13/02/2014 The Papers

cricket team who are to become full-time professionals after heavy

investment from the ECB. First, the papers. Hello and welcome to our

look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With

me are media commentator Neil Wallis and Emma Barnett, women's editor at

The Daily Telegraph. Let's start tonight with the

Independent. Its main picture is of Dave Lee Travis, cleared of 12

counts of indecent assault today. The jury failed to reach a verdict

on two further charges. The Telegraph has a warning that

middle-class savers are being left thousands of pounds worse off

because of a broken pension market. Returning to the floods crisis, the

Financial Times has the headline "humble sandbag overwhelmed by

deluge of flooding insults", quoting experts who've declared the sandbag

an outdated and ineffective way to protect homes. And staying with the

weather, The Guardian has a lead story written by Nicholas Stern, who

of course wrote a major report on climate change, the Stern Report. He

warns politicians that climate change is here now and could lead to

global conflict. Police close in on theee suspects in the disappearance

of Madeleine McCann with the line that British police have identified

three burglars as prime suspects. That is according to the Daily

Express. Plenty to discuss. We start with the Independent and the not

guilty findings on most of the charges against Dave Lee Travis.

Neil, this has dominated the headlines for a few weeks. Yes, and

it will dominate most front pages tomorrow. It is a difficult moment,

because there are charges still outstanding. But it puts the whole

Operation Yewtree situation under a bit of a shadow. They spent ?3

million so far, and I think a lot of people will have raised eyebrows and

be very interested in this verdict in such a high-profile case. Indeed,

and he said the trial by media was worse than the trial by Crown

Court. There has been a huge amount of attention. It has come at the

same time as other cases for Operation Yewtree, and these figures

are celebrities. People know them and they therefore have more

scrutiny. But the only thing we can say is that Operation Yewtree will

be under even greater scrutiny. It is still very much a live case, and

we don't know what will happen. ?3 million, people sat at home will be

thinking, how could it have cost that much? As Bill Roache said, who

was acquitted, there were no winners in that case. We will see what

happens. Onto the main story in the Independent - Tories ditch pledged

to let voters sack their MP. Why did you start with that? I find it

extraordinary. This first came about that you would potentially be

allowed to sack your MP after the expenses scandal. That was one of

those moments where we thought, hang on a minute, we really need a

greater claim over the people we select in our constituency to

represent us. We need, if necessary, to be able to say, we don't want you

any more. Now the prime minister has walked away from that lag, according

to this report. I feel we are getting less and less democratic.

According to the Independent, Nick Clegg did want to push this through.

I think Cameron is on Giorgos Karagounis not to have proceeded

with this. -- I think Cameron is bonkers not to have proceed with

this. The bizarre thing is, he has had two recent the selections in

this party, purely on the grounds of politics. The local party did not

like the way their MP was going. This is designed for people caught

up in what was the Daily Telegraph story about the expenses fiddling

and with the MPs who have been sent to prison, why he should walk away

from this, I find amazing, the titular Lee as it was a commitment

in the manifesto. I think he should rethink and we should get it back.

Let's move on to the Telegraph. Their top story is, savers cheated

of best pensions. This is a competitor Rory about how they

believe this to be true -- a complicated story. It is depressing

to read if you are middle-class. The idea is that you are being ripped

off by the annuity you get. The regulator says it will look at that,

because people sign up to a plan and they never review it. They never get

to go back and have a look, because they feel they can't change it, so

they are missing out on money. People feel locked into things

unnecessarily. I don't think anybody really understands their pension. I

certainly can't even envision what it will be like to have some sort of

pension pot. Might generation don't know about pensions. Well, my

generation does. And this may seem special pleading, but I think this

is an important story. It is one of those untold scandals of the City,

because this report from the financial conduct authority reveals

the scale of the weather pensions industry -- the way the pensions

industry has been ripping off millions of forthcoming pensioners.

