17/03/2018 The Papers

Hello, this is BBC News

with Nicholas Owen.

We'll be taking a look at tomorrow

morning's papers in a moment.

First, the headlines.

23 British diplomats are to be

expelled by Moscow amid tensions

over the nerve agent

attack in Salisbury.

The British Consulate

in St Petersburg will also close.

The Prime Minister has said Russia

must account for its actions.

We will never tolerate a threat

to the life of British citizens

and others on British soil

from the Russian government.

Meanwhile, counterterrorism police

have started contacting Russian

exiles living in the UK

about their personal safety

following the suspected murder

of businessman Nikolai Glushkov.

Amber weather warnings

are in force this evening

in north-west England,

Yorkshire, the Midlands,

London and south-east England.

Drivers are being urged

to be prepared before

setting out on journeys.

US officials investigate claims that

a political consultancy mishandled

the data of millions of Facebook

users to support Donald Trump's run

for the White House.

And later in Meet The Author,

Rebecca Jones talks with the writer

Blake Morrison about his new book,

The Executor.

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are the playwright

and New European columnist

Bonnie Greer and the economist Ruth

Lea.

Many of tomorrow's front

pages are already in.

The Observer has an interview

with a whistle-blower who alleges

that information from millions

of Facebook users may have been used

by a data company during the 2016 US

presidential election.

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

The Mail On Sunday says Theresa May

is planning a crackdown

on what the paper calls

Putin's McMafia - associates

of the Russian President with money

in the UK.

The Sunday Times warns that

a Russian cyber attack could turn

the lights out in Britain.

It reports that the

National Grid is on alert.

The Sunday Express has more

on Theresa May putting pressure

on Moscow with a possible travel ban

for 1,000 Russian tycoons.

The Sunday Telegraph

leads on the same story

as well as a photograph of a smiling

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

at a St Patrick's Day parade

of the Irish Guards.

And the Sunday Mirror leads

on the sex abuse scandal in Telford,

quoting a police insider who says

it was too much trouble to crack

down on grooming gangs.

Let's good to those newspapers.

Bonnie, would you start us off? The

Sunday express headline, nee stands

up to Putin, several

Sunday express headline, nee stands

up to Putin, several examples.

She

made a pretty good speech in the

House of Commons the other day, it

was pretty strong and impressive for

a lot of people because she has been

caught up in Brexit. This was really

good. She has expelled 23 diplomats.

The Russians have expelled 23. She

is battling oligarchs and looking

into the travel and so forth. What

is interesting to me, I did not look

at the speech completely she gave to

the party, but hopefully she will

also look at the conference of the

Conservative Party. She has got a

lot of money thereto. I think that

is something she should be upfront

about. She needs to be upfront about

that because we need to deal with

all of this. There is a lot of

Russian money in this country.

Ruth,

one confusion in my mind about this

is bearing down on dirty Russian

money, but then you here we are also

very dependent on this money. Which

is it? Are we dealing with criminals

and can we do things to them?

When

it comes to dirty money, we're

talking about money-laundering. We

have criminal finances coming into

the country. One of her measures

issue will make it easy to see the

assets of Russians who

money-laundering. But on the other

hand, an oligarchs, we have been to

welcoming to them to come here and

buy up parts of Kensington. Part of

Kensington is known as red Square

because of so many Russians that

live there.

But we will not say, I

am sorry, you've got to get out.

I

suspect most are perfectly

legitimate and they are, of course

they will stay. But the whole idea

we have a very close economic

relationship with Russia needs

addressing because very little of

our trade is with Russia, less than

1% of our exports and less than 1%

of imports coming from Russia. I

suspect that where it gets

embarrassing is BP four example has

a high proportion of shares, so

there are economic connections. But

Russia is not a major trading

partner this country.

So we can

afford to be mean to them?

We need

to be on the other hand... And she

should do this, be even more

specific about the fact this is not

that the Russian people because we

are in a very fragile time anyway

and we do not need to have another

group that will be yelled on the

streets. We should be careful about

that. She should be specific. These

are specific instances it is

money-laundering bus stop Londoners

a nice place to live, why not?

The

Sunday Times, the same sort of

story, blackout threat to Britain as

Putin hits back. What is that about?

Apparently, it is a part of GCHQ

suggesting that there could be

Russian cyber attacks on the

National Grid, for example, that

could put the lights out. In other

words, computer systems which are

very sophisticated, it could make

them dysfunctional. I do wonder if

this is scaremongering although,

having said that, I will hope the

lights do not go out. But I do

wonder if this is scaremongering. It

is fair enough. If the security

services do think there is a threat

from cyber attacks from Russia, the

right to say it, but it is all part

and parcel of the rhetoric that is

surrounding this whole Russian

British thing which is getting a tad

out of control.

Apparently, the will

of God some kind of heads up from

American intelligence because for

sure there is a threat and it is a

credible threat. If there is a

credible threat to this happening to

the American great. Maybe this is

something that is going back and

forth. I take your point about

Russia, but Russia is a bad actor

and everybody knows this. If this is

in fact true that this happened in

this country, we need to take this

seriously.

