10/03/2018 The Papers

Meanwhile, England lose to France

in Paris, scoring just 16 points

to their rival's 22 points.

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are Nigel Nelson,

Political Editor

of the Sunday Mirror

and the political

commentator, Jo Phillips.

Many of tomorrow's front

pages are already in.

The Observer leads on Government

figures that reveal almost

four times more men

than women are in Britain's

highest paid posts.

The Sunday Express says

that the ex-Russian spy

Sergei Skripal and his daughter

Yulia may have been poisoned

by the contents of a parcel that

went undetected in the post.

The Sunday Telegraph reveals that

senior Government figures

are leading a plan to ban Russian

officials involved in corruption

and human rights abuses.

The Sunday Times claims that

since becoming Prime Minister,

Theresa May has

received over £800,000

of donations from Russian oligarchs.

The Sunday Mirror front page

features claims that up to one

thousand children could be involved

in a new child abuse and trafficking

scandal. And the Sunday People says

that the Russian President Vladimir

Putin is planning eight more

attacks. Of course, it's worth a

reminder that Russia has not yet

been found responsible for the

Salisbury attack. Worth reminding us

that Russia has not yet been found

responsible for these attacks.

So Russia dominating

the majority of the front pages,

as it has for the past few days.

So let's have a closer look

Starting with the express.

Interesting take. The one problem

with this, there has been a complete

sort of security clamp-down on

basically any information coming

out, and so, it's like a example of

the new Inco, when that happened,

2006, people were prepared to talk

to you and now they are not, but

what is being suggested here is that

it was a parcel delivered to their

house which may have contained the

poison. -- Alexander Litvinenko. At

the moment, we still do not know

what the nerve agent was that they

ingested, the express has said it

could be something which is labelled

newcomer, a variety of different

agents. It is more powerful, hugely

powerful, a pinhead on your hand

could kill you. There is a huge

variety of those particular nerve

agents, we are led to believe that

the authorities know what the nerve

agent is but they will not tell us,

one assumes it is something they

have tucked away here, and it is too

secret to reveal. They will have a

quandary but eventually it will have

to come out.

The news that you were

reading says that traces have been

found at the restaurant.

Traced back

to the restaurant at which they

dined, Zizzi, really.

They may have

taken it in on their bodies. There

is an awful lot of fantastic

speculation, there is a human

tragedy in all of this, but this is

a cracking good story, it is John

Vaccaro meets McMafia meets Nigel

Nelson! -- John Le Carre but one

week on it is full of stuff like, a

neighbour has seen a courier

arrived... Well, my neighbours from

the BC that, so in the absence of

fact, lots of speculation.

Why a

nerve agent, I have thought about

that, have you picked up on that?

One of the interesting thing is, why

come in with something, a

radioactive thing for Alexander

Litvinenko, polonium, the Russians,

I'm pretty sure it is the Russians

that did this, they want everyone

else to know about the fact that

they did it, so the more exotic you

can make the death, the more likely

it is that people will believe it is

you, and there is another side of

this, it is a warning, yes, and...

What are your friends like? You have

heard this from your friends!

LAUGHTER

One of the things they are doing,

making this stuff, like a new toy,

they want to go out and use it, they

have a laboratory, making these

different agents. I never understood

what you don't just pushed somebody

in front of a train if you want to

kill them but the Russians like the

idea of this exotic way of doing it.

It is drama. Let's turn to the

Sunday people. We are still on the

subject of Russia, but now, a

slightly different take.

Talking

about how many spooks do I know,

this is... Look at this, a Russian

ex-KGB Major, I have known him for

several years, he has been targeted

for assassination by the Russians

because he effected over here, Boris

Karpichkov, and he claims he

received a call on February 12, with

a hit list of eight names, his name

was on it, and so was Sergei

Skripal. What was interesting about

that, he did not recognise the name,

they served in different parts of

the Russian intelligence network so

he has never met Sergei Skripal, in

Britain or in Moscow, and he served

there. The name did not mean

anything to him. It does now, three

weeks later, the attack comes.

You

know, there has been a lot made...

Now they are looking at the wider

family, some people are saying this

is a message, if you do mess with...

This is all speculation. And

obviously, the police in Salisbury,

special forces investigating

toxicology, have apparently been

looking and examining the

Gravestock... I don't think we yet

know whether they have exhumed the

body of his wife...

Some flowers

appear on the grave.

His son died of

liver disease, he was cremated, I

believe, the wife died of cancer,

some years ago. -- examining the

graves. It is about the wider family

but also, how long, he has been here

for a long time.

The next question,

so many questions, what can the

British government do in

retaliation, if we turn to the

Sunday Times, we have an article

here, but it has been described as a

response to a poisoning scandal, not

too sure if they are saying they are

going to carry out some of these

measures, without the evidence...?

This is a story about... Theresa May

promised to distance her party, the

Conservative Party, from Russian

donors, when she became Prime

Minister. It has been revealed that

Russian oligarchs and their

associates have registered donations

of more than £800,000 tinged she

became Prime Minister, that is quite

a lot more than previous

Conservative Party leaders. -- since

she became Prime Minister. These

people are willing to pay quite a

lot of money for some of the things

mentioned here, not the Russians

solely, anyone who wants influence

is willing to pay things like

£160,000 to play tennis with David

Cameron. £30,000, to have dinner

with the Defence Secretary, Evan

Williams. Strikes me as frightfully

overpriced(!)

usually so! And his

tarantula.

