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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: We’re going to take a look through today’s newspapers and I’m joined by Shami Chakrabarti, the Director of Liberty, Lord Ian Blair, the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the Times columnist, Jenni Russell, a very good morning to you all.  I want to start off with this story about the attack in the tube station in East London, Lord Blair start that off for us.

LORD BLAIR: Yes, this is at Leytonstone last night at 7.30, a man with a knife who stabs a fellow passenger very badly and injures some others but of course shouts ‘This is for Syria’.  This leaves you with two choices, either this is a mental health issue but of course it has to be treated as a terrorist incident because of that and does this mean that everybody who is not very well could suddenly start shouting these words and you change the response accordingly.  If it is a lone wolf, if you compare it – there is some hope in it – if you compare this to what happened in San Bernardino in California with assault rifles, we are seeing a pattern in which these young men are using knives because they can’t get automatic weapons which I think is a plus but we are in a very difficult situation.  

DM: Lord Blair, that incident in San Bernardino, we know the President, it’s a fairly rare occasion, he’s going to speak from the Oval Office in the White House about this.  It’s an issue, gun control, that he has grappled with throughout his Presidency but the United States is not going to change on this issue, the constitutional right to bear arms.

LORD BLAIR: I don't think it is.  It is contested but it’s in the psyche isn’t it?  The main thing is the numbers, 350 mass gun attacks this year alone, that’s more than one a day.  This one in San Bernardino was the second of the day.  

Story about Syrian asylum seeking children going missing.

LORD BLAIR: You don’t have to think very much to realise what they are being targeted for.  If they are lucky it’s domestic servitude, if they’re not it’s sexual exploitation.  There was a report yesterday about Italy and this is on a huge scale in Italy with the refugees arriving and children are going missing.  

Story about Cadbury’s owner paying no corporation tax.  

LORD BLAIR: They might as well move elsewhere, although there is the employment issue.  To be fair, George Osborne is leading the charge on this internationally and I think the days of this are going to draw to a close because the world will stop this happening.  There is going to be a new Dayton Woods Agreement or whatever it is but those things take a long time don’t they?  

Story about lowering the voting age.

LORD BLAIR: This is exactly what the convention is, the things that are in the referendum, the Bill will not be opposed by the House of Lords but bits of it will be opposed by the House of Lords.  This one was really an interesting vote to be present at, it was very, very large majority and people of all parties voted against the government on this. The government whip, a lot of people voted from the Conservatives on this.   What was really interesting in Scotland was that that age group got engaged which means they will be engaged for life.  

DB: Lord Blair, you’ve got an article by Nick Cohen in the Observer on the thorny issue of trolling, particularly within the Labour party, online abuse.

LORD BLAIR: He is making the point that the left has suddenly gone into a stage where it is like having a family with the delinquent children in control.  The amount of abuse that is being heaped on people who voted for military action is just terrible and he actually is making the point that Corbyn really must do something about this and say something about it and even start to have some idea of getting rid of people out of the Labour party who do that.  I just think it is exactly the same as the cyber Nats in Scotland, there’s a layer of people behaving extremely badly but if I can take a slightly humorous angle on it, there is a wonderful cartoon on the front of the Telegraph of Santa’s grotto with a little boy saying ‘If I don’t get what I want you’ll receive a torrent of abuse on social media’.  

DB: Lord Blair, you’ve got Dartmoor ponies, how to save them.

LORD BLAIR: I thought the headline was rather striking ‘Help save Dartmoor hill ponies, eat them’.   This was the idea of actually having a whole set of ponies that you breed for the table and it’s got a rather appetising menu, pony steak with plum sauce, which I won’t read out because I’m sure some of your listeners won’t want to hear it but it is an extraordinary story.  

Story about drones and aircraft.

LORD BLAIR: You can just fly them straight into the engine.  There is definitely a worry about this and parliament is looking at it, I am fully aware, there was a question in the House of Lord exactly about this, we are going to have find some way of dealing with it.   I think you could make it a very seriously criminal offence to fly it anywhere near an aircraft, a really serious criminal offence.  It wouldn’t deter terrorists but at least it means if something is coming towards you, the plane would then take evasive action.  

DM: We are out of time I’m afraid, than you very much indeed for a comprehensive paper review.