07/02/2014 The Papers

have had a second appeal rejected against the suspension of their

striker Andy Carroll. That is all in 15 minutes after The Papers.

Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow. With me are Kevin Schofield, Chief Political

Correspondent for The Sun, and Peter Conradi, The Sunday Times Foreign

Editor. First, let's whizz through some of the front pages.

The Independent, like many of the papers, focuses on the floods, with

the headline, "An unnatural disaster".

The Daily Mail leads on the weather too, reporting on calls to spend

foreign aid money on the flooding crisis.

Mortgage costs is the lead for the Financial Times. The paper says

borrowers are rushing to secure cheap loans, fearing an increase in

interest rates. It's back to storms with the Daily

Mirror and their headline, "Stormaggedon".

The i also leads on flooding, reporting on David Cameron's visit

to the Somerset Levels. The Daily Express warns readers to

stay safe during the expected weekend storms.

The Telegraph shows head of the Environment Agency, Lord Smith,

being scolded by a Somerset farmer over the flood response.

And the Guardian leads with a photo of the four-ringed Olympic symbol at

the opening of the Sochi Games. The snowflake didn't melt into the fifth

ring, as planned. I am sure Vladimir Putin was delighted! Good evening,

gentlemen. It is difficult, because this is a conveyor belt of storms,

ongoing flooding. There are only so many times you can say, flooding

crisis, more weather on the way, so the imagination has set in with some

of the headlines. Starting with the i, Cameron wades into row over

biblical flood. For those in the Somerset levels, it probably does

feel biblical. Well, it just seems endless. We have seen in the weather

forecast that there is more awful weather to come. Literally, the

Prime Minister wading into the row today. It was a carefully

stage-managed appearance in Somerset by the Prime Minister, in and out

quite quickly, not meeting any angry residents. That was left to Lord

Smith, who is on the front page of the Telegraph, getting a bit of a

dressing down from a local farmer. I am not sure who his PR advisers are,

but for him to turn up and not at least offer some kind of an apology

was quite incredible. We will move to the Telegraph in a moment, but

staying with the i, David Cameron has defended staying in London,

saying he is better off leading the COBRA meetings, making decisions

here, rather than being on the Somerset Levels. Do you think he has

played it right? I think so. There is a limit to how much time he can

spend walking around sodden ground in his Wellington boots. I think it

is important to make an appearance, as he has done. But I think people

want to see him back in London getting on with his job and

coordinating the work from there. You mentioned the Daily Telegraph

and we can look at that now. A very downbeat head of the Environment

Agency, Lord Smith, getting a telling off from one of the local

farmers. As we have seen from our correspondence this week, a lot of

farmers in that community have had their businesses ripped apart. They

have had to move their livestock. Is his job on the line? I think so. In

this day and age, we always look for some kind of scapegoat. We in the

media are probably guilty of that, I think. But in this instance, the

buck does stop with him. He has been in the job since 2008. There is lots

of criticism that there has been very little preparation leading up

to the current bad weather, and since it set in several weeks ago

nothing has been done. You can't totally blame the Environment Agency

and Lord Smith for what is unprecedented weather. I suppose

they are supposed to plan for all eventualities. You try planning for

the weather in this country! That is true, but we had a succession of wet

winters. They have got a lot wetter. This particular winter is

exceptional, but I think there is a sense that they have been slow to

react and he is the man who should, I think, accept his fair share of

the blame. He also fell into a classic trap. He was asked if he is

proud of the work of his agency and he cannot say no, but the minute he

says that it is used against him and it is a gift for headline writers.

Many homes have been saved, as David Cameron pointed out. Yes, but many

others have not. It is those people, you can understand their anger,

particularly farmers whose livelihood is a risk and is being

washed away. But you do want to ask who was his PR adviser who

encouraged him to stand there. You would think the first thing he would

do would be to hold up his hands and show some level of apology. It is

reminiscent of Gordon Brown being ambushed by the woman he accused of

being a bigot. There were shades of that. Let's move on to the Daily

Mirror. It is a staggering headline, really. We were talking

about this earlier, before we came on air, this millionaire's home,

which you can see in the top right of your screen, where he built his

own flood defences which are just about holding off the water around

his home in Somerset yesterday. The wider picture on the front page of

the Daily Mirror, showing more storms to come. It is just

relentless. If you live in Somerset and wake up tomorrow morning to this

front page you will just think, this is never going to end. It is a

pretty stark satellite image and it speaks for itself. There is another

huge storm coming our way. It is quite a remarkable picture of the

house which has been cut off. He spent ?1 million, apparently, making

this house. And he also has ?10,000 of his own money to build his own

defences which, until now, appeared to be working, but who is to say

that will not change? Do you think this could be the start of seeing

some more serious investment in flood defences, modernising many of

what are described as Victorian defences, particularly on the coast?