Going back to energy,

about gas, there is a lot of talk

about, oh, well, we do not depend on

Russian gas, but it plays an

important part in energy supplies

across Europe, so when they and we

might find that difficult.

Only

about 1% of our gas supplies

actually come from Russia were as

36% of German mystic gas consumption

comes from Russia. A lot of eastern

Europe is almost totally dependent

on Russia for gas. It is interesting

about this rhetoric and tit-for-tat

un argy-bargy with Russia, on the

whole, the rest of Europe is keeping

remarkably quiet. If you really

wanted a major sanction an Putin to

make it hurt, it would have to be a

concerted effort by Europe. And I do

not think they would do that.

It is

gasp from. And it is also the

borders as well. I think it seems to

me, looking at Britain, taking

Britain to lead, seeing how Britain

will proceed through this, it is

extremely complicated.

They will not

come in with major sanctions.

It is

too dangerous. But we are in a

situation in the world where Putin

has pushed the envelope once too

often, and I do not know what people

will do.

Cyber attacks?

Well,

America is another... We could spend

three hours in America, so we won't

do that, but there is a long

complicated chain of madness going

on over there now in relation to

this and it is becoming part of the

narrative here.

I think it is a good

warning that let's not worry too

much.

Bonnie, let's go on to a

by-product of what has been going

on. And the Corbyn MP 's plan new

party. A headline on the Sunday

Times.

The problem that happened

was, Jeremy Corbyn's statement after

the Prime Minister's statement which

a lot of people felt was ill judged,

not that it was wrong but ill

judged. Some people are very upset

about it, it is affecting poll

numbers as well. There is always

some kind of talk about something

happening in the Labour Party. I

would not think that would get too

far.

I was very interested last week

because Theresa May gave two

speeches in the Commons on Monday

and Wednesday, and the response from

Corbyn was rather ill judged. He did

not judge the tone or the mood of

it.

We don't want to get too much

into his position on this, but what

he is saying is, we must be sure of

what we're doing. Not many Labour

MPs have gone as far as putting

their names down on a piece of

paper.

It was the reaction by a

Labour MP, Yvette Cooper, for

example, and various others were

saying, this is not a time to have a

party political disagreements. As

far as I could see, it really opened

up the divisions in the Labour

Party.

Partly it was theatre. It was

the one moment for it. Then they

jumped into it, Yvette Cooper. This

is where it is now.

Let's go back

now to the Sunday... Go to the

Sunday Telegraph. Anger as Gibraltar

is left out of Brexit transition.

Gibraltar, we do not hear a lot

about what is going on there and

their views.

We don't. I did

actually look at the draft

transitional agreement and Gibraltar

was not mentioned. But there is

time. Do not panic! There is plenty

of time to actually come to a

relationship for Gibraltar. It is

also interesting that Spain is

saying, what about us? Actually, I

am not sure that Spanish position is

very sound one because we are

negotiating with the European Union.

But some deal will be done.

You can

understand them being edgy about all

of this.

Now they have got this. And

the EU gave Spain the veto. Now,

that will have to be sorted out as

well and I am sure Gibraltar do not

see themselves in the whole mix.

That is horrible. It is all very

much of a mess.

But whether it will

actually use the veto is a different

issue.

But the habit on the table,

and whether the user or not we do

not know but they have it, and

Gibraltar knows they have got it,

and maybe that's why they are not in

here.

I think it will be sorted out.

We would talk in a few months' time.

This is an important week, coming up

all of this. You thought things are

broadly on track?

They are broadly

on track. There will be a council

meeting at the end of this week, in

March, when it looks as though it is

highly possible that the council

will actually agree to the

transitional arrangements put in

place. They had been negotiated

already with Michel Barnier. And it

looks to me as though we are almost

there. A few concessions we do not

like back-ups.

I will listen and see

what she's saying. The rest of the

war does not look good at all.

Apparently a bit it is because we

did not get a lot of information. If

this is supposed to be secret, I

have no idea, but meanwhile are

drifting out of the city and they

say it is not because Brexit but we

do not why. That is what they said.

I want to get one story in quickly,

the Sunday Times from page, it is

only short, but what is this

transgender e-mail about?

What is

happening in universities is that

people are being asked, what you

want to be called, he, she? Young

people now want to determine who

they are and what they are in the

world. Universities are saying, at

the end of your e-mail, put your

name down and say how you would like

to be addressed, and that is what it

is about. That is what students want

and what they deserve.

Is it

complicated?

If people feel strongly

about this, I have no problems about

accommodating that strength of

feeling. In other words, I am not

worried!

It is what students want

and how students see themselves, and

that is most important of all.

OK,

well, I am grateful to you both as

ever. That is it for this hour.

Bonnie and Ruth will be back 11:30pm

for another look at tomorrow

morning's newspapers.