:00:00. > :00:00.fortunes of English critic. We will also see how Portugal said farewell
:00:00. > :00:00.to a footballing legend. And bad news for British tennis ahead of the
:00:00. > :00:23.Australian open next week. Hello. Welcome to our lookahead at
:00:24. > :00:27.what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With BR broadcaster Penny
:00:28. > :00:32.Smith and Randeep Ramesh, the social affairs editor at The Guardian. We
:00:33. > :00:38.will start with the Express. It says the good run for the FTSE 100 means
:00:39. > :00:41.pensioners are due a windfall. The Financial Times says that Britain's
:00:42. > :00:46.car industry is now the most buoyant in Europe thanks to improved
:00:47. > :00:51.consumer confidence. The Telegraph says speed limit will be lowered on
:00:52. > :00:55.some roads to reduce air pollution. The independently each with spending
:00:56. > :00:58.cuts proposed I George Osborne, which have been criticised by the
:00:59. > :01:05.Liberal Democrats. The Guardian says talks of a Cabinet clash over the
:01:06. > :01:08.policy. The Mail says that the Environment Secretary wants shoppers
:01:09. > :01:13.to buy British food in season, instead of imports. It also pictures
:01:14. > :01:20.a giant wave in south Wales, and the people risking the storm for a front
:01:21. > :01:23.row seat. We're going to start with this story that has been dominating
:01:24. > :01:26.the news throughout the day, the announcement by the Chancellor that
:01:27. > :01:30.if the Conservatives win the next election they will have more
:01:31. > :01:35.spending cuts. ?25 billion worth, and about half of that is going to
:01:36. > :01:40.come from the welfare budget. Let's show you some of the front pages,
:01:41. > :01:48.detailing that. There you have the Guardian. Cabinet clash over Osborne
:01:49. > :01:51.welfare cuts. The Independent, happy New Year from George Osborne. That
:01:52. > :01:57.is his New Year message, there are going to be more cuts. Let's have a
:01:58. > :02:02.look at... Well, that is it, actually. It is on the front page of
:02:03. > :02:09.the Daily Telegraph as well, welfare cuts spark fury from Nick Clegg. It
:02:10. > :02:14.is on the front there, as well. Randeep, it is not the New year's
:02:15. > :02:18.message that people want to hear, but the Tory half of the coalition
:02:19. > :02:24.is saying it is very necessary? George Osborne is doing two things,
:02:25. > :02:27.looking for votes, and secondly he is pitching the political debate
:02:28. > :02:33.where he wanted, talking tough about welfare. His thing is that Labour
:02:34. > :02:36.does not have an offer in that space and he is going to win the argument
:02:37. > :02:41.by talking tough on welfare. You can see the reaction from his Cabinet
:02:42. > :02:44.colleagues, they are gassed. Iain Duncan Smith thinks, I have
:02:45. > :02:56.delivered you ?18 billion worth of spending cuts. -- they are I --
:02:57. > :03:04.aghast. I think it is an interesting political debate. It may never come
:03:05. > :03:07.to pass, because we have to see who wins the election. It is
:03:08. > :03:11.interesting, one assumes that the Treasury, or at least the
:03:12. > :03:16.Conservatives and Mr Crosby, have told this to within an inch of its
:03:17. > :03:21.life and think it is a good idea? They must do. The thing is, they
:03:22. > :03:26.keep on. Nick Clegg has been talking about it as being an unrealistic,
:03:27. > :03:30.unfair attack on the poor while demanding no sacrifices from the
:03:31. > :03:36.wealthy. In fact, I think the big point here is, can they, if they did
:03:37. > :03:42.when, if the Conservatives did win in 2015, could there be a coalition?
:03:43. > :03:46.You have the death of a minister talking about how you have a
:03:47. > :03:51.Conservative Party driven by two ideological impulses. One is too
:03:52. > :03:56.remorselessly pare back the state for ideological reasons, secondly, I
:03:57. > :04:03.think they are making a monument of the stake in doing so. -- monumental
:04:04. > :04:08.mistake in doing so. When you are talking about politicians that are
:04:09. > :04:12.used to pussyfooting around, being careful, that seems extraordinarily
:04:13. > :04:18.strong. You obviously know more than me about that, but it seems quite
:04:19. > :04:21.strong? I think it is just politics. Or economic sap best.
