25/01/2018 The Papers


25/01/2018

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Welcome to the Papers.

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With me are the Political

Commentator Lance Price

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and Camilla Tominey,

political editor the Sunday Express.

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Many of tomorrow's front

pages are already in.

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Let's start with...

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The FT, the paper says

the Chancellor, Philip Hammond,

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has caused a fresh rift

in the Conservative Party by urging

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'modest' Brexit changes.

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The Times take

on the story is that Theresa May has

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turned on the Chancellor

following his remarks.

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The Guardian reports

that Mrs May's leadership is under

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threat from the latest revolt

in Tory ranks over Brexit.

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The lead in the Metro

is the meeting of Theresa May

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and President Trump at Davos.

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It has a picture of

the pair shaking hands.

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Its headline says the relationship

between the UK and US is "so great".

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The I has that same photo

on its front page and reports that

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Mr Trump will come to this country,

this year for a working

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trip, not State Visit.

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The Daily Telegraph

carries a warning by

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the Defence Secretary that Russia

could cause mass casualities

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in Britain by crippling our

crucial energy supplies.

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And so there are a variety

of stories vying for top billing

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across a range of tomorrow's papers.

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Let's start with the Financial

Times. Philip Hammond who is also in

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Davos along with everybody else by

the looks of it, saying he wants a

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soft Brexit, not too much to change

at all after we leave.

The big ones

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in the cabinet cannot help

themselves setting out their stall

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for what Brexit should look like, we

had Boris Johnson doing his thing

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over the weekend and getting slapped

down by Theresa May, now Philip

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Hammond himself getting slapped down

by Downing Street for saying that

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the way he sees it is there should

only be a modest economic divergence

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between the UK and the EU after we

leave the EU. He makes the perfectly

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valid point in my view that the

economies are currently aligned,

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it's not as if you were trying to

bring together two economies that

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are very different, as was the case

with the deal for Canada. They are

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already well aligned so you only

want to diverged if it's in your

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interest to do so. He thinks that

should be modest.

On the other side,

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Brexiteers will say we need a clean

break, to make the most of the

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upside of having our own trade deals

and all the rest. We want to get out

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and do our own thing.

Precisely,

Jacob Rees-Mogg who is a leading

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Brexiteer and probably the

mouthpiece of Brexit along with

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Boris Johnson is not necessarily

saying anything new or that the

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Prime Minister has not set herself

in her own Lancaster house speech,

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and that is that she has put

together a 12 point plan and its

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unequivocal in saying we must be out

of the single market and out of the

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customs union. What's interesting

talking about the comparison with

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Boris's intervention is the humility

of invective that has been quite

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good on government because it's got

people thinking the government might

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spend more on the NHS once we

Brexit. It is also had the effect of

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having been a consensus around the

Cabinet table that there will be a

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Brexit dividend. When it comes to

Hammonds, and I was getting this

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mood earlier in Westminster, they

are angry that funnily enough,

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pardon the pun, his view keeps on

diverging from the message the Prime

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Minister is trying to put out. It

makes it look like there is no

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consensus between number ten and 11

which is awkward at a time when

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Theresa May is once again looking

vulnerable.

It is extraordinary that

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senior Cabinet ministers feel they

can speak out like this without any

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threat of potentially being sacked.

I interviewed Bernard Jenkin early

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and he said maybe it's time for

another reshuffle, she needs to

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bring in people who agree with her.

We had one suddenly last week of the

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week before. People are still

talking about the fact that as you

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say, the really big senior Cabinet

ministers, the Foreign Secretary,

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Home Secretary to a certain extent,

Chancellor of the Exchequer seem to

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feel they have license or the

ability to go out there and say

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these things and they know they will

not be sacked. Every time they do it

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it weakens Theresa May, a mixer

looked as if she is captive of

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Cabinet rather than in command of

them. That is what of course

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immediately prompts all the

speculation about how long she will

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be there.

There is the split in the

Cabinet, you can't get away from it,

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they have different views of what

the future will look like after

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Brexit. How will they resolve that?

The issue of Europe is always

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dividing all parties, it's not just

a problem for the Conservatives but

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for Labour as well who similarly

cannot seem to agree on what the

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Brexit end stage should look like.

Equally, because this has come with

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another story, the chairman of the

9022 backbench committee receiving

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more letters from MPs urging Theresa

May to go.

Let's look at that.

There

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is a lot of rhetoric around

Westminster tonight, if somebody is

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going to be resigning, it should be

Philip Hammond. It's an interesting

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one. Theresa May in this hugely

difficult position of trying to

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manage Brexit when there is no

agreement on it, trying to manage

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the government and there seems to be

no agreement on whether she should

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be there or not. It's tricky, a rock

and a hard place situation.

The

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question is, are these real threats

to move against you? I detected this

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week in Westminster, definitely

there is frustration that she has

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not being bold enough on things like

the NHS, that she has not got that

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vision for the country. This

extraordinary story in the Guardian,

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the idea that there are 48 letters

that must be written to Graham

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Brady, they are a bit worried they

might get there and have this

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accidental leadership contest.

Somebody else apparently has written

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a letter, those sources close to

Graham Brady which usually means the

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man himself have talked that down

and said the figures that have been

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bandied about are not right. There

is no doubt there is a substantial

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number of people who certainly

willing to consider the possibility

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of a change in leadership if they

are not actually seeking to go for

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it. The fact is, if she will be

unseated, she will be unseated by

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the Brexiteers, who think she is too

close to the view being put forward

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by the Chancellor, that the break

with the EU won't be significant

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amount to satisfy them. That's why

this speech from Jacob Rees-Mogg

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tonight is significant. She has been

put on notice that they would be

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prepared to move against, if she

moved too far in other direction.

