17/03/2018 The Papers

Hello.

This is BBC News.

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.

-- The Prime Minister has said

Russia must account for its actions.

We will never told a greater threat

to the life of British citizens and

others on British soil from the

Russian government.

Meanwhile, counter-terrorism police

have started contacting Russian

exiles living in the UK,

about their personal safety

following the suspected murder

of businessman Nikolai Glushkov.

Snow and ice grip parts of the UK

as drivers are warned to prepare

before setting out tonight.

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.

Lara Croft returns to the big

screen, this time played by elusive

it can do. Find out what we're made

of it and the rest of the week's top

cinema releases full of -- Alicia

Vikander.

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 start. A nice headline here,

the PM's ward on Vladimir Putin's

'McMafia' million, cracking down on

dirty money. I'm unsure where

'McMafia' starts and ends and where

Russian oligarchs who just happen to

have a lot of money starts on end.

That is one of the issues. We have

had a lot of Russian money in the

system for a long time. It is

propped up quite a few things. In

some bits of the party as well. I

think is the public clamour to find

out who is here, who actually is in

the country, how are they in the

country? One thing is important to

stress, this isn't about ordinary

Russian people. Russian people who

are here. This is about people who

have loads of money in Kensington

and Knightsbridge and in the

countryside, everything on to find

out what the money is, where is it

coming from, what is it being used

for, what is it popping up? How is

that leaving? What is going on? Part

of the problem, and this has been

coming on for a long time, is that

there are little vendettas and sort

of a little thing going on in the

country between various factions of

the country and we need to know what

it is.

Indeed. Ledecka weapons are

being booked for but they are hard

to find, aren't they, Bruce?

--

political. She wants to make it

easier to seize money, criminal

money, but Bonnie says we have a lot

of money in the country and we are

led to understand most of it is

legitimate and we are not trying to

have a war with the Russians in the

country, but it is quite legitimate

to save if this is criminal money we

don't want it or you and I suspect

there has been quite a sort of a,

people have been relaxed about it is

the kindest way of putting it, but I

think it is part and parcel of

Theresa May's attack on Russia

because she is thought of driving up

the rhetoric against Russia from the

disgraceful behaviour in Salisbury.

They have been stories of 20 years,

various sort of people living in

London particularly who have had

vendettas against other people who

live in London and it is a bit like

I'm from Chicago and it feels like

Chicago yesterday were all of these

sort of other countries exist

alongside vows where people were

doing hits against people and

driving people out of town. And now

she is needing to deal with this

because we don't know what happened

in Salisbury.

But Russia is not, I

mean, is not a key trading partner

for example of the UK at all, is it?

I'd think about less than 1% of

exports and 1% of imports come from

Russia but of course there are

useful Russian investments, indeed,

quite useful for Russia in the

Russia is also BP has a big share in

their fuel company. You don't want

to be like America...

Know, and the

dissidents there, they were asked

why didn't you move to London and

set of New York and one of the

things he said was because of what

is going on in London. It is a lot

of madness. It is underground.

We

need to get it sorted. What the

Sunday Times, the same thing, but

their headline is blackout threat to

Britain as Pretty hits back. --

Vladimir Putin.

The National cyber

Security Centre which is part of

GCHQ, the security services, are

warning there could be a Russia and

cyber attack on the systems, the

National Grid, the computer systems,

which were actually cause them to

dysfunction and they could put the

lights out and basically I think

this is a timely warning that they

should actually used their defences

against cyber attacks and indeed

GCHQ is actually giving advice as to

how they should boost their defences

and I think it is timely.

Russia of

course has form on this, Estonia...

Well, exactly. There is a warning in

the United States as well. She would

be irresponsible if she did not

actually try and sort of beef up

security as well.

What about this

gas? We don't depend on Russia for

our gas supplies, Ruth? But other

people do and it is a key point?

I

think so, my understanding is 1% of

our domestic consumption is actually

imported from Russia which is

miniscule. We do import gas but it

is from Norway and Qatar and places

like that but people on the

continent, they are dependent on

Russian gas. Germany for example,

about 36% of its domestic

consumption comes from Russia. It

makes a terribly dependent on Russia

and in fact a lot of eastern Europe

and the Balkans are almost 100%

dependent on Russia. This means that

Vladimir Putin has a strong case in

his hand when it comes to

negotiating with various European

countries when it comes to...

So the

other countries say they thought of

support our point of view, but when

reality comes, well...

