20/02/2018 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are the economist

Ruth Lea and John Rentoul,

Chief Political Commentator

The Independent.

Many of tomorrow's front

pages are already in.

Threats of no more cash for UN aid

work dominates the front of

tomorrow's Metro as the Government

warns it may withdraw millions over

allegations of sex abuse by aid

workers.

That theme continues on the front

page of i. The Financial Times, the

head of the Financial Conduct

Authority features on the front, he

is under fire in an alleged tax

avoidance scheme. The Telegraph has

the Queen enjoying herself at London

Fashion Week. The paper leads with

the scandal at Save the Children

saying that the former chief

executive at that organisation has

admitted making what he called

unsuitable and thoughtless comments

to female members of staff.

Hundreds killed in just two days,

but as the war in Syriai. The Times

features a story on the Labour

leader Jeremy Corbyn who is accused

of wanting a Soviet style.

Let us start off with The Guardian.

Syria, and full image.

Eastern

Ghouta, this is a catastrophe. These

are the pro-government forces

attacking this territory. They rebel

held territory is in retreat. It

seems that rightly or wrongly

President Assad is getting control

over Syria. This is the culmination

of this dreadful civil war that has

been taking place since March 20 11.

Seven years. They still have the

Kurdish part in northern Syria, IS

is in retreat, other rebels are in

retreat, but the brutality has been

terrible.

Women and children amongst

the casualties. It is awful to read.

There is a report in The Independent

about some of the injuries to

children. The picture on the front

of The Guardian is traffic enough.

Apparently some of the images coming

out of Syria are too horrible to

print.

The front page of The

Independent on the same story.

Massacre in Syria. Another very

dramatic front page. Somebody racing

away from another explosion with a

child in his arms.

People probably

do not want to read any more about

this. There is a fatigue about this.

But it is important that we do pay

attention to this. I do not know

what can be done. The civil war has

been going on for so long that if

the West could have intervened to

solve it, it is to wait now.

There

is another international outcry, as

there was over Aleppo, as there has

been so many times in Syria, but

that does not make much difference.

And Al Asad -- Bashir Assad is

getting control, with the help of

Russia.

Extraordinary battle between Jeremy

Corbyn, the allegations in the least

newspapers over the last few days.

This is him.

Explain what this is

about. I do not know that he is

rattled but he is certainly very

annoyed by their son and the meal in

particular going after him on this.

-- Sun and Mail and meal. In the

1980s you assumed. Jeremy Corbyn

would say he was promoting dialogue

between East and West and was doing

it for peace. He gets annoyed when

he is asked about it that he was

asked about it in a press conference

today and decided to fight back by

lodging a video attacking the press

and warning that change is going to

come.

Change is coming.

Does that

sound like a threat? It does. He is

taking on Sun and Mail, The Express,

The Telegraph, that is quite a thing

to take on. Jeremy Corbyn has got

some explaining to do. It is

interesting that the Czech secret

service, they did say, he was not an

informant, but he was a man of

interest. What does that mean. We do

not know. I think Jenna Coleman has

to see more about this.

I do not

think he is going to.

There was also

a touch of humour. He said the

papers have all gone a bit James

Bond.

Some of it was time in cheek.

Yes. There are serious questions to

answer. I think it is a silly spy

story from the 1980s. Everybody knew

that Jeremy Corbyn was sympathetic

to the communist bloc and wanted to

promote dialogue.

But this sort of

thing he does.

We need to know more.

There are questions to ask for

Oxfam. They were and are invented

the before the Commons select

committee. Oxfam hits with new sex

claims. 26 potential new allegations

emerging. 7000 regular donors have

stopped giving money to Oxfam but we

were hearing earlier that is out of

400,000, maybe it is not that

devastating for Oxfam.

The chief

executive said it was 3.5% of his

donors. This is an extraordinary

story. The basis of course, The

Times initially broke the story a

fortnight ago, they started talking

about the 2011 report, all about

sexual misbehaviour in Haiti. That

had just been buried. By burying

that report it seems that now

everything is coming out. It is a

contagion that is going through the

entire charity sector. This is

extremely distressing.

I find it

very worrying.