:04:22. > :04:24.Really, the welfare budget has been pared back pretty drastically. You
:04:25. > :04:29.are really talking about the disabled carers, taking it from the
:04:30. > :04:34.electorally important ground the squeezed middle, which is not
:04:35. > :04:46.somewhere you want to go to. I suggested that perhaps they have
:04:47. > :04:53.polled this within an inch of its life, but what if they think, this
:04:54. > :05:00.is the kind of thing that will get me down to rode. Russell Brand told
:05:01. > :05:05.me not to! The real risk is that the numbers do not add up. He's asking
:05:06. > :05:08.for ?25 billion worth of cuts, 12 billion from welfare, that is a lot
:05:09. > :05:14.of money from somewhere else. Do you raise taxes? That is how he would
:05:15. > :05:18.like to position Labour, a tax and spend party. What he really doesn't
:05:19. > :05:23.tell people is that the economic solid is that you can change how
:05:24. > :05:30.much you repay your debts at. This is all a technical argument about
:05:31. > :05:34.whether you want to be in surplus. That is George Osborne's vision,
:05:35. > :05:38.nobody has to agree to that. Labour could come in and say, we don't have
:05:39. > :05:41.to stick to those plans in 2018 and therefore we can turn the taps on.
:05:42. > :05:46.That is the problem for George Osborne. It is a long election
:05:47. > :05:51.campaign. Does this argument get lost when people are struggling, pay
:05:52. > :05:59.is stagnating? I think those arguments will linger in people's
:06:00. > :06:04.mind. Very interesting. A warning of 60 mph motorway limits. This is all
:06:05. > :06:07.too meaty EU rules on air pollution because we are not meeting those
:06:08. > :06:16.roles at the moment? -- to meet EU rules. They say 60 mph on the M1,
:06:17. > :06:18.and sections of the M3 in Surrey, 13 other stretches of motorway.
:06:19. > :06:25.Motoring organisations are saying it is going to the lowering of the
:06:26. > :06:28.speed limit through the back door. It's interesting, only last year or
:06:29. > :06:33.the year before, they were about raising the speed limit. We were
:06:34. > :06:38.talking about how much that could save us, the cuts to journey times,
:06:39. > :06:43.it would be a brilliant idea. That is dead in the water. We are going
:06:44. > :06:48.to 60 mph. I don't know about you, it says from 7am to 7pm. I don't
:06:49. > :06:52.understand why, if it is about congestion, which is what they are
:06:53. > :06:57.saying, about slowing down and speeding up, changing through the
:06:58. > :07:01.gears, because certainly just by braking it does not cause any more
:07:02. > :07:04.pollution, I can't imagine it does. I might be wrong. Cars are more
:07:05. > :07:10.efficient at a slower speed, apparently. They pump out less
:07:11. > :07:15.nitrogen, or whatever. In this case, if this is going to be the new
:07:16. > :07:18.thing, shall we just stop making fast cars? Let's make cars with a
:07:19. > :07:24.top speed limit of 60 malls per hour. A Ferrari with a 60 mph top
:07:25. > :07:31.speed limit? Well, we could get rid of Top Gear. Some people would not
:07:32. > :07:36.mind that. We were promised our way races, being able to whizz around in
:07:37. > :07:43.coalition Britain at 80 mph. Now we have to go to the continent. I do
:07:44. > :07:46.think it is a bit odd. If you do drive on the motorway, you often
:07:47. > :07:52.have to slow down because there was lots of traffic and congestion.
:07:53. > :07:58.There are 50 mph signs. This does not appear to affect HGVs,
:07:59. > :08:06.apparently the worst polluters, and there is no speed limit on them at
:08:07. > :08:12.the moment. I still can't believe in 2014, what is it? 2014? Just gone.