There is this stuff

about, where are you taking money

from, you are right, it leads on to,

what do you actually do, do you hit

people in the wallet?

Turning to the

Telegraph... The paper goes into

this a little deeper, and it is...

That is enough... A Visa ban?

This

is what the Telegraph are talking

about what could be done, and this

is a sanctions regime, to do it

alongside the US and Canada, and the

idea is to freeze assets, target

people, very difficult to do things

like that, I'm not sure how much

Vladimir Putin would care if we did,

but within London, about £90 billion

of Russian money comes through

London. Clearly, it would cost us

quite a bit to lose it but when we

get to a stage like this, yes, we

must do so. One thing I don't

understand why they don't do,

chucked out a few Russian spies,

that seems to hurt them more. Our

spies would have to leave Moscow,

but it seems to me that is the way

forward, to show a bit of strength.

Also this act, which has been

hovering around for a few years,

Magnitsky Act, one of the people on

your hip list -- hit list. Bill

Browder got it brought in in America

because it was his lawyer who died

in prison on what they said were

trumped up charges, no reason why we

couldn't do something like that.

Staying with the Telegraph, further

down, chaos for Accident and

Emergency, a bit of a meltdown...?

I

think I speak with a certain

interest in this because my son is a

paramedic. I do sometimes wonder

about the calls they are sent out

to, as do most ambulance crews who

are probably working tonight. And we

completely, everybody understands

the dispatcher has got a

terrifically difficult job, and if

someone says, I have chest pains,

you know you do not know if they are

having a heart attack or whatever it

is but when we heard the report last

week of some repeat callers, one

person making over 3000 calls, to an

Ambulance Service, there has to be

somewhere that you are gauging

these, because there are people

going to hospital who perhaps do not

need to be in Accident and Emergency

and people who need to have other

services, mental health, social

services, care for all the people...

You can't put it all on the

Ambulance Service and then expect

them to be out on the streets

responding to what is happening

immediately.

Let's go back to the

express, I love this story, did you

know this happens...

I guess

something like it. We all go on

hostile environment courses now and

go through the kidnap stuff, but

Meghan Markle, the one she has gone

on, it beats the lot, the express is

saying that she was sent off to

Hereford, the SAS headquarters, to

be put through her paces, and rather

than news the blank ammunition that

I have been used to when we have

gone on these courses, she gets live

and mean is on. The SAS officer who

founded the course says, I guarantee

that she would have been petrified.

He seems to say rather gleefully!

LAUGHTER

Not as much as the woman who would

have been her mother-in-law,

Princess Diana, her hair caught

fire!

She did insist on sitting by

the window. A point that is

interesting to take out of this,

normally you go through the course

once married, however, they are...

She, Megan, in particular, is going

through beforehand because, I will

read this out, member of the Royal

family is according to one military

source because of heightened

security issues at this time, they

have had to put her through that

early rather than later.

We are only

weeks away from the wedding, May

19... Obviously imprinted on your

mind! That is why, my invite stuck

in the post(!) if you are going to

do it, why wait?

The way they talk

about some of the details, you do

not realise that they have to know

what they are doing.

Some of us are

old enough to remember Princess and

busting out of a crowd with a gun,

very serious. -- Princess Anne,

bursting out of a crowd with a gun.

Big day tomorrow, isn't it.

Mothering Sunday, yes. The Sunday

Times here is talking about new

politically correct cards that you

have two sent out. Waitrose sending

out gender neutral is one, happy You

day, rather than Mother's Day, which

I think is horrible. I prefer the

ones from Scribblers, if you are

dealing with a same-sex couple, two

mothers is better than one would be

one of the cards, and another one

that I like, dad, thanks for being

the most amazing mother. They seem

to have a bit of wit about them. The

worst thing is that we should rename

the day completely... To make it

gender neutral. Guardian 's day of

carers day. Which is all. Blue it

takes it away from what it was,

which is Mothering Sunday, part of

the Easter pattern of Lent.

Many

people will not be aware of that.

But it is like when you say happy

holidays instead of happy Christmas,

we are having holidays because it is

Christmas. This is to do with

ancient church stuff that carried on

into the Anglican and Catholic

Church, going to your mother church

which would be bigger church to the

parish it is not about mothers. This

is pure commercial...

We were

talking about this.

And you call

yourself a historian(!)

what you

think about Father's Day? Should it

be the same thing happening?

I'm

sure the same thing will happen...

You have grandparents... It is like

Valentine's Day, if you care about

somebody, do you have to have a

special day to do it?

That is what

my husband says, and it still

doesn't wash, he says, everyday is

Valentine's Day! Know, Nigel, no!

LAUGHTER

-- every day.

The getting the card?

He never does forget the card, I

always do!

I hope he's not watching.

Thank you very much, back again,

just after 11:30pm. May even have

different stories mixed in, make

sure that you tune into the papers,

and stay tuned, next on BBC News, it

is meet the Author.