10/02/2018 The Papers

Hello.

This is BBC News.

We'll be taking a look

at tomorrow papers in a moment.

With two of my favourite guests.

First, the headlines.

Haiti's Ambassador to the UK tells

the BBC he believes Oxfam

did cover up a scandal,

involving aid workers

and prostitutes.

The charity alerted UK

authorities to what happened

after the earthquake in 2010.

That is the lead story today on BBC

News. We can take you through the

papers and in a moment I will speak

to...

With me are Anne Ashworth,

associate editor of the Times.

And Bonnie Greer, playwright

and writer for the New European.

A general look at the front pages.

The Observer leads

with Labour's attack

on the privatised water industry.

Calling the amount in dividends paid

to shareholders "scandalous".

The Mail on Sunday's front page

says that Brendan Cox,

husband of murdered MP Jo Cox,

was accused of sexual abuse.

His lawyers say he vehemently

denies the allegations.

The Sunday Telegraph reports

on concerns from some EU countries

that chief Brexit negotiator

Michel Barnier's conduct

could lead to the UK walking

away from Brexit talks.

The Sunday Express previews a speech

from the Prime Minster,

saying she will set out plans

to make the UK "a truly global,

free-trading nation".

The Sunday Times has more

allegations concerning the conduct

of aid workers, suggesting that more

than 120 people working for leading

charities have been accused

of sexual abuse in the past year.

A mixture of stories. I hope you are

both well. Very well, yes. You were

warming up on Twitter, as well, I

noticed!

People seem to be staying

in tonight at watching.

It is the

weather outside. We start with the

Observer. The Oxfam story. The Times

break this but the Observer have it

on the front page.

The crisis

engulfing perhaps the most famous

charity, Oxfam, seems

engulfing perhaps the most famous

charity, Oxfam, seems to be

spreading out. There were

allegations of a cover-up, conduct

all senior Oxfam people in Haiti.

The Observer newspaper is telling us

that the same thing seems to have

happened in Chad with some of the

same individuals who were let go

from Oxfam, mentioned as working in

Chad and leading the Oxfam operation

in that country at the time. This

seems to be... Oxfam saying there

was no cover-up but it seems to me

the Charity Commission was not fully

informed of the events and the

charities who was subsequently

employing some of these people were

not properly informed of the conduct

of these people.

Whether it is true

or not we know the UN peacekeepers,

some of them have been accused of

this in times past. This is a sad

old horrible story. The sooner we

get to the bottom of this, it has to

do with a oppression, it is a form

of oppression. We need to get to the

bottom of this as soon as possible.

What fascinates me, Priti Patel was

the former International Development

Secretary, warned that predatory

paedophiles have been allowed to

exploit the aid sector. Did she just

find this out, or did she know when

she was in charge of this sector?

We

have jumped onto the Times

newspaper. It is the same story. But

it is talking about, almost a crisis

in the charity.

Almost endemic in

the charity sector. If we have

someone in charge, the implication

is she is telling us something

either she has told others and it

did not get through, or she is now

saying something about it. This is a

catastrophic situation. It has to be

dealt with. We should not think it

is new because it is not new.

What

does it do to your thoughts when you

think of charities?

Would you think

twice now? A lot of people will feel

dismayed and feeding their

contributions and taxpayer money is

going to organisations that are not

run in a properly regulated and

responsible way. We expect high

standards of them than the ordinary

organisation, to be exemplary of

high behaviour -- good behaviour of

the highest moral standards. The

Sunday Times leader saying there are

120 people accused of sexual abuse

in major charities and paedophiles

might be infiltrating the sector.

That will leave people asking a

great many questions.

I think it

will be an unnerving week ahead. It

should be if this is going on. Let's

go back to the Observer. We heard

Jeremy Corbyn talking about

nationalisation and his hopes. What

do you think about it?

Just as an

idea? I am of the school who

believes these things should be

nationalised. Why? It may sound

strange but I do not think people

should own water. I do not get what

that is about. I understand owning

pipes but the water I do not

understand. I think trains need to

be under control of the government.

The problem for Labour is who will

pay? How will it happen? You have to

get them back. Somebody said they

will just not renew the franchises.

Is that how it works? There would

have to be compensation paid to

shareholders, which includes a lot

of us through pension schemes as

shareholders in utilities such as

water companies. There is still huge

disquiet in the corporate sector and

the City about the way companies

such as Thames Water have been run,

the dividends paid to former

shareholders, such as the Australian

institution by Thames Water. Thames

Water is trying to put its house in

order. While we see evidence of

perhaps skimping on maintenance of

these utilities, people will start

to think, maybe nationalisation

would not be a bad idea.

Nationalisation is oversight. If we

have a government supposedly in

charge of these things we should

assume they are watching out for us.

You put it in the private sector

because you think it will be better.

It is not better. How does Labour do

it? How was it paid for?

Does it

make the regulators more muscular?

