09/03/2018 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are historian

and Daily Telegraph writer

Tim Stanley and Daily Mirror

columnist Susie Boniface.

Many of tomorrow's front

pages are already in...

Let's take a look at them.

The meeting between Donald Trump

and Kim Jong Un leads the FT -

with claims it was a

snap Trump decision.

Meanwhile the i says the proposed

face-to-face meeting

has stunned the world.

And The White House says

Donald Trump will take a hardline

position with North Korea,

according to the Guardian.

The search for clues

in the investigation

into the attempted murder

of the former Russian spy

and his daughter leads the Mirror -

with a picture of police

at the grave of Skripal's wife.

Threats of a cyber war

between the UK and Russia lead

the Express.

The Daily Mail warns

that parking charges

could rise by up to 45%

in some areas as councils

try to manage their budgets.

The Sun leads with reports that

actress Liz Hurley has returned

to the UK after her nephew

was reportedly stabbed.

So, the meeting between Kim Jong-un

and Donald Trump takes centre stage

in most of the papers along with the

spy story from Salisbury. Starting

with the Daily Mirror, and this

stark image, it says, poisoned spy,

clues from the grave, saying that

police have examined the graves of

Skripal! Wife and sun amid fears

that they were poisoned. We have not

heard that information efficiently

but there is a lot of speculation

about the death of other members of

his family?

That's right. And before

we came on Susie was providing a

very good explanation of why they

might have gone to this particular

graves.

The problem is that we know

so very little about what is going

on, so all we have is a series of

dramatic images of police officers

in these ridiculous chemical suits

and tents overgrazed. They're not

talking about eggs you mean anybody

is as yet, because that would be a

publicly and the coroner would have

to be involved. What they are doing

is examining the grave, because

Sergei Skripal's daughter is known

to have visited him because it was

the anniversary of her brother's

death. They are known or expected to

have visited his brave on the

anniversary of his death and his

mother is also buried nearby. So

they are examining those graves to

try to find the way by which the

nerve agent was administered but was

it in some flowers, was it on the

grave, was it something they touched

or eight, or as they have done in

the restaurant and the pub, how did

the agent get onto them? It is an

incredibly hard thing to establish,

presumably.

It could be anywhere?

Exactly. And these images are going

to be quite alarming to the people

living in Salisbury. I have been

thinking while all of this were

going on, if this were America, a

honour would have called a press

conference by now to explain to us

in great deal what is taking place.

There could be lots of reasons why

that is not going on but until then

come it looks like Chernobyl. Some

of these images are quite

frightening because they are going

to, it paces. We are reassured that

because these agents tend to

degrade, they pose no threat to the

public. They are trying to find the

source of it so that they can figure

out what was going on. One reason

why they might not be leading us

through the evidence, as we might

expect, could be because they are

living it up to the politicians to

take charge of that, because this is

after all likely to be a political

story as well as a criminal

investigation. Nevertheless we are

left trying to piece together for

ourselves what is going on from the

little we are told and the images

that we see. And I think that when

all this is over some people are

going to raise concerns about the

fact that the public has not been

kept as informed as we might want to

be.

And the fact that the military

have been sent into Salisbury,

seeing that, although it might be to

try to reassure people... On the

contrary! It is the military who in

recent years in Afghanistan and Iraq

have had the most expertise in

chemical weapons and nerve agents,

so that is why they are there,

because they're the experts are. But

the history of politicians getting

bricked first in these kind of cases

is patchy and bad. There is a

political element to this but it is

a crime.

And part of what these guys

are doing probably is, as they did

with Alexander Litvinenko, trying to

trace the polonium-210, across

London and into hotels and

eventually to the teapot itself,

that is what they did and they will

be trying to do the same thing

around Salisbury, trying to find the

traces of where the nerve agent

might have been so that they can pin

it on to one individual who was in

one of those places at various

times. But frankly if it is that

safe and it has degraded, why do

these guys have to wear these suits?