Is this when David Cameron has to take long-term leadership over this?

I think you are right. There has been a succession of mistakes. Not

just by him. I suppose it is bound to happen, he is blaming labour for

not doing enough during the 1990s and the last decade. The rivers were

not drenched, so they were more prone to flooding -- they were not

drenched. They have to try and find the money to make sure this kind of

thing does not happen. The Daily Mail is one for you, Peter,

suggesting we should spend foreign aid on British victims of flooding,

rather than foreign victims, often of flooding, in countries like

Bangladesh. This is a huge budget, in ?11 billion. Is this a case of

where perhaps charity should begin at home? It is a difficult question.

Being cynical, you would say this prince together two of the Daily

Mail's favourite subjects, the floods and the iniquity of foreign

aid. -- the iniquity of foreign aid. There are arguments that you could

spend the entire foreign aid budget at home, or you could spend none of

it. It is a question of looking at flood defences, the economics of

flood defences, and finding money within the money we spend at home

and diverging it to more spending on floods. I think they are bringing

together two completely separate things. It is another example of

UKIP forcing the political agenda in Britain. Nigel Farage, UKIP leader,

said yesterday that this should happen. At the time, it did not get

much of a pick-up, because you always expect Nigel Farage to say

something like that, but now it has become more mainstream. You have

Conservative MPs, nervous about UKIP, making the same call. You can

understand where it is coming from but I think it would be a

controversial thing. There is no prospect of the Prime Minister doing

it. Flooding is going to become political in the weeks ahead. There

are some other stories on the front pages. Let's go on to the financial

Times weekend. The rate fears prompt a rush to fixed mortgages. Many

people worried about mortgages and interest rates going up, and many

people very happy about it as well. If you are a pensioner on a fixed

income, relying on savings, the prospect of ink -- interest rates

going up is probably quite pleasant, but if you have a mortgage

it is scary. We were told by the Bank of England governor, Mark

Carney, last year, he introduced this idea which was supposed to calm

the markets and make us be reassured that interest rates would not go up

quickly. Unemployment has come down so fast that there is now a major

concern that interest rates will go up. I suppose it causes other

problems because if people are making money out of savings they are

less bothered about spending it. That is another thing the government

want us to do, to go and spend money. But I suppose it will settle

house prices in some areas. It will dampen them down. Such low interest

rates in the last few years have been extraordinary, and we'll got

used to them, which is dangerous, because they can only go up. The

fact they are going up is a sign of economic health, that the economy is

recovering, and it will be a bit more painful for those who have

mortgages. But they will have a bit more disposable income. I am a play

it safe guide! Fixed rate. They probably won't be such good deals.

Just staying with the FT, we have a picture there of some of the

fantastic scenes from the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic

Games. The most expensive Olympic Games ever to be staged. This was,

hopefully, Russia's time to get back at the critics, really, and show

them what they were made of. But it is such a huge cost. This is a real

prestige project. More than ?30 billion. An enormous cost. A huge

amount of Russian prestige is resting on it. We've had the first

hiccup, one of the rings not lighting up properly. Probably will

not be the last. The boycott, the controversy around it... It's not

going as smoothly as it could've done. We can show that. It's on page

seven the Daily Mail. A lot of our BBC correspondent there, some of our

coverage team, were tweeting it earlier. You can see what was meant

to happen. One of these snowflakes was meant to become the fifth Ring

of the Olympic symbol, and it just didn't happen. Somebody is going to

be in trouble tonight in Moscow! We can afford to be a little bit smug,

given how successful the Olympics in London were, so we can maybe laugh a

little bit. But on the scale of things that could go wrong, that is

not the worst thing. It was a very enjoyable is ceremony to one. -- to

watch. Yes, with opening ceremonies, the bar is always raised. London,

Beijing... It was spectacular. I think we can forgive them that

little hiccup. A huge global audience for the Olympics as well.

Is there as much enthusiasm for it as with other Olympics? It is never

as big as the Summer Olympics, but with all the controversy that

surrounded it this time around... Who remembers the last Winter

Olympics? Was it thank you the? And we have all this again when the

World Cup goes to Russia, and there will be more controversy. It will be

fascinating to see how they handle it. President Putin will be hoping

it passes off without incident. My favourite line in the coverage was

that Prime Minister Medvedev apparently fell asleep during the

ceremony! It is a long flight, and a huge time difference. You will be

back at 11:30pm. But for now, thank you very much to our guests. Join us

later. Still to come on BBC News at 11pm,

more on the floods afflicting the south of England. David Cameron

visits one of the most worst affected areas of Somerset. Coming

up next, it is sports day. Hello and welcome to Sportsday.

Here's what we have for you tonight. The World is welcomed to Sochi, as

the 22nd Winter Olympics are