12/03/2018 The Papers

That is all from Sportsday, the top

story, Manchester City beating Stoke

City 2-0, one step closer to the

Premier League title. Coming up

next, the newspapers.

Welcome to our look ahead at what

the papers will be bringing us. With

me are the broadcaster David Davies

and Lucy Fisher, Senior Political

Correspondent at The Times. Welcome

to the both of you. Many of

tomorrow's front page is already in.

Let's have a rifle through them, we

can take a look, starting with the

Metro, rather menacing picture of

Vladimir Putin. As Theresa May told

MPs that the nerve agent used in the

Salisbury attack was something

developed by Russia. While the I

reports that Theresa May has given

Russia 36 hours to report what they

knew of the attack. The Financial

Times, which leads with a picture of

Theresa May at the dispatch box

saying that unless a credible reason

is given this action amounts to

unlawful use of force by the Russia

against the United Kingdom. While

the Times tells it's readers that it

understands GCHQ and the Ministry of

Defence are working to accelerate a

joint offensive cyber programme

against Russia. Moving on - the

Mirror - who broke the story of

former England player Jamie

Carragher spitting at a teenager -

has a plea from the victim's family

for him NOT to lose his job as a

pundit over the incident. The

Express has a picture of Sir Ken

Dodd on their front page with his

long time partner Anne who he

married just days before he died.

Unsurprisingly, Theresa May's

responds in the House of Commons to

the Salisbury attack, leading the

most of the newspapers. Kick us off

with the Metro, they have some James

Bond ponds here...

A robust

statement today from Theresa May, in

the house, explaining the UK

authorities have identified the

substance, the nerve agent used

against the Russian spy and his

daughter, it is another jock, which

is said to be ten times more potent

than VX poison gas, hard to detect,

more resistant to antidotes. --

Novichok. It was either a

state-sponsored attack by the

Kremlin or else Russia has lost

control of its nerve agent, and she

has ordered the Russian ambassador

to the UK to come and explain

exactly what they know about this

within the next 36 hours.

Really,

this deadline now, for the facts to

come onto the table, do you think we

can expect much from the Russians?

I

was reflecting on, if Anglo Soviet

relations have ever in modern times

been at a lower ebb, than they are

at this moment, I'm struggling to

remember when it was. The Commons,

in that quite fascinating debate,

this afternoon, was reminded of the

last time there was substantial

Russian expulsions from the UK, and

the impact they had, that is some 40

years ago. And personally, it would

seem to me, the logical extension of

this, probably by Wednesday and

Thursday, will be expulsions. How

far of the Russian Embassy chain

they go remains to be seen.

The

Financial Times, the headline,

Theresa May accuses Russia over

attack on spy and threatens requires

all is -- and threatens reprisals,

they are looking at the kind of

reprisals that may come back.

More

powers for ministers to seize assets

on dubious Russians linked to the

Kremlin. Perhaps a clamp-down on

Russian banks, perhaps it could be

that the UK boycotts and World Cup,

some talk of the former Russia today

Kremlin backed broadcaster having

its licence revoked, a whole suite

of options that are possible here.

Let's get on to the World Cup! Now,

very clearly, it is absolutely...

It

is absolutely pointless for England

to boycott the World Cup on its own,

if Germany, if France, if Poland, if

a substantial number of other

countries boycott the World Cup, now

you are talking. The other thing I

would say, in a number of the

papers, this point about the

deployment of malware, viruses, as I

understand, as a likely option, by

our country, against the Russians.

So, that will be a serious, a very

serious escalation. And the other

thing that struck me, and I'm

interested in Lucy's view on this,

the roller Jeremy Corbyn, and his

contribution to the debate today,

how was that received EU think on

the Labour benches, particularly the

Labour front bench?

Remind us of the

take he took.

He said, he was very

sceptical about how hard Theresa May

would be in terms of her response to

the Russians, invoking the fact that

the Conservatives have received

£820,000 in donations from Russians,

since she has become Prime Minister.

People thought that him bringing up

this aspect, playing party politics

in quite a grave moment, about the

sort of security of the nation, was

inappropriate, cries of shame in the

house. Interesting that some

backbenchers, to be fair, some art

critics we are used to seeing,

heaped censure on him, they were

making digs at him, questioning

whether the UK could ever be led by

somebody who did not take this

security threat seriously.

But you

listen to him, he said, I think the

government should be reducing

tensions. Now, in an ideal world, of

course that is right, but, surely,

he has got to come to terms with the

fact that the Russians are

effectively being accused here of

attempted murder in our country.

That is the seriousness of the

situation.

-- seriousness. Need

potentially for an international

approach, on the issue of the World

Cup but actually, that intent to

reach out to other countries to join

the UK, we are starting to see that,

the United States were talking about

it today, White House spokesman

saying, we stand by the UK, not so

much about Russia, but this need

for... What is the word... An

approach with all the countries

working together, is what is going

to be needed together, if any impact

will be had.