Is it because they are afraid their

faces are going to melt off? And if

that is the case then it is not as

safe as they're saying. So Tim is

right. Seeing as we are all aware

that it is very likely Russia, there

is no political reason why they

cannot give us more information, as

they would do if it was anybody

else, let's face it.

It is

reasonable to infer that the reason

why one might use a nerve agent like

this is to create panic and to send

a message. It is frightening to

think that because somebody

routinely goes to a grave once a

year one might put the agent on that

grave and kill them that way, it's

really quite frightening. These

visuals underscore that message.

Do

you think this could be extended? We

had MPs this week calling for the

opening of the investigation into 14

other cases. Talking about a number

of other people who have come from

Russia and who have died and people

say it was supposed to be natural

courses but some people are saying

it needs to be reopened?

I suspect

so. It gains added political

salience from these images, because

if a foreign power is using a nerve

agent to kill its critics abroad, as

well as that being totally

unacceptable and criminal, if they

have put members of the British

public at risk as well, and some

people are talking about this as an

actor of war, this is very, very

serious.

It is almost an act of war

which has been perpetrated by a

state upon which we are reliant for

many of our gas supplies and for

keeping peace on the other side of

the EU and upon which we are reliant

for our own property market, because

so much money comes into London and

spreads through the country as a

result of. It is an impossible

situation for the politicians to be

in if it is Russia which is

responsible. Perhaps that is why

they want to sit on it. There are

people who are concerned and if

someone from a foreign nation is

able to reach across here and put

his finger on somebody and

extinguish their life... That is

terrifying.

Let's move on to the FT

and another story which is on the

front of lots of papers, as you

would imagine. This is the idea that

President Trump and Kim Jong-un

might meet face-to-face. The meeting

was a snap Trump decision, it says

here.

Thursday night was I think the

most interesting and exciting night

yet in the trap presidency.

Tim,

pour you!

Well, I always disregard

all the soap opera stuff, all the

Russia staff! What is Melania Trump

wearing?!

Within 24 hours, Trump

signed an order slapping tariffs on

steel and aluminium, and a couple of

hours later South Korea's

national-security adviser stood in

front of the west wing and announced

that Trump had agreed to a meeting

with Kim John Barnes of this is

really quite significant. He is not

the first president to be invited to

meet the North Korean leader. He is

the first sitting president to agree

to do it in principle. One suspects

that one reason why it was left up

to the South Koreans to announce it

is so that the administration at

some point in the future duck out of

it if it wishes.

And in the last 24

hours the administration has been

making it very clear that it is

keeping the pressure on and North

Korea has to make clear concessions

before the meeting goes ahead.

Nonetheless, a timetable has been

set. It was said in the announcement

that he would meet him by me. So,

this is happening very, very

quickly. And it has the potential to

turn this situation around. This is

a genuine diplomatic coup. And the

South Koreans were very clear that

it was down to the pressure that

Trump had put on the North Korean

regime. If he pulls this off, this

is the beginning of turning all our

perceptions of the Trump

administration around.

Is that the

prize that he has got?

That's the

prize.

There's a lot of ifs. As you

said when you started, this is the

idea. We have the idea. We have had

the idea that he comes to Britain

for a state visit, the idea that

he's going to build a wall. None of

these things have yet happened. Kim

Jong-un has renegade on every

international promise he has ever

made, flat. -- has reneges to. My

lifetime in journalism has taught me

that if you want to understand a

story, try and work out who benefits

from it. Who benefits from Kim

wanting to offer to stop testing and

meeting Trump. Kim benefits, not

Trump so much. Kim is the one who is

strong and who has made the reach

across. Trump is in a weakened

position when he says yes. What

happens next. How can they both come

away from it being the strong man

for their citizenry? They can't both

win out of that summit, it would be

very, very typical. So I think the

chances of it actually happening are

fairly slim and you have to remember

that every time Trump agrees to do

something he changes his mind fairly

quickly on many things. It would be

very easy for Kim if Trump says

something on Twitter one day to

withdraw the application and then it

is Trump's fault.

