24/01/2018 The Papers

Coming up in a moment, The Papers.

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are the broadcaster

John Stapleton and Kate Proctor,

Political Correspondent

at the London Evening Standard.

Welcome to you both.

Many of tomorrow's front

pages are already in.

And one story dominates as it has

dominated the news coverage today.

The Financial Times broke the story

about the men only President's Club

who called a halt to the events

after allegations of sexual

harassment. It's also the top story

in the Metro under the headline

sexists and the city.

Theresa May was appalled by reports

of what she read about the event,

according to The Daily Telegraph and

has rebuked one of her ministers.

One has had to explain his

attendance.

The Times reports that

there have been calls

for an end to the gagging orders

which allegedly stop

hostesses at parties -

from reporting harassment.

The same story is the lead

in The Guardian too.

Along with the news that scientists

have cloned two monkeys. The Daily

Express as a change of subject with

David Cameron caught on camera

saying Brexit is not as bad as he

feared. An uplifting story of a

woman who has given birth after

being caught in the grand foul fire

tragedy. And the next stories summed

up as sleaze balls. Let's start with

the Financial Times. It has scored a

major coup.

Congratulations to them,

cracking investigation, got everyone

talking, it has been in the papers

today and will be there tomorrow.

What amazes me is after the Harvey

Weinstein scandal, has been a great

debate about the role of women and

the question is how does any group

of people imagine that in 2018 they

could get away with something like

this. I found it bewildering. This

was an event at which women were

told to wear sexy black dresses,

underwear to match, high heels,

paraded in the fanfare of trumpets

to a men only assembly and in some

cases they were treated to put it

mildly, inappropriately, to bid it

at its strongest, they were sexually

abused. Unbelievable that these

people thought they could get away

with it.

I did not know these

gatherings existed so it was

shocking, well done to the FT for

bringing this to our attention. This

club will be closing after this. The

FT has updated as farmers, they are

shutting down this organisation, --

updated us mess. This has tarnished

the reputation. They would never

have been able to hold an event

again. I hope it is not the end of

it, I think there is more to do, you

need to speak to the trustees and

the people who arranged the event.

Seeing this being discussed in more

detail.

I think there are a heck of

a lot of questions to be asked

Michael told these women to dress in

this way and did the beneficiaries

of this event really not know what

was going on? It's been going for 30

years. It must have happened before

otherwise the FT would not have had

a tip-off to go and have a look at

it. So they have questions to answer

and so have the organisers. An

interesting debate. In your newsroom

a minute ago, four women were

talking, and one of them said, are

we overplaying this a bit? These

women went voluntarily, some have

been there before and enjoyed the

event. It leads to new opportunities

for them and they've been back once

or twice. And I wondered if we were

getting excited about this because

it is posh people at posh event.

Given that you say that lets look at

the front page of the Metro with

this great headline, Sexists and the

City. Is this partly the point, that

it is taking part in the City and

not so low?

Of course, this is what

it feels so scandalous because it

feels like a different group of

people altogether. The women's

minister said today that there seems

to be some sort of correlation

between wealth and holding these

events.

Is this why we are more

horrified by it?

Probably. For me

this is masked in charitable giving,

supposed to be something altruistic

yet at the same time it has

essentially degraded women. This is

why I find it shocking that, some of

the most respectable people in the

country, apparently.

Someone asked,

if we get worked up about this

should we also get worked up about

the fact that there are clubs in

Soho with this kind of thing goes on

every night. There is a difference

as someone pointed out, the women

who work in several know what they

are in for. Some of the women

employed at this event certainly did

not and every woman has the right

not to be abused in this way.

£150

for a shift if you are a student or

on a minimum wage, that's a lot of

money to earn in one night and when

you get there you have entered a

room of hell.

Let's go to the front

page of the Daily Telegraph it also

leads on this story but with a

different twist.

List makes the

point, the political ramifications,

when minister who is there, and says

that he left early because he felt

uncomfortable, but this report

indicates that he was there until

930 PM and he was at the same event

of the previous year and has been

called upon to account for himself.

