20/03/2014 The Papers

Melbourne but was later penalised for breaking new rules on fuel. All

of that to come in Sportsday in 15 minutes, after The Papers.

Welcome to our look ahead at what the papers will be bringing us

tomorrow. With me are the media commentator David Davies, and

Philippa Kennedy, the ombudsman for the Sun. We are going to start with

the Telegraph, which leads with the news that more than 2 million more

people have started paying tax at the 40% rate since the coalition

took power in 2010. A photo of possible aeroplane parts off the

coast of Australia dominates the front of the Guardian. As it does on

the front of the Mirror, saying it supports the theory that the plane

flew on for seven hours before crashing. And the missing jet is

also the front page lead on the Express, which suggests that a

bungled hijack may have been responsible for the plane going so

far off course. In the Sun, a very different story, an interview with

the Prime Minister by the comedian James Corden, while the Financial

Times looks at pension schemes are and how they have been affected by

the Budget. The Daily Mail has the same story. I suppose it is no

surprise that the search for the missing plane continues to dominate.

Let's start with the Daily Mirror, which has the headline... They are

using some of that satellite imagery. This is the story that

everybody is talking about. The number of theories about this is

incredible. I hope it isn't the jet, because if it is, then it means they

are all dead, instead of one of the many theories that perhaps the jet

has landed in some remote island and everybody is safe. But I think that

is so unlikely. I do not know if you have ever done any sailing, but in

the middle of an ocean like that, it is two miles deep. How on earth they

are going to even think of mounting a rescue, no, a salvage operation,

is going to be horrendous. The Malaysians do not have those kind of

submarines, or any of that kind of equipment. If it is there, of course

crunch indeed. And they are saying that it is a notoriously area, where

there can be a lot of garbage. These there can be a lot of garbage. These

pieces of James Corden look substantial, but as Philippa says,

two miles deep, and the comparable loss of that plane from Rio to

Paris, the Air France plane, which went down, and that was only, I say

only, one mile deep, and that took two years to find, after they had

found some wreckage, to find the black box. And then of course, even

when the debris is found, it is finding the black`box and then

understanding what happened. It could be some considerable time. The

Mirror is talking about another theory, that the plane flew on for

seven in fact, my father`in`law piloted a plane in Perpignan, and

something like that happened. There was a fracture of the exhaust

system, the air conditioning system, so everybody indeed, it flew into

the mountain, a DC nine, I think it was. Terrible. I have never been a

good flyer, are you? I never even thought about it before. But these

are the sort of things which stop people from taking flights. And of

course, it is on the front of several papers, but it is all

speculation. We do not know. Moving onto the Mail, which has the

headline... David, the Mail has made a real campaign of this, hasn't it?

They have, and they are very pleased with the Chancellor for what he has

done. But of course, there are problems with the consequences. And

some of those consequences are virtually immediate. The male is

highlighting, retirees poised to turn their pension pot into an

income, Dell Eugene providers with panic calls, fearing they will be

trapped in shoddy deals. `` deluge. This is a truly radical reform, for

which this Chancellor, whether you support him and his government or

not, will be remembered. But it will be really interesting to see, from

my point of view, the political consequences of this. And the way

that this Chancellor, who by any standards is, you think of Gordon

Brown as well, but the most political, politically sensitive, we

are told, Chancellor, in many moons. He has seen that the grey vote is

the vote that the Tories must have, to have any chance of being the

biggest single party. And of course, many pensioners do vote, it is a

high turnout. But it is interesting, 24 hours after the

Budget, we are beginning to pick apart what is going on. I was

speaking to a financial analyst earlier, who was saying that now,

many people who think they might live longer will keep annuities, but

that will mean the annuity providers might give less per year. We were

speaking about this earlier, you are just getting nothing for your money

these days. I might well go and buy the Lamborghini! If I thought I

could get into it! I am pleased you have mentioned that. Moving onto the

Guardian, it goes on the pensions story, with that very comment, from

the pensions minister. If people do get a Lamborghini and end up on the

state pension, that is their choice. Well, the thing about it is that

people who have saved more responsible people like us, hey?!

What am I going to do, go and blow it, by force, or whatever?! I think

they are the sort of people that can be trusted to make their own

decisions. But having temptation... It is just this wonderful, colourful

phrase. The minister who made this comment, Steve Webb, the Pensions

Minister, it is interesting for me that he is the person who has said

this. The only one of those Lib Dem ministers who is very well regarded.

