11/09/2014 The Papers

up on international duty could have been avoided. And it was a

record`breaking day for a South Korean golfer on the women's tour.

That is after the papers. Hello and welcome to

our look ahead to what the papers With me is media commentator

for Forbes.com, Neil Midgley, and, from Glasgow,

Scottish columnist We can look at the front pages

first. The Daily Telegraph claiming the BBC has told the presenters and

stars of the last night of the problem is not to mention the

Scottish referendum, with fears the corporation could be accused of

bias. The Financial Times reporting that Scottish banks led an onslaught

against Scottish independence. The Guardian have Oscar Pistorius. He

was cleared of murdering his girlfriend. But he will have to wait

until tomorrow for the final verdict. The Sun newspaper leading

with a story about Strictly, but carrying a poll that suggests the no

vote have a 58 to 48% lead `` 52. The daily record has the story of

the jihadi bride vowing to kill and to die a martyr. And the Daily

Express saying that house prices have increased by an average of

?26,000 in the past year. We will start with Scotland. The Financial

Times. Kevin, business onslaught over the yes vote. It has all been

about the corporate world today. Five banks have indicated they will

move their headquarters, their company address, south of the border

in the event of a yes vote. Several high street retailers, such as John

Lewis and Marks Spencer have suggested that prices, somehow, will

go up in the event of a yes vote. I think a lot of the onslaught was

expected at some point and it was obvious it would happen when last

week's polls suggested much against predictions down south that is the

yes vote was level pegging with no. A lot of Scots will be is slightly

cynical as to why this has happened now, why the banks, for instance, if

they are afraid of currency uncertainty, why they are doing it

now, rather than in seven days, when it cannot affect the vote. And there

is the strong whiff of orchestration by number ten in collusion with the

Better Together campaign, which leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. A

suggestion this has been orchestrated by David Cameron. He

would do that, would he? At this stage in the campaign, number ten

pulling out the stops. There was a reception for business leaders on

Monday and arms were twisted. An interesting part of the FT story is

that Marks Spencer will pitch in tomorrow. This is not just a no

campaign, this is an M camp paid now! The big guns are coming out ``

campaign. There has been an argument about the banks and why they are

moving to England. Alex Salmond saying the jobs and operations will

be here. Part of the issue according to the Financial Times is the banks

are worried the rating agencies will downgrade them if they are part of a

smaller economy and that they will not have the Bank of England as the

bank of last resort. It will be a big issue for an independent

Scotland that they lose that as part of the union `` what they get as

part of the union. The ban, the headline, the BBC banning talk of

the referendum for the last night of the Proms. I do feel sorry for the

poor old BBC at times like this. I have written my fair share of

negative stories about the BBC, at the BBC has to you try to stay

impartial. That is in any political matters. And to have political

slogans, electioneering from presenters, performers, at the last

night of the Proms would cause a huge impartiality headache, because

it is difficult to make sure you have similar quantities on both

sides, if you allowed it. But it does feel like the BBC has been

po`faced and overly serious when you think that the last night of the

Proms, rule Britannia, Jerusalem, the most patriotically night of the

year. You cannot deny that this is going to have a bearing. Viewers in

Scotland will make up their minds based one way or the other of the

waving of the union Jacks. They will be able to bring banners. They can

have campaign banners. Kevin, will that make people sway one way or the

other? I cannot see it. There is something faintly ridiculous about

this story. Are they really going to be seeing `` saying to performers we

do not want a mention of the referendum. I doubt it is the top of

the agenda, the performers on that night. Will they banned music by

Elgar, for instance? Do they think we Scots who enjoy classical music

may be swayed to stay in the union because of a sharp burst of

Jerusalem? I doubt it. Our hearts are stirred by that music anyway,

whether it is stirred the union is another matter. The Times newspaper

and the Sun newspaper have this new poll that puts the no campaign of

52%, yes on 48%. This is back to the figures we we used to. I know the

Sun newspaper is presenting this as the no campaign regaining lost

ground. If you were to ask people in the yes campaign where they would

like to be with seven days to go, I think within two points of victory

is exactly where they would like to be. The thing about the yes campaign

is that they have access to more volunteers and they have a more

sophisticated and better organised electoral machine. In the next seven

days, not a street in Scotland will be without yes campaigners. There

are more of them, they are more evangelical than no campaigners and

to be within two points of touching distance with all this campaigning

still to go, I would say it is where they would like to be. We can turn

to the Guardian, who have a powerful picture of Oscar Pistorius crying in

the dock. He has been cleared of murder, but no judgement yet coming

from Judge Masipa in Pretoria. He may well yet to be found guilty of

what I think is called culpable homicide, manslaughter, which is,

roughly speaking, as a former solicitor, means killing someone

when you do not intend to. The judge has said that Oscar Pistorius acted

unlawfully. Firing a gun at anybody behind a closed door is unlawful and

dangerous. And so he may well still go to prison will stop I am struck

by the drama. You pointed to the picture on the front page of the

Guardian. If he does not go to prison, he has a career in Hollywood

ahead, the amount of crying, vomiting during his testimony, can

you imagine his O on speech with this level of emotion? `` Oscars.

And this final twist in the court case. We expected a conclusive

verdict and there has been another cliffhanger. You could not script it

better. What is your take? Congratulation to

the arts department because that is an excellent front page with a

superb picture well used. It will grab people on the newsstands

tomorrow. I saw the judge giving the reasons for the first part of her

verdict today and although I do not have a legal background, I would

suggest it would not provide much comfort to Oscar Pistorius and his

team in terms of what can be expected tomorrow if she is already

talking about unlawful. Thank you very much. We will be back at

11:30pm for another look at the stories making the news. At 11

o'clock, Alex Salmond accuses Westminster of laying as banks and

businesses expressed concern over the economic impact of Independence

`` bullying. Now time for the sport. Louis Van Gaal parade his new

signings and he says he released Danny