That is actually leave

right, unilateral action will be

ineffective, especially if it is

around sanctions. -- that is

absolutely right. The White House

said that while they will stand by

the UK as its closest ally and

condemn the use of highly lethal

nerve agents, they did not mention

Russia. The Emmanuel Macron has had

in conversation with Theresa May and

pledged solidarity, I'm sure we'll

be hearing from more allies,

Germany.

European allies, British

are now seeking...

Are you trying to

take us back?

Making an observation.

Takers to The Times, your paper,

your story, down right-hand side of

this, some really aren't pleasant

reading. -- take us to the times. --

some really unpleasant reading. Tell

us what you have found out about

Labour MPs.

First we had Pest-

Minster, not just Labour, all

parties, and bullion claims in

recent weeks, Karl Turner, Labour

MP, has been accused of making

highly inappropriate sexual remarks

towards a cancer survivor, he denies

those remarks, it must be said, but

this brings the tally of Labour MPs

facing allegations of sexual

misconduct or bullying up to six. It

shines a light on how widespread

this problem is in parliament, as

well as the rest of society.

We feel

like we are working through various

key and is the juice and within

society.

The allegation refers to

2015, and the whole question of

this, I mean, it appears to an

outsider, as I am now, as opposed to

what I used to be, in the lobby,

that there is huge and needs a among

long-standing members of Parliament,

on all sides, about where this

starts and ends, and some of the

allegations and where they come from

and how they would be proven, so

many years on... But, in other areas

of public life, they are proven, and

we shall see.

We will move on, take

us to the Guardian, university

strikes may be called off as talks

turn corner. This is all about

pension reform in the university

sector, roll and plan for strikes

which we have seen going on...

Middle of March, final exams in

universities are only a few months

away now, so the settlement of this

dispute which has gone on for

several weeks and there have been...

There has been picketing and there

have been lectures missed, and

tutorial's mist, in a significant

number of universities, not the one

I am on the council of, in

Birmingham, perhaps surprisingly to

some people. -- tutorials missed.

This is good news for students who

were getting worried worried with

exams ever closer, and good news for

universities who were facing up to

the possibility of claims from

students for compensation for missed

tuition over the past few...

Covering this a couple of weeks ago,

students coming out in support of

lecturers.

That is right to give the

other side of the argument, unions

say these changes initially proposed

to the pensions of the lecturers and

professors involved was worth

£10,000 a year per retiree,

substantial sums of money involved,

interesting to see that while the

tensions were continuing, more

universities seemed to be breaking

away, Oxford was the latest to

distance itself from the

universities UK stance, Imperial

College London asked the pensions

regulator to come in and resolve the

issue independently. Interesting,

they have reached something now,

with a three year transition period,

and a compromise on proposals.

Interesting to watch the detail as

it unfolds. Daily Mirror,

footballing hat, I want you to book

it back on, don't sack Jamie

Carragher, Sky Sports's football

pundit Jamie Carragher, in trouble

after film spitting at a car with

fans in.

Let me say, Jamie

Carragher, what Jamie Carragher has

said, immensely foolish, disgusting,

indefensible, that is the first

point, what he did. Having said

that, I think there is a wider

point, and this refers to

politicians as well, and people in

public life. My concern at the

moment is that there is a level of

the word uses coarseness,

old-fashioned word, some of the

awful, horrible provocation and

abuse of public figures, some of the

accusations you have just been

talking about as well, of

intimidation... These sort of things

that people in public life are

having to put up with, and football

is only one area of it, are

appalling as well full the other

observation I would make, that film

that I watched today, Jamie

Carragher, doing this awful thing,

who filmed it? Could it have been

the driver? You just wonder...! I

don't know who else it was!

The new

line on this, the family have made a

plea that he should not lose his

job.

Quite interesting, people who

are you could say the victims in a

stunt like this, who have been

disrespected in this way, first out

of the traps to call for someone's

resignation usually, or get an

apology, so it is interesting...

Jamie Carragher has said that he was

goaded three or four times by fans,

so perhaps they recognise that he

had been slightly welled up before

spitting. --

they are not the ones calling for

blood. -- slightly riled up.

Sir Ken

Dodd, common legend, pictures on a

lot of newspapers, we cannot finish

without mentioning him,

generational, perhaps not your

favourite comic, no offence to

David's senior years, but you did

know him, you came across him.

Worked with him a few times on

Children In Need, I seem to remember

introducing him on a show ones as

well, and most famously, from my

point of view, Liverpool had won the

European cup, the Champions League

as it is now, they came back through

the city of Liverpool, hundreds of

thousands of people in St George

square, on a balcony in the musical

buildings, and we had to fill in

time, because the Liverpool triumph

and bus was proceeding with the cup

at about ten metres per 25 minutes

or something, around Queens drive,

and somebody said, interview Ken

Dodd, he is here, interview him. And

this interview, he said, just ask me

this, this and this. We did it and

we kept talking for 20 minutes! P,

he himself, well-deserved, the

ovation he got was fantastic.

He

could keep going for three or four

hours!

We will have to do more

research and surround ourselves with

Diddymen and so on. My thanks to the

both of you, that is it for the

newspapers for tonight.

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