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She is walking the tightrope.

Even

though that might risk a general

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election, and allowing Jeremy Corbyn

into number ten?

Or alternatively

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for the Brexiteers, is it worth to

have Jeremy Corbyn in number ten or

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an arch Remainer in Theresa May's

position? In regard to the

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Brexiteers, the question is whether

they will attribute this beginning

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of bread lines that we also saw

yesterday the David Davis -- this

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pinkening of red lines. Yesterday he

seemed quite casual saying there

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were no bread lines at all, it was

not just a case of pinkening but the

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idea that they had been robbed out

altogether. It is up to Mrs major

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tidies loose ends together and

reassert the point you made in the

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Lancaster house speech that we will

move onto a different position.

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Interesting to see it that

materialises. Now onto the front

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page of I think every newspaper,

that photo of Donald Trump and

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Theresa May shaking hands. There

they are at Davos. They have not

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seen each other since a number of

spats over a number of issues

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including the tweets that President

Trump retweeted, actually, which was

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the bridge and first tweets. A few

problems. -- Britain first tweets.

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The body language was as good as

they could make it but it is a

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complete farce. Theresa May says,

shoulder to shoulder, Trump says

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joint at the hip. They must be

virtually one body right now!

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LAUGHTER

A horrible thought for all

concerned. It is simply not true.

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Bridging and the US offered further

apart on key issues now than they

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have been for as long as I can

remember. Residents and Prime

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ministers tried to stay in June as

much as they can, they always claim

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that they are, but this time it's a

complete fabrication. Despite

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Brexit, Theresa May is in favour of

global free trade, Donald Trump is a

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protectionist. They disagree

fundamentally over Iran and whether

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or not to carry on with the treaty

signed there, they disagree over

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climate change, they disagree over

the response to Islamist and other

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terror threats. Fundamentally

disagree on whether or not the way

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to tackle that is to look for

greater integration within society

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or, in Donald Trump's case, to push

people out, because you don't like

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them. This nonsense about a special

relationship which has been nonsense

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ever since the press was invented

has been a farce.

He is coming to

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Britain?

It might be a working

visit, not a state visit, without

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the bells and whistles of an event

that you would usually expect in

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London, it might take place

elsewhere. We know the president is

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keen to go to Scotland because

that's where he can trace its roots,

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his mother was Scottish. I feel it

still goes beyond that, and for

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people living in Britain and America

there is a great deal of shared

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culture, there is an affection

across the pond, it will be even

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more strength and come May when an

American actress marries into the

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royal family. All these different

stages are quite significant,

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perhaps with a capital P it's not,

but there is still a recognition

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between both countries and their

inhabitants that there is a more

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special relationship with America

than some other countries.

It does

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not go much further than we kind of

speak the same language and we watch

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a lot of their telly and they love

us in the Crown.

Let's move on to a

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relationship with another country,

Russia. An extraordinary headline

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and story in the Daily Telegraph,

Russia ready to kill us by the

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thousands, this is the Defence

Secretary. It's all about, he says,

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the possibility that Russia could

effectively hack into our energy

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supply and therefore lead to lots of

death.

On one level he is right but

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it's an extraordinary headline, were

she ready to kill us by the

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thousands. Why would they want to do

so? The actual quote is, they could

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cause thousands and thousands and

thousands of deaths. That is to

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extrapolate what might happen, but

that would only happen if there was

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a world war going on. I don't think

anyone is suggesting we are at that

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point. However there is no doubt

they are looking very closely at

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Bridge and's vulnerabilities and the

particular when he's talking about

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here is our vulnerability in terms

of energy supply. -- Britain's

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vulnerabilities. If people have

wondered why in the past Theresa

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May, who is a cautious Prime

Minister and now she is a

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cash-strapped government, have

agreed to a £20 billion cost for

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this reactor, this is your answer.

We have to have energy security.

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There is no doubt the GCHQ and

others can see that the Russians are

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looking at where we are vulnerable.

Though she was concerned about

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Chinese involvement in that. She

reassessed that.

We are always

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concerned about Chinese involvement

in everything. What's interesting

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here is pointing out the common

perception now with regard to the

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Russian threat, it does not quite

match the reality of what they are

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capable of. Uses the example of the

plan for Russians will be landing

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craft to appear in the South Bay of

Scarborough or off Brighton Beach.

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Who is imagining that?! But that

they want to quote, kill our

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national infrastructure, is

certainly food for thought.

Finally,

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throat lozenges don't work according

to the Telegraph.

Neither does cough

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syrup. My father, a retired GP, has

always said this, it's nonsense.

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They all sell different things,

tickly cough, chesty cough, it's all

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nonsense.

How long have I spent at

the pharmacists counter wondering

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whether I've got a tickly cough or a

dry cough. I think it's all

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psychological, if you think they

were it probably gets you through

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your next interview if you have a

tickly cough. And bad for my

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ministers, the Chancellor we were

talking about earlier was feeding

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the Prime Minister and cough sweets

during her speech at the Tory party

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conference and it did no good.

Apparently a throat spray more

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effective.

They are much better.

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That's it for THE PAPERS tonight.

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Don't forget you can see the front

pages of the papers online

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on the BBC News website.

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It's all there for you -

seven days a week at bbc dot co uk

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forward slash papers -

and if you miss the programme any

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