11/03/2018 The Papers

taking in more than a billion US

dollars at cinemas worldwide.

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are the political editor

of the Sun on Sunday,

Dave Wooding, and Owen

Bennett, deputy political

editor of HuffPost UK.

Many of tomorrow's front

pages are already in.

The Metro leads with the ongoing

investigation into the poisoning

of former spy Sergei Skripal

and his daughter Yulia.

The Express asks why it took

authorities so long to issue advice

to anyone who was in the area

where the pair were poisoned.

The Telegraph says hundreds

of people have been warned

to wash their clothes and clean

belongings with wet wipes.

The i also leads on that story,

saying the Chief Medical Officer has

told residents there is no cause

for alarm over the advice.

The Times reports that the Prime

Minister is on the verge of issuing

sanctions against Russia if it is

proved that the country was behind

the poisoning.

Meanwhile, the front page

of the Financial Times features

analysis that shows multi-national

companies are paying significantly

less in tax than they were before

the 2008 financial crisis.

Not surprisingly, lots about the

poisoning in Salisbury. Let's take

out closer look at that story and in

particular how the Times is

reporting it. Theresa May set to hit

back over spy death, it says,

prepared to announce sanctions - but

they haven't proved it yet?

No, in

fact it takes ages to prove any of

this stuff. What happened last time

with the polonium poisoning? It took

about ten or 12 years and we still

haven't pinned it down on anybody.

It was traced rack to Russia,

though.

It was but it takes so long.

The Times is reporting that there is

some irrefutable evidence which

links it with Russia and that she is

ready to act. There was a report

today that in Cabinet, Boris Johnson

had dared to mention it was the

Russians and got slapped down rather

firmly by the Prime Minister. But it

looks like she has now come round to

thinking what all of us suspect,

which is that Russia is behind, is

going to take some action.

It is a

nerve agent, we haven't been told

which one it is, much more difficult

to trace than something which is

radioactive like polonium?

It seems

that that is why they are being

cautious. The Times have gone for

Theresa May to hit back over a

Russian spy death and I don't think

anybody has actually died yet! So I

think The Times have got a little

bit ahead of themselves with the

headline. Talking about Boris

Johnson in Cabinet, we know when he

gave his statement to the House last

week he was keen to point the finger

at Russia. Theresa May is trying to

be a bit more tactful. Not difficult

to be more tactful than Boris

Johnson, I guess. The action they

protect - expulsion of diplomats and

spies, things like that. The idea

that we are going to not have any

official representation at the World

Cup in Russia I don't think will

cause them to many sleepless nights.

The alarming thing is that as is

mentioned in here, stepping up our

military presence in Eastern Europe.

Which of course would be the biggest

escalation of facing down Russia

since the Cold War.

But the more I

think about it, your observation

about the headline is really very

troubling, isn't it? They have sent

a correction apparently, so it was a

mistake. But the government has got

to say that it will do something if

it is irrefutable?

Absolutely, the

former ambassador to Russia was on

BBC Radio 5 Live earlier and he said

that in the clamour to do something,

you end up making statements which

actually cause longer term damage to

your relationship with Russia and we

need to work with them on things

like Islamic fundamentalism and the

Middle East. We cannot learn every

single bridge with them. Of course

people will say they started this

because they are the ones who it is

believed carried out this action.

But people say if you start putting

more troops on the border with

Estonia, it only takes a couple of

planes to crash in Syria for these

things to escalate.

The other side

to that is that if you do nothing,

you send the whole message to the

whole world and to the EU when

negotiating Brexit that we are just

a pushover and if you want to come

and wager a war on our streets, then

you can.

Let's have a look at this

one. This is the advice, if you are

one of these 500 people in this

restaurant or pub in Salisbury, you

need to clean your stuff?

Yes, this

advice should have gone out within a

couple of hours perhaps but it has

taken them over a week and now, the

advice is, wash your clothes. And

wipe your mobile phone down with a

wet wipe! Is that really our best

line of defence against this kind of

potential nerve agent? It seems like

they've really not grasped the

severity potentially of this. On the

other hand you could say that there

have not been people getting rushed

to hospital with symptoms, so maybe

it is safe. But I think if I was

living there I would be a bit

worried.

Imagine if you lived there

in the area and you see these police

officers walking round in those

suits like we can see on the front

page of the Telegraph there, it is

quite alarming. It shows that it is

quite serious threat if these

officers are wearing this gear, and,

of course, ordinary members of the

public are not wearing that stuff,

they're just being told, wipe down

your phone!

Let's have a look at the

statement, the spring statement, the

litter levy, anything which ends up

in landfill causes rubbish?

Yeah,

this is wonderful. I think this is

about the second or third

announcement talking about doing

something over plastics are. Trying

to reclassify chewing gum as a

single use plastic, because

apparently that is what it is

classed at in some countries. But

this is not legislation, it is just

a consultation which has been

announced before. It makes Michael

Gove look very good, which Michael

Gove is happy to have, a bit of

stardust, but it is not a new

announcement.

Apparently it costs

Ken Pisi for a piece of chewing gum

to be scraped off the floor.

According to the Telegraph.

Disgusting habit!

What I would come

down really hard on is when you are

eating in a restaurant, maybe

Zizzi...

Don't mention that, please!

And you put your hand under the

table and somebody has left a piece

of chewing gum there.

Don't put your

hands under the table! Goodness me!

Keep your hands above the table!

There is nothing under here, I can

assure you!

It's clean, I've just

checked!