If you go to the Telegraph this morning, there was a long article

from one of their writers, who, no great lover of the Lib Dems, who

praises Steve Webb to the hilt. And he has been in the forefront of

seeking to reform the pensions system. And I suppose those that

don't agree with this system just think that if people go and splash

out, they will be more reliant on the state, and the state will have

to support them even more? Absolutely. But on the other hand,

it is quite a nice thought. Let's say you were ill... You would be

tempted, wouldn't you? Well, not so much of the Lamborghini, but... As

long as it wasn't yellow. It is a bit like, do you think I could get

into a Lamborghini, at my age to mark of course! No, it is a big

thing. For me, you cannot be complaining about the nanny state,

as people still do, and then you have to take a view on this. For me,

if you have been saving for as many years, and putting money into

pension pots for as many years as some people have, surely you should

have the right to do with that money what you will. We will stampede in

our Zimmer frames down to the garage afterwards! It will be interesting

to see how that plays out. Staying with the Guardian, and Ukraine, and

one senses that along with the Malaysian jet, this really is the

story of this month, isn't it? It is. It is terrifying. We do not know

what is going to happen next. Is the West just going to go`ahead with

sanctions on Russian oligarchs, or do nothing? The Guardian is

suggesting that they might just blow a lot of hot air into the air, and

then agree that Crimea should go to Russia. That is what they are going

to do. And do nothing. The point is, what happens next? I am yet to find

any person who is uneasy still about the fact that an elected president

in Ukraine, who fled his country to go to Russia, is disowned by

everybody. Equally, Putin acts in the way that he has acted, which

seems to me to be against anybody's idea of international law, and

really, nobody is going to do anything about either. Because

everybody does what suits them. The question is, I have been to Don

Letts several times. `` Don `esque. If Putin starts to move in there as

well, it would seem to me... It is north of Crimea, and east of

Ukraine. Very Russian influenced. And you already hear rumblings, and

there have been demonstrations there as well, and the question is, what

does Putin do there? And if he moves there, I mean, imagine if George W

Bush had been president at the moment and Putin had acted in the

way that he has. Whether you agree with George W Bush or not, it

doesn't matter. Does anybody think that he would have acted the same?

In the Telegraph it is a different angle. What's interesting about both

is they make the point that America is going to start to put pressure on

Europe to ratchet up their sanctions. There are people putting

pressure on Obama as well. In the Daily Telegraph there's a picture of

Roman Abramovich. One prominent American, a leading critic of

Vladimir Putin as well, is saying that oligarchs like Roman Abramovich

should be targeted. I think he is playing playground stuff. Abramovich

is a big mate of Putin's isn't he? What's he going to do? He isn't

going to do anything. I think there's a lot of sabre`rattling

going on here. The Conservative MP for Braintree says he thinks Russian

oligarchs should be included in an expand expanded sanctions reef. The

story also said Government sources said there was no question of

sanction sanctions for the pair. I don't know why football comes into

it. The situation here is very clear in one sense. I don't think for a

minute that this Government is going to act against the likes of Mr

Abramovich and Mr Usmanov. Are they Putin's Cronies, as the expression

is used in several of the papers? Or are they private citizens who've no

official link with Mr Putin at all? David, you say you don't think that

that will happen, but do you think it should? I think that if you were

seriously doing something, taking on this challenge, of course you would

move in that way. But the reality is that nobody thinks, at the moment,

I'm saying what happens next is the key thing. If Putin continues and

moves on to Donetsk and the other countries in the former Soviet

Union, the ` even certain of the old Baltic states are saying hey, what

about us? Philippa, I can see the Sun having a lot of fun with this

story and suggesting ol backs should be targeted. `` oligarchs should be

targeted. The Sun had James Corden editing today, social worker viewing

the Prime Minister. I haven't `` editing today, interviewing the

Prime Minister. Looking at retirement. This one, retired? Help

others and live longer, is says Lord O'Donnell. People in their mid 60s

should volunteer to care for elderly people to pro long their lives and

stay out of hospital. I was looking at the front page tomorrow and it is

a very old front page. You've got the pensions, the silver voter

pension story. Then we've got a story about cutting down on salt to

avoid getting older. And this story is about 60`year`olds. Gus O'Donnell

saying if you are in your 60s you should be out there helping people

in their 80s, perhaps getting involved with Meals on Wheels, so

you don't become lonely and they don't and it will make you feel

young. I'm not sure from this story, I don't know if you are, as to what

is the evidence that pensioners who do not volunteer to help others when

they retire are knocking years of their life expectancy? It comes from

nowhere. He says, the author of a review which recommends that

Government should consider the effect of its policies on people's

happiness. This sounds like one of these people who've spent a lot of

money on this and a lot of time and they come out with something like

that at the end. We'll pursue that later in an hour's time. Stay with

us on BBC News, because at 11 o'clock we'll have more on the

search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane nearly two weeks

since it dispeer. Up next it's Sportsday.