I think what

Ruth is saying, I'm sure, you know,

they have to be careful, Germany has

to be careful, France has to be

careful, but if it happened the way

it looks, this is an attack on

sovereignty and our partners have to

stand up and they have to do it for

national integrity and let the chips

fall where they may actually,

Vladimir Putin doesn't expect that

to happen because part of what he is

dealing with is dealing with

dissension which is a natural state

of democracy and he is coming in and

trying to disrupt that so it has to

be done.

We do and how it will end

but it has to be done. He has a very

strong hand of cards.

Absolutely.

However, the Sunday Times talking

about another side issue coming on,

Jeremy Corbyn has been going around

saying what he does, and they say

the reason antique auburn MP

planning a new party? -- anti-Corbyn

Mps. Does anyone think there is a

chance of coming into life?

You are

asking me?

Right. You are a Labour

supporter.

I am definitely a Labour

supporter. I don't see, I am saying

this as living here for a long time

but my feeling is I don't see that

the United Kingdom does that sort of

thing. I see France which basically

fired their two main parties, they

sacked them, and made another party.

Italy is doing something that is

different. I don't know if the

United Kingdom does this. I think

people feel very strongly about

Labour, the Labour Party, people

feel strongly about Jeremy, and I

think the idea of another party

being made, I don't think that is

what, I could be wrong, but I don't

think that is what this country

does.

We remember the gang of four,

don't we?

We do!

It was the new sort

of Michael foot at the time, wasn't

it?

Yes. Didn't, didn't...

It isn't

in the culture, is it?

At the end of

the day it was subsumed into the

Liberal Democrat party with the

exception of David Owen who wouldn't

be subsumed into anything but it

faded. I think you were right, the

2-party system in the country, apart

from the SNP in Scotland is

extremely strong.

It is about

feeling. If you are a Labour Party

supporter it is a feeling, if you

are conservative, it is a feeling,

it is not just a party.

I don't how

this is... But that is right, the

first part post system doesn't help

small parties in the country.

But I

think Jeremy Corbyn continues to say

what we need is a proper

investigation, we have not seen the

evidence and so on, and a lot of

Labour MPs are unhappy with that but

are they really putting their name

to anything as radical, not just a

new party perhaps but even a, I

don't know, you leadership or

election?

The trouble is we don't

have the story! I think it was

noticeable in the debates last week

when Theresa May was making those

statements on Monday and Wednesday

that the weak auburn didn't quite

get the tone of the house right,

didn't get the mood of the house

right.

That was the mistake, more

than what he said, it was that he

didn't catch the mood.

No.

That was

the problem.

Let's get back to

something else that rumbles away in

our lives were about the last 20

years, Brexit. The front page of the

Sunday Telegraph, Gibraltar left out

of Brexit transition, explained to

us what the story is about?

As we

know, we were hoping to have a

transitional period when we leave

the European Union at 20, 19, and

the commission has put together the

draft agreement -- march 2019. My

understanding is it is left out poor

old Gibraltar.

When you say left

out?

It seems to have been left out,

it has been left out of the

transitional arrangements. The truth

is that it will have to be some

accommodation for Gibraltar is all

of the other UK dependencies when we

do leave the EU. My suspicion is

that by the end of this year,

Gibraltar will actually be dealt

with.

But, Travolta Rins understands

that and still sensitive about this

issue, do they not, Bonnie?

We are

on opposite sides of this question.

She is a Remainer.

It seems to me,

and we talked about this quite

politically, that it seems to me

that the government of weather is

guiding Brexit should've actually

laid out for the people are kind of

framework or map. -- collegiately.

It looked shambolic. This has got to

be fairly Gibraltar resident

shopping. I'm not in a position to

say whether it will happen or not.

You are closer to this than me. But

for the residents, this has to be a

shakeup and they didn't vote for

this to happen anyway so it is

another sort of part of the tapestry

that just looks like a mess. A

threadbare... It will be sorted, it

will be sorted.

You get things like

this! What does that mean? Our kith

and kin Gibraltar will be sorted.

We

have to live it there. -- leave.

Don't forget, you can

see the front pages

of the papers online

on the BBC News website.

It's all there for you,

seven days a week at our website.

And if you miss the programme any

evening, you can watch it later

on BBC iPlayer.

Thank you, Bonnie and Ruth.

Next up, it's the Film Review.

But it's good night from me.