Huffington Post, here is

your take on it, Owen Bennett, like

at the end of the has to tunnel

we're still in the tunnel?

Absolutely, this was trailed in

David's paper but he was quick to

point out today that we are still in

the tunnel. I think for Philip

Hammond it is a problem, because

they're saying that we are about to

leave this tunnel but we do not know

where we are going to end up. What

they would do once they are not

doing austerity. We've had eight

years of it with them in government.

It has been their policy basically

for ten years and they need a new

one. Because everyone is thinking

about Brexit, there is and this big

debate about what they're going to

do now.

How excited are you about

the spring statement?

I just can't

wait, I will be springing out of bed

very early for it! I just think he

needs to give us some hope because

at the moment it is generally be

called in who is giving people hope,

and the Conservatives are aware of

this. But it is still very, very

cautious language. For a chap who is

known as the victor Meldrew of

politics, or Eyore after the moaning

% from Winnie the Pooh, this is

quite upbeat for Philip!

Let's look

at the Guardian. We knew that some

university bosses are earning

hundreds and hundreds of thousands

of pounds and this tries to put into

some kind of perspective?

This was a

story about the expenses they're

claiming, £7 million any one vice

chancellor had his pet dog flown

over from Australia, at the cost to

the taxpayer of £1600. So, they're

really raking it in. What the

Guardian have done on this story is

to compare their salaries with those

of senior leaders in the same area.

They've looked at the chief

executive of Birmingham City

Council, who earns £185,000 a year.

You think that is not about salary

but when you compare it with Sir

David Eastwood, vice chancellor of

the university of Birmingham, it is

dwarfed - £378,000. It is just

giving you the comparison between

senior people in different top jobs

in the same area.

What could be done

to bring down that level of pay?

It

is interesting, the Guardian have

come out on attacking public sector

pay almost, which is unlike them!

The people at the very top, the

Universities Minister has given a

statement, this should be looked at,

but not actually said what is going

to happen. The new regulator, the

office for students, will require

universities to publish the

justification for salaries and most

of them will probably say it is the

market rate! The public service --

public shaming doesn't seem to be

working.

Let's have a look at the

picture story of the Guardian. It

says this is going to be a statue of

somebody who is covered in the most

extraordinary tattoo is, and this is

going to be a work of art based on

him?

It is a work of art based on

someone who is a work of art. Marlon

Brando, Apocalypse now perhaps!

Apparently it is going to be 3.5

metres tall.

So, something to have a

look at.

It is quite striking

picture.

And he is a very striking

man as well if you look him up

online, some extraordinary tattoo

is. Let's go to the FT, China votes

to amend constitution, allowing Xi

lifetime rule. He is due to step

down in 2023 as the Chinese premier,

but not any more if he doesn't want

to?

No, it seems he is going to be

able to stay on indefinitely.

Apparently this was passed by 99.8%

of the 3000 votes people's Congress

in Beijing. I kind of get why it is

a big story but I also get that this

is a country which doesn't practice

democracy is doing something

undemocratic! I know there is

something to see but I struggle to

get the shocking aspect of it!

There

is of course a foregone conclusion

but I wonder who the two people were

who voted against! And the three who

abstained! I wonder whether they are

still around whether they have been

put up to it to try and make it look

balanced coverage that was suggested

to light that you could not have a

unanimous vote because it would not

look could. I think we should send

Gina Miller, the anti-Brexit

campaigner, out there to have a look

at this!

Andrew Adonis can see how

much he is earning and have a crack

down on that as well!

Get them all

over there! Apparently a lot of

people, ordinary member is of the

public in China, it won't make any

difference to them who is in charge

because the state is so pervasive

anywhere.

Exactly, it doesn't matter

who is in charge, because it is not

a democracy. So I guess it doesn't

matter to the ordinary man and

woman.

But there were excesses when

Chairman Mao was running China, and

I think that is why the law was

changed, to try and stop a repeat of

that, so only time will tell whether

he behaves himself.

Shall we move

onto oppressing matter, in the

Express, on page three, no less...

Clotted cream clots Cornish fury at

tea-time treat blunder... You just

know where this is going. It is all

about which order you put your cream

and your charm on your scorn. Now,

you are from Devon, so which is the

correct way?

The correct way, for

everybody, who is cream and then

jam. I will not have those people in

Cornwall telling me otherwise!

Basically there was a National Trust

house who put on their Facebook page

a picture of the Devon way of doing

things and in Cornwall they got lots

of people very angry saying, it was

wrong! And they put out a very good

statement to say, we would like to

sincerely apologise, the person who

made this error has been marched

back over the river. Saying rest

assured, your mothers are safe here!

Do you think it was a Devonian

interloper?

I can't comment on what

our Devon spies do, it would be

inappropriate for me to do that!

You

are not from Devon or Cornwall but

which way round do you do it?

It has

got to be jam first because if you

think about it, you put the cream on

and then try to put the jam on it,

it doesn't work.

You see, that's how

I do it as well, from a purely

practical reasons.

But aesthetically

it looks better because you have the

nice...

Look at that beautiful...

That's probably why they've done

that picture, because it shows the

cream and the John, but it's not the

right way to do it.

And what about

butter?

I am for as many things that

will give you a heart attack in your

food as possible.

No butter.

I don't

agree, you have to gild the lily, it

has to be salted butter as well!

Shall we do that for the second

half, can we get it?

I think we

should, can anyone send one in?!

Wouldn't that be wonderful?! If

anybody had thought ahead. That is

The Papers for this hour. Dave

Wooding and Owen Bennett will