From what point of

view? You take the view that Save

the Children or Oxfam, they do good

work, but it does seem they are

tarnished beyond belief by people

who simply do not know how to

behave.

I am appalled. For a charity

which relies on the fact it is a

charity and people assume that it is

somehow morally superior to a

private company, for example, this

kind of thing just undermines the

reputation of these charities.

The

Times front page is similar,

charities in crisis over sex claims.

This has spread from Oxfam.

Save the

Children. New revelations about that

today. And the International

Development Secretary was seeing in

the House of Commons today that she

thinks it is endemic throughout the

charity sector and throughout NGOs

and the AIDS business in general.

Which is awful because it suggests

that these charities are exploiting

the weakness of the people they are

trying to help.

-- aid business in general.

Highlighting what Michael Gove was

saying about the food industry, the

agricultural industry, post-Brexit.

He offered the farmers an olive

branch. I am not sure which lot of

farmers. A lot of farmers are

brought Brexit. Another lot of are

very keen to have their strawberries

picked by workers from central

Europe coming to do the hard work.

One question is about migrant

labour, there is also the question

of subsidies, getting away from farm

subsidies as we have known them.

This was specifically about

immigration, they depend on people

coming from Eastern Europe for fruit

picking. Subsidy has to be an issue.

Subsidy has been guaranteed until

2022. But a lot of the farming

industry, if tariffs were slashed,

they were on their own, competing

with Australia, New Zealand, Canada

United States, they would really

struggle.

You are a farmer's.? That

is right.

Well but on's pharmacy

better of post-Brexit? Some of them

will need support. Farming is

interesting, it is not just a food

producer. Farmers are custodians of

the countryside. I think there is a

good case for subsidising them

because they look out of the

countryside.

They did not answer

whether they would be better off

after Brexit.

We will take that as a

no.

It depends what happens. The

Telegraph, still on the Brexit

theme. Jacob Rees Mogg and his

fellow Brexiteer is laying down red

lines for the Prime Minister.

Yes,

they have gone to the Prime

Minister, this is what I call the

economic ruin group. They are good

chaps. Sorry, economic research

group, I do beg your pardon. They

either hard Brexit faction of the

Conservative Party. It is a European

research group. They want a hard

Brexit and they don't want Theresa

May to listen to the softies.

The

Brexit War cabinet is going to be

meeting again soon. Do you think

that it is still all to play for

what kind of Brexit there will be?

A

lot of it is. She has specifically

said in her Lancaster house speech

12 months ago that we are out of the

customs union and the single market

but there is talk about regulatory

alignment, that makes the nervous,

it makes Jacob Rees Mogg very

nervous. Even though she has laid

down a feudal is there is still a

loss to play for. I will be

interested in the forthcoming

meetings whether we will find out

more.

At this time we did. Is it's

still a battle between those sort of

Brexiteer use and the Philip Hammond

camp?

Yes, essentially Theresa May

is trying to hold her cabinets

together at The Bottom Line is that

the Conservative Party is divided

but in Parliament there is a

majority for a soft Brexit and

therefore the only question is is

that something that the EU is

prepared to give us and I am not

sure that they are. It depends on

what it means. A soft Brexit that

does not include free movement of

workers is not something that I can

see the EU agreeing.

We are

definitely leaving the single market

and the customs union?

Yes, except

in all those cases, clever use of

language is being used to say we

might mirror those arrangements from

outside. It is not good to be as

clear cut as those.

A last look at

one story. The Queen at London

Fashion Week and she has never been

to London Fashion Week before.

She

has made her debut there. Good for

the Queen. Several of us have not

been to London Fashion Week either.

Would you like to be invited? Not

really. This is a good picture of

her in The Telegraph because she is

actually smiling. There is another

picture of her where she is looking

extremely bored.

I was astonished to

see her sitting there in the front

row.

Doesn't she prefer to go and

watch horses?

She does love horses

but she cannot only look at horses.

Horses are better looking than a lot

of these models, aren't they?

There

is another picture of a model

wearing what looked like a motorbike

crash helmet.

The Queen looked a

little puzzled by that.

But she

could be wearing her crown, couldn't

she?

Lovely to see you both. Fight you

for coming in.

Many thanks.

That is all for this evening.