His line was that he was not aware

of this activity. It must have

happened before otherwise the FT

would not have been there.

Nobody is

trying to put a different point of

view, if you look at Hostess

agencies there's quite a lot of

information that might set alarm

bells ringing. When were the vital

statistics of the addresses are

dashed home hostesses.

Many of the

women did not know what they are

doing. Host 's work is something you

might done as a student, because you

feel it might be a good idea and you

can be young and naive and five

years later think, that was a

terrible experience.

It doesn't

excuse the behaviour.

I don't think

we can say that women signed up for

this because they enjoy it and they

knew what they were doing. I don't

think we can say that.

A small story

at the bottom, Trump hails the new

Churchill, was that.

It is Theresa

May apparently. He has told her she

could become this generation is

Winston Churchill. He made the

comparison with Britain's wartime

leader in a phone call on December

19 last year, the date is

interesting because remember, in

December last year, they had this

big bust up over him be treating the

Briton First upwelling tweets and

she condemned him for that and he

told her to mind her own business.

Apparently they have made up.

Downing Street could control this

phone call why did they not let us

know.

One big photograph of Theresa may's

predecessor.

This is not the first

time he's been caught on camera, he

was caught having in a jolly way

when he handed over to Theresa May.

It will infuriate a lot of people,

people might think, you were

supposed to be such a big champion

for remaining and now it sounds like

you are accepting Brexit which I

don't think people will be happy to

hear. I think his judgment is

welcome that he not centrestage any

more. And to get the feel of

somebody who called the referendum

and get a wishy-washy appraisal is

not but satisfactory. I think

Theresa May might secretly be quite

pleased. He is perhaps given her six

out of ten.

Is coded a mistake, not

a disaster but when you set up

against some things he said during

the campaign to stay in, forecasting

thousands of job losses, saying it

was like putting a bomb and the

economy and would cost as all

pheasants, yet having said that, the

other side also said a lot of things

that didn't come true.

That will

continue to be debated. The front

page of the Guardian has a couple of

slightly frightened looking monkeys

on the front. They are exactly the

same because they are clones. I'm

old enough to remember Dolly the

sheep although I am not sure that

you are. Same business. Turkeys

cloned in China, it took the

scientists 19 different attempts. 79

attempts, sorry, I am misreading it,

some concern, are we getting a step

closer to cloning human beings. Of

course that is illegal. There are

ethical issues as well in the very

process so far.

They have done it to

use these monkeys to look at medical

treatments for genetic disorders so

this will be interesting medical

research, to try to see what this

might mean for future

investigations. I know it is an

unsavoury topic for many people.

Indeed it is. The Times has words

from Theresa May that she is going

to talk about tech giants at Davos

tomorrow.

This is her big speech, at

huge gathering and economic leaders

and experts. Theresa May will talk

about technology and how they should

be more pressure on social media

providers to remove terrorist

content which is a very noble thing

to talk about but again it's about

talking about putting on pressure.

She's going to say to people and

perhaps more pressure should be put

on shareholders to influence social

media companies in haste and knowing

how quickly they take things of the

Internet,

it's a difficult thing to

do.

The fact remains that goes on,

and they do defend and things are

published which are distasteful, at

their worst, horrifying.

Let's end

with the front page of the daily

Mirror. Elton is quitting for the

sake of his family but it's quite a

long process of quitting!

In the

process. He will do three years

worth of gigs too rounded off and

after that we'll do a residency so

he look after his young family.

I am

always suspicious of artists who say

they will quit, I'm a fan of

seagulls, they once had a fight on

stage and asked if they would ever

play again one band member said hell

would have to freeze over first. 14

years later they did play again and

the album was called hell's frozen

over! I am sure he means it, he

wants to spend more time with his

children.

He's 70 and has given the

world so much music, I think these

last three years will be enjoyed by

his hands.

Thank you both.

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.

It's all there for you -

7 days a week at bbc.co.uk/papers

and if you miss the programme any

evening you can watch it

later on BBC iPlayer.

Thank you Lisa and Sarah.

Goodbye.