Again there are

things which Trump has changed his

mind about, nobody is denying that,

but there are other things he has

been consistent on. He said during

the campaign, I will protect

American jobs - he has done it. And

he has consistently said he was

prepared to meet Kim Jong-un. It was

missed but he actually said last

Saturday at a dinner that he would

meet him. He made a joke about it.

He said, I will go and meet Kim

Jong-un and people talk about the

dangers of meeting a madman but that

is just a risk that Kim Jong-un is

going to have to take! He has got a

good sense of humour! Let's be

realistic. It is not in Kim's best

interests to give up the nuclear

programme is in that is what keeps

him in power and what keeps the

world's attention. For him, the win

is that America backs off, and for

America it is that the American

president has helped to reduce

tension in the Korean peninsula.

Moving on, the Saudi prince who has

been here this week, red carpet

rolled out, leaves the UK with a

hint of finally landing Typhoon

gets.

Again, it is an idea! Another

bit of PR brilliance. When we have

visits by foreign dig trees,

agreements they sign while they are

here are agreed in advance. What's

happened here is that the Saudi

prince has met with the Defence

Secretary and written a memo of

intent, in other words, yeah, I will

have some planes! Don't worry about

the price, we will agree that

another time. That his all that has

happened. Added to which the Saudis

have been saying this for the last

four yes. We need to sell Thai fax,

BAE Systems, we don't sell very many

and we need to give the company

going, so they have done something

which has boosted our position. The

BAE Systems share price has gone up

as a result but all it is is a

promise that at some point in the

future we will spend billions. I

could sign this memo and it would

mean the same thing!

We have had the

Labour leader saying this is

unacceptable, we should not be doing

this?

Britain's relationship with

Prince Mohammed is very, very close.

There are only two foreign countries

which have continued to support

Saudi Arabia so strongly, and that

is America and Britain, and it is

partly because of this, because we

sell them so much stuff, which

raises questions among those who

question that. It has been a week of

extraordinary diplomatic

turnarounds. He has try to give the

impression that he has forward

looking, he wants to move away from

oil, granting women the right to

drive, putting himself forward as a

progressive force and Britain also

to get that statement of intent as

well so that Britain will have this

close economic relationship with a

power which is not just a Draconian

feudal monarchy but one which is

forward-looking. But frankly the

judgment of whether or not Saudi

Arabia is really changing is whether

he gets out of Yemen, and he shows

no signs of doing that.

Very

quickly, Daily Mail, counselling

parking -- council parking charges

to sort.

This is a long-running

story about local authority funding

and austerity since 2010 and the

fact that council taxes have gone up

and many councils have few parts of

the budget which they can increase

but now they have been told they can

increase council tax due to the

social care crisis. The Daily Mail

has done a story which says that one

of the parts of the budget they can

automatically increase on their own

is car parking charges. The truce is

that they may well increase by

45%...

The residents permits could

be a lot more.

They could be, but

they're not going to get nearly as

much from that as they will do from

council tax increases. So, this is a

very small part of the budget. When

there is a cap on something

somewhere you have to increase your

income from something else.

The kind

of thing which will infuriate

people.

Absolutely, I recently

passed my test and became a driver.

That's the most exciting thing which

has happened this week!

I've been

driving for about nine months. It

has changed my relationship with my

council, because I've realised

that... All these potholes! My

beautiful, lovely card! Poor tilde

is getting destroyed by these

potholes in the road! Council tax is

already very repressive really, --

very progressive. It doesn't say

anything about your income. -- very

regressive.

I think we could do a

song about that!

Breaking news -

he's passed his driving test! And

that is it from the papers

tonight's. That is for use seven

days a week on the BBC website. And

if you missed the programme any

evening you can watch it later on

the iPlayer. Thank you very much to

Tim and to Susie. And good driving!