are airborne.

Wash your hands, apparently. Very,

very important.

Thank you very much for reminding

me!

To the front page of the Garde.

A big splash, the interview with

Jeremy Corbyn, talking about

Carillion and PFI. The other story

on the front page is about

harassment at the UN.

Yes, every day there has been a

couple of big exclusives. There is

the Jeremy Corbyn story and

Carillion and about outsourcing and

using his opportunity to get away

with using private partners. A

nugget that Jeremy Corbyn brushed

off concerns he would be too old to

govern at the next election. And

lots at Westminster suggesting that

he will be in his early 70s by the

next election if it is in 2022, that

he may decide to stand down and talk

about a successor. So interesting to

hear he is saying he is going to

fight it and carry on. But a story

also about harassment and sexual

assault at the UN. This does not

come as a surprise. We are going

through the sectors, institutions

and organisations, one by one, and

the truth is coming out about some

of the behaviours that is going on.

We started off with Hollywood and

the film industry, Westminster,

sexual harassment there, there are

other industries as well which we

have been focussed on and the latest

is a big organisation like the U

where they have issues of output all

over the place where women can be

isolated, outposts where women are

isolated in remote locations and

part of the story is how difficult

it is, how few women are able to

manage to report this kind of thing

to the UN. But it is interesting,

will we see industry after industry,

having this sort of story focussing

on them and this sort of story and

behaviour going on.

OK. I will get through a council of

front pages. Back to the front page

of the financialtimes and the story

about the Zimbabwe want leader,

talking about open elections?

Yes,

this is very much a new President

when is trying to open a new

chapter.

To show not just his potential

voters and also the international

donors and whether it is the former

colonial master, as indeed the

United Kingdom, that he intends to

do things differently. Therefore

inviting UN monitors to come and

assess the poll. This reminds me

very much of his inaugural speech of

course where he made a lot of very

good sound bites and promises.

But that costs nothing. So what,

whether it is the United Kingdom or

other countries we are looking at,

he wants investment. Zimbabwe is on

its knees. And it is interesting,

Zimbabwe has dropped from the

headlines ever since the resignation

speech, that was not one, of Mr

Mugabe. Who know what is he is up to

now. But he has his plush house and

bodyguards. But a very sad,

potentially rich country, completely

run down, so of course it is

important.

. Let's see if this is a new

chapter.

Now to the Daily Express, page three

of the Daily Express. It has two

royal stories, one about Al-Megrahi

had been and oned about Prince

William.

Harry and Meghan have gone to Wales

and seen a rapturous reception.

Meghan mania it has been described

as. There she is in her Stella

McCartney coat and Welsh trousers.

Yes, so everyone is delighted to

have met her and she's obviously

proving to be a bit of a hit as she

goes around the country. The second

story is that Prince William has

decided to shave off what remains of

his hair and to go for sort of a

cleaner look. Which I have to say is

much better. You look at Donald

Trump and you think, face up to the

fact that you are losing your hair.

And deal with it. I think he looks

much better.

It is important.

And bookmakers William Hill are

offering offers of 6-4 that William

will go totally shaven head to

Harry's wedding.

Thank you very much

will go totally shaven

head to Harry's wedding.

That's it for THE PAPERS tonight.

Don't forget you can see the front

pages of the papers online

on the BBC News website.