We have regulators for these

businesses. Maybe they do not have

sufficient power to intervene.

Ofwat, regulating the water

industry, maybe it needs fresh

powers to see the system works. Why

has it not happened? I wonder if

these companies have not been under

the scrutiny they might have been.

The bus I regularly uses being held

up by a burst water main and I feel

resentful about Thames Water's

behaviour at the moment. Maybe we

need to be tougher.

Talking about

being tough, let's turn to the

Telegraph and our favourite subject,

Brexit.

It is interesting. Everyone

is trying to figure out how to

explain why this is not working or

why it looks crazy. What the

Telegraph has done is they will find

someone on the other side acres zero

in on because it works. People are

like, I don't know what is but give

me a name. They have come up with

Michel Barnier, who is saying do

what you said you are going to do.

We have a meeting and we have to be

able to take something back to 27

countries. He is saying, what is

Brexit?

Is the Sunday Telegraph

basically trying to say the shell

Barnier is out of step with the rest

of the EU? That he is being too

demanding. Everybody quoted in the

story is saying he will need to step

back, calm down, and demand a little

less, otherwise Britain can just

walk away. Who are they quoting?

Every official quoted seems to back

up the central theme of the story,

that Michel Barnier is overstepping

his authority, trying to bring

Britain to the brink. Nevertheless

it is an interesting thing. The

brink of what? What the cost would

be to the EU if we just walked away.

The cost will be to the UK. The EU

did not say get out. We said we want

to leave. We want a trade deal and

the EU is saying this is how you can

have it. Somebody in the UK is

saying we want this and that. The UK

does not have any cards on the table

as nobody wants to be honest about

that.

It is interesting because

picking up on what you said, Anne. I

do not know whether you listen to

Any Answers after Any Questions.

There was a consensus Michel Barnier

was scaremongering. That was the

feeling coming from the British

public.

We are looking for a

bogeyman.

And he would be the

person. What about Japan? Japan told

us yesterday, we are here to make

money and if we are not making

money, we are out of here.

Is Japan

scaremongering also? We are not

leaving this subject because if we

turn to the Sunday Express, still

Brexit, but the headline is that

Theresa May sets out a road map to a

successful Brexit.

What is that?

How

many road maps have we had? What do

they say it is?

This is another

crunch time. We keep coming to a

crunch moment where Theresa May will

sit down and said to them all, we

have to concentrate.

They just had a

weekend away at Chequers. They had

one a week ago.

It is only one year

away and we are supposed to be

leaving the EU.

We have to have this

together by October because they are

coming together in October and they

will vote on our plan, whether they

want to go ahead with trade deals.

We have to be ready by October.

The

broader question is whether Theresa

May will bring together her party.

Those people who are vehement

Brexiteers and those who disagree

with them. We have been seeing the

division between those parts.

You

know that the pound is collapsing

because of this. What I am trying to

understand, I thought there was a

meeting this week about that. She

had a summit this week about

bringing the factions together.

Is

this another summit? I think we have

a speech coming up.

There is a very

big speech coming up and it seems to

me the Conservative Party is more

divided on this issue that it has

ever been.

They have always been

divided and maybe now this will

surface and we can see it for what

it is.

The Sunday Telegraph, we are

talking about pensions. Savers to be

discouraged from raiding their

pensions. Who has got a pension?

The

pension freedoms were supposed to

give us control over our pension

funds. They were one George

Osborne's largest reforms as

Chancellor. There are now growing

concerns that people are using their

pensions up too early. They have the

freedom to withdraw them and they

are not anticipating how long they

will live.

This is human nature.

George Osborne said when he did

this, now you can use your pension

the way you like and that is what

they are doing.

The problem is that

if people deplete their pensions,

they will fall back on the support

of the state, so there needs to be

curbs on these freedoms and there

was concern when they were

announced.

My point is of course,

this is what was said when the

Tories announce this. What are you

going to do, what is the curve?

They

did not do that. There are people,

whatever the circumstances, will be

thrifty. And some people see a lump

sum and will fritter it away and

there are concerns people are not

realising how long they will live

and using up all their money.

And

the cost of living is going up. Very

quickly, the Sunday Times.

Cheating

teachers, what is going on? Did any

of your teachers give you help with

examinations? Not my teacher.

Where

is it happening? Why is it

happening? If it is, it is about

performance tables.

Where is this

happening? Are they allowing

children to see copies of state

examinations? How do you do it? It

is evidently happening if they have

to have a clamp-down.

Are they

getting results and thinking why are

so many people...

? An indication of

the questions so when you do your

revision you know what to prepare

for.

If you are a parent and

desperate for your child to get

through these exams, would you be

happy with that?

No.

We are really

hard line. I would not. It is a bad

example to set for your child and I

would be crying my eyes out. Also,

life is not easy. There is a lesson

to be learnt at school. You have to

work for what you want.

You will be

coming back after 11:30pm. You can

join Anne and Bonnie and myself at

the top of the hour.

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