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CNN Live At Daybreak

Euro Edition: Morning Papers

Aired October 16, 2003 - 05:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, to check on what is making headlines overseas in this morning's 'Euro Edition.' Tony Campion live for us in London.
So the Queen is on the front page.

TONY CAMPION, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She is indeed, Carol, good morning to you.

This is "The Daily Telegraph." It loves Royal stories. And here we have Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, appearing around the corner there. Always means trouble when she's on the front page. And what this could spell is trouble for the government. What she's doing is she's actually -- she's writing to Tony Blair's government and asking for documents to explain exactly what's going on with the European constitution.

Now what's happening is there's a big EU meeting and all of the leaders are getting together and they are sort of talking about proposals to draft a constitution. I mean I know a lot of you may not know, I guess, that we don't actually have one in the United Kingdom and Europe doesn't have a constitution. But as the European nations come closer together, I mean I guess in a sense we're going through something that the United States went through a couple of hundred years back in terms of drawing out international agreements.

And the Queen is a bit worried, I mean it could put her out of a job. I mean she's the head of the nation. She has ultimate control over the laws. I mean, OK, we all know that actually she just signs what she's told to do, although you wouldn't actually say that in front of her. And you know a bit concerned, the palace is concerned, does the potential for an EU constitution undermine her absolute theoretical role as the boss?

Well ministers of the government say no, it doesn't. I mean they are saying that it doesn't represent -- and this is a quote -- "a material shift of power to the EU." It just kind of like puts it down in writing where in fact everybody knows that the European court holds the ultimate say anyway.

COSTELLO: Yes.

CAMPION: So this is one that is going to play out, quite an interesting debate.

COSTELLO: Yes, just a little thing like a constitution. It's very strange. Hey, you also have an interesting story about a grandmother who took fake blood into the hospital.

CAMPION: Now this is a weird one. It's actually only made a small kind of page 11 in "The Sun." Obviously, a tabloid likes weirdo stories. And we have a lady, not saying she's a weirdo, a Trista Liton (ph). Actually, probably very clever 62-year-old mother of three. She had a hernia and she needed an operation. She knew she needed an operation, but the hospital wasn't giving her an operation. Really this reflects terribly badly on the state of health care in Britain.

What she did was she made up some fake blood by crumbling cookies and mixing them with cranberry juice. And she called the emergency number, 999 is what you call in Britain, and you know the ambulance comes round. And she says look, I vomited blood, and she showed them this cranberry juice and biscuits. And they believed her.

And they rushed her to hospital, they did tests and they -- she got her operation. They actually did the operation the next day. And she says -- she says, I carried a heavy burden of guilt and shame at being forced to cheat and lie, but it vanished when doctors told me just how near death I actually had been. So good for her, aye?

COSTELLO: Yes, good for her, and what a clever way to get to the hospital.

Tony Campion live from London this morning.

CAMPION: Crazy stuff.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 16, 2003 - 05:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, to check on what is making headlines overseas in this morning's 'Euro Edition.' Tony Campion live for us in London.
So the Queen is on the front page.

TONY CAMPION, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She is indeed, Carol, good morning to you.

This is "The Daily Telegraph." It loves Royal stories. And here we have Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, appearing around the corner there. Always means trouble when she's on the front page. And what this could spell is trouble for the government. What she's doing is she's actually -- she's writing to Tony Blair's government and asking for documents to explain exactly what's going on with the European constitution.

Now what's happening is there's a big EU meeting and all of the leaders are getting together and they are sort of talking about proposals to draft a constitution. I mean I know a lot of you may not know, I guess, that we don't actually have one in the United Kingdom and Europe doesn't have a constitution. But as the European nations come closer together, I mean I guess in a sense we're going through something that the United States went through a couple of hundred years back in terms of drawing out international agreements.

And the Queen is a bit worried, I mean it could put her out of a job. I mean she's the head of the nation. She has ultimate control over the laws. I mean, OK, we all know that actually she just signs what she's told to do, although you wouldn't actually say that in front of her. And you know a bit concerned, the palace is concerned, does the potential for an EU constitution undermine her absolute theoretical role as the boss?

Well ministers of the government say no, it doesn't. I mean they are saying that it doesn't represent -- and this is a quote -- "a material shift of power to the EU." It just kind of like puts it down in writing where in fact everybody knows that the European court holds the ultimate say anyway.

COSTELLO: Yes.

CAMPION: So this is one that is going to play out, quite an interesting debate.

COSTELLO: Yes, just a little thing like a constitution. It's very strange. Hey, you also have an interesting story about a grandmother who took fake blood into the hospital.

CAMPION: Now this is a weird one. It's actually only made a small kind of page 11 in "The Sun." Obviously, a tabloid likes weirdo stories. And we have a lady, not saying she's a weirdo, a Trista Liton (ph). Actually, probably very clever 62-year-old mother of three. She had a hernia and she needed an operation. She knew she needed an operation, but the hospital wasn't giving her an operation. Really this reflects terribly badly on the state of health care in Britain.

What she did was she made up some fake blood by crumbling cookies and mixing them with cranberry juice. And she called the emergency number, 999 is what you call in Britain, and you know the ambulance comes round. And she says look, I vomited blood, and she showed them this cranberry juice and biscuits. And they believed her.

And they rushed her to hospital, they did tests and they -- she got her operation. They actually did the operation the next day. And she says -- she says, I carried a heavy burden of guilt and shame at being forced to cheat and lie, but it vanished when doctors told me just how near death I actually had been. So good for her, aye?

COSTELLO: Yes, good for her, and what a clever way to get to the hospital.

Tony Campion live from London this morning.

CAMPION: Crazy stuff.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com