There are some terrible statistics in this report. 80% of people who

are buying annuities, which is what you have to do when you get to

pension age if you have not got the state pension, 80% of them are being

sold undervalued pensions. Another statistic - most people are getting

7% less than they should. If you think of taking 7% out of your

income, what an impact that would have. This is really significant,

particularly at a time when savers and pensioners are being hit because

of low interest rates. And of course, Labour and the Liberal

Democrats have been talking about having a tax purge on pensioners as

a way to save money in the next election. You accuse the industry of

ripping people off. The chief executive of the regulator has said

the need to get an income in Taman unites us all, but once you have

bought an annuity, you can't change your mind. We need to understand why

customers are not shopping around and switching. Part of this is that

people save and then forget and ink there are advisers know best. And

also, you will not be surprised to hear that I have read every word of

this, this report suggests that we get bamboozled by the jargon. Our

heads are in it in about what we should and should not do, and what

it really needs is exactly what they are talking about, a thorough look

at the situation to give a better deal to pensioners. But people rely

upon their brokers and intermediaries to inform them. But

with the banks, we discovered we could not rely on them. Those people

are not to be trusted, so it will be interesting to see if people read

the small print. Onto the Scottish edition of the Daily Telegraph. They

have a different headline - Scotland will not keep the pound. It is rare

that the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour should all come together and unite

and announce something like that. This has put a new slant on the

referendum debate. Alex Salmond has been talking about the fact that

everything will be OK for Scottish voters. They will still be able to

have the pound. This is his rhetoric. Now it has been announced

that they will not have the pound if they go ahead. There will not be a

credit union. And he has yet to say what plan B is. People on his side

are saying, we are being bullied. We don't want to accept the debt or the

costs, but we still want the pound. You can't have it both ways. They

have suggested that there is no plan B and at the London government will

changes mind if they do vote for independence. That appears to be his

plan B. It is not a good plan B. It is self evident, I would argue, that

the EU would not allow it to happen anyway. The idea that Scotland could

just go and join the euro, what with the rest of Europe say about that?

It is like the Basque country wanting to secede from Spain. So

they would be allowed to join the euro? You think the French and

Spanish would allow that? This is a mess. Interestingly, the most senior

civil servant at the Treasury has given an independent report on

this, supporting what the three party figures have said. He has said

it is not workable. But it is true, isn't it, that if Scotland had a

separate currency, then all of the business is doing trade would be

worse off. But who underwrites it? They need access to debt, if they do

not have access to debt... It is hilarious that they want to go off

separately, but the first thing they want to do is to create a union with

us again over the pound. He is an economist, he knows this is not

going to be OK. That is why he has got to say, here's hoping they do

not mean it. Actually, I would like to have a vote on Scotland! Moving

on to the Financial Times, and of course, one word which has been used

perhaps more than any other in the last week is sandbagged. But there

is a suggestion in the Financial Times by the environment

correspondent that it is, well, out of date and overwhelmed. This comes

from the chairwoman of the Flood Protection Association, who says she

wants to ban the sandbag, because they do nothing but filter water,

she says. This Devon company says, all you see on the news is people

saying they need more sandbags, but I think all they do is keep people

warm while they watch their houses flood. What is the watery version

of, when you are in a hole, stop digging? This lady from the

wonderfully named Flood Protection Association, says that rather than

use sandbags, they should be using is the show, metal screens, which

are much more effective, they fit over doors, covering valves... Where

is this stuff? I do not know where it is. It is not on the Somerset

Levels, it is not in Staines and it is not in Datchet. I think the

valves for the toilets is a good idea, because that has been a major

problem. I am quite surprised this lady is putting her head above the

parapet, or above the water, because none of this stuff is there. I think

the whole point is, it is normally a temporary solution. Thank you for

that analysis of the sandbags. We will be back later. We will have an

update on the newspapers at half past 11. Also, we will be live in

Wythenshawe, where the polls have closed to choose a local MP. Coming

up next, Sportsday. Good evening and welcome to

Sportsday. Despite finishing in second place, British speed stake at

a lease Chris Day is disco vibe from the 500 metres short track