30/12/2015 The Papers

recognised. AP McCoy was knighted. We will also catch up with all the

darts action. That is coming up straight after the papers.

Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers

With me are the campaigner and broadcaster Lynn Faulds Wood

and the Independent's Political Correspondent, James Cusick.

Tomorrow's front pages, starting with The Guardian,

which has a picture of Dumfries in Scotland under water after

The paper says George Osborne has been accused of jeopardising

Britain's flood defences by prioritising cutting the deficit.

Top women in business who have received

Its main headline says that a review of Britain's banking

culture has been ditched by Britain's financial watchdog

The Express says the UK's payments to Brussels are another reason

Train tickets could become a thing of the past,

according to the Telegraph, it says customers could pay using a mobile

The Mail attacks the New Year's Honours List, saying it contains a

string of scandal-hit bureaucrats, political cronies and donors.

The Independent agrees, saying among those honoured are almost 30

The Mirror has an image of the man accused of shooting dead

Let's start with the Scottish Telegraph. Armed police hit streets

to tackle new year terror threats? An interesting story. One of the

comments is that this is the largest mobilisation of police on the 31st

of December. It is a very strong message. After Brussels, Paris and

Moscow, London is on high alert. The problem is that the story goes on

with a message from Boris Johnson which contradicts that. He says to

go for a fantastic fireworks display on the banks of the Thames. London

is seriously worried about what might happen, but the Mary is

telling you to have fun. I don't know how you reconcile those

measures. You go out and party if you feel secure because there are a

lot of police to look after you -- Mayor. Council, firearms officers,

there is a specific threat from what they called friendly Islamic State

fanatics to say that European cities would be hit. Some places like

Brussels have cancelled their displays. In London, they are saying

to continue because we have no specific threat. They want life to

carry on as much as we can. I think that is the hard part. There are no

specific threats. You have to assume that the intelligence services are

overworked at the moment. London is not receiving a specific threat, but

if we were taking it easy then the police would be outraged. The trail

of devastation after the floods in Doug Free 's? What happened in

Scotland is absolutely terrible. Some of the most severe flood

warnings could indicate a loss of life -- Dumfries. This last was in

air -- bus was in Ayrshire, they were sitting in water up to their

chests for about three hours before they were rescued. There are 6000

homes which have no electricity tonight. The winds have taken down

the power lines from the Borders up to the Northern Isles. Scotland is

in real trouble from Storm Frank. It stretched a long way across

Scotland, Aberdeenshire was affected as well. For once, the headlines

accurate, it really is a trail of devastation. The Borders, the

Hebrides, it is right across Scotland. I'm trying to figure out

which part of Scotland has not been hit. Looking at the forecast

before, Scotland is going to get another blast. They will get the

worst of the rain tomorrow. It is the equivalent of... This is the

Scottish edition of the Telegraph, it said, a second meeting of the

resilience committee of the government will be called. That is

what we will need to have two survive tonight. You will have to

party tomorrow night. Resilience is what you will need. The issue of

spending on flood defence features on the front of The Guardian. George

Osborne put deficit cuts before flood defences, says to? An analyst

from Oxford University. His analysis of the National office, he says

there has been a real cut in spending of 10% since 2010. They are

effectively saying that the current spending plans fail to take account

of the dramatic changes in climate. I think in the last two months, the

government has suggested that there have been no underspending. He is

obviously challenging that. Some very good figures to challenge it.

David Cameron had promised ?4 million to flood defence, but that

has been cut. I think before the summer comes, we will have a

conclusion as to whether we are spending the money we have got

appropriately. Whether we have been subsidising the right things. This

will tie in with, I think there should be a field enquiry as to

whether we are spending the money correctly. As a former Watchdog

presenter, what worries me is how much there is to do. We just have

not got that number of builders around. When I covered the floods

for breakfast television, there were walls crumbling along rivers because

they had not been built properly. Is now also the time for political

parties to put their differences aside and agree on a long-term plan,

that cannot be altered? That is just impossible. To agree on that they

will say, this is the case. Any new government will change the decisions

of the previous one. I think the Chancellor will have, when

Parliament comes back in January, will have to do something more than

say, I got it right. We will have some great investigative journalism

on that. Not for me, but for others. Talking about builders, the

Guardian's main story is about this. Holding back enough land for 600,000

new homes. Call me cynical, but the booming of profits, and the article

exposing the size of their land banks, they have enough land to

create 600,000 new homes. I would be very interested to know how many

might now be in flood plains where we may not want to build houses any

more because of what has happened. My worry is that this is all the big

housebuilders seem to be included, housebuilding is dysfunctional

because we are not building homes that are affordable. This is a

potential scandal that is going on. Quickchange given what George

Osborne mentions, in the autumn he offered the ?2 billion figure of

public funds are yet to find affordable housing? He had a

policy, the use it or lose it policy. Regardless of everything

that Ed Miliband did, it was one policy that I think needs a

revisiting. If they are not going to use it, the government said they

needed to build 300,000 homes a year. If the subsidy isn't working,

if there is a hesitation, I don't think that the use it or lose it is

a bad idea. The Daily Mail and The Independent agree on their front

pages today. New years Honours, they are not happy because... This is

difficult territory. I will just use what the Mail are saying. There was

a string of contentious awards. They are basically saying that the boss

of Ann Summers, is it still classed as a sex shop? This is not deserved,

they are saying, and the rest of the system is shambolic. A scandal hit

politicians. If we take that and the front page of The Independent, they

have pushed Ann Summers to one side. We have concentrated on the Tory

member supporters. It is not quite public servers. It is party

rewards. It should be public service to the country. They are saying it

looks more like rewards for supporting the Conservative Party.

Several things annoy me about this. Personally, I think the system

stinks. Here is an example with national newspapers putting cronies

on the front page. We have got all sorts of people, you have to

remember that a Baroness got put in the House of Lords because she was

going to conduct a review. Apparently our sex shop queen is

also being given a CBE, this is a really high on a. I might have to

leap to the defence here at -- high honour. Given it you would

presumably, you would say there ought to be some sort of system in

place to acknowledge people who have achieved is perhaps beyond what you

would expect. What should we have instead? . Bat Lynton Crosby, he is

an Australian who masterminded the Conservative election trail. In

Australia, they announced that they would not have this system any more.

It is outdated. I can't remember the exact line. It was very damning of

our honours system. A lot of people who are not big names are sitting

back tonight thinking, I am thrilled to bits. I am thrilled for them, if

a system that is wrong. We need something that is not based in

Empire. The rest of the world is annoyed we are giving all these

honours out of Empire. There is a large list, the media tend to

concentrate on the more contentious figures -- empire. I suppose the

main point is that the Labour Party... Philip Gould was

inaugurated, Ed Miliband said... Whereat think they have got it wrong

is the epic community gets less than 6%. Women, 40%. They make it look as

if women are leading, but we are still not half even though we are

more than half the population. Maseko continues to be really

popular with his friendly and approachable style which means

cheaper. Friendly and approachable. Indeed. Thank you both very much.

Coming up next it is time for sports day.

Hello I'm Olly Foster, these are our headlines tonight.

A Christian holiday for Liverpool, Benteke with two winners