:08:13. > :08:19.And you were working on New Year's Eve, not getting smashed. When I was
:08:20. > :08:25.a kid and I thought about 2014, I thought there would be bubble cars
:08:26. > :08:32.flying around, you programme it and they just go off, beam me up,
:08:33. > :08:44.Scotty. The Independent, really dramatic picture of a huge tidal
:08:45. > :08:48.surge. This is South Wales. And those people just standing there,
:08:49. > :08:51.taking photographs of it. Presumably somebody standing a bit more
:08:52. > :08:56.sensibly took this particular photograph. It is dramatic, scary.
:08:57. > :09:02.Amazing, this winter weather. Actually, London has been really
:09:03. > :09:11.quite warm. A beautiful day. But they have raised the Thames barrier.
:09:12. > :09:19.Exactly. But I think that would have come over the top, possibly right up
:09:20. > :09:28.to the Shard. But they are cutting the flood budget? That is the
:09:29. > :09:34.decision, you have to make those decisions. That would not be stopped
:09:35. > :09:38.by flood defences. But it is odd timing and the Government look
:09:39. > :09:44.stupid. I think David Cameron, in his own constituency, when he had
:09:45. > :09:48.his ear bent. But I'm not sure politicians can be blamed for the
:09:49. > :09:51.weather. It's about climate change, the fact that the climate is
:09:52. > :09:54.changing without a shadow of a doubt. They are saying these events
:09:55. > :09:58.are going to happen more and more often. They are actually saying,
:09:59. > :10:04.this is what we are going to be doing, so let's do... I don't know.
:10:05. > :10:09.We are taking it seriously with driving slower. On to the Daily
:10:10. > :10:13.Express. We mentioned a little bit, Randeep about the coalition, or at
:10:14. > :10:19.least the Tory half, their calculation in perhaps not hitting
:10:20. > :10:24.pensioners as hard as some people might feel they should, when it
:10:25. > :10:28.comes to austerity. Millions will get pensions windfall. Now, this is
:10:29. > :10:36.because the FTSE is doing very well and annuities and pension funds are
:10:37. > :10:40.doing OK on shares. But is there a perception that pensioners are
:10:41. > :10:46.getting a bit of a free ride when it comes to deficit reduction? Well, it
:10:47. > :10:50.looks like it when you just look at the figures on the face of it, but
:10:51. > :10:52.the point is that pensioners are being squeezed for years now,
:10:53. > :10:57.because of course they have savings. They can't make any more money. They
:10:58. > :11:00.have savings and their savings in real terms are dwindling in a huge
:11:01. > :11:05.way. They've been getting less and less. Only recently, there was a
:11:06. > :11:10.story on the front page of the Express, elderly steal to survive as
:11:11. > :11:13.pensions dwindle and prices soar. Talking about they're finding
:11:14. > :11:21.89-year-olds being arrested for stealing to keep going. But,
:11:22. > :11:28.Randeep, winter fuel allowance and the freedom Bass, bus passes, there
:11:29. > :11:32.does seem to be in the coalition's calculation the idea that these
:11:33. > :11:35.people vote therefore we are not going to take some of these away? I
:11:36. > :11:40.think there are two different groups. There are the poor
:11:41. > :11:45.pensioners that Penny is talking about and they are get ing wiped and
:11:46. > :11:49.they're having to live with a high rate of inflation. The people who
:11:50. > :11:53.have a lot of money and perhaps can do without their bus pass and free
:11:54. > :11:57.television licence are the people who Nick Clegg and Iain Duncan Smith
:11:58. > :12:02.would like to target. The sums are trifling. Even if we got rid of the
:12:03. > :12:08.entire free bus pass budget it's ?1 billion. You still need to find
:12:09. > :12:13.another ?11 billion. Pensioners were historically very badly treated and
:12:14. > :12:18.it's only really in the last decade that they've made anything, so I
:12:19. > :12:26.think it will be difficult to make an argument to crack down, unless
:12:27. > :12:32.you means test them. Let's move on to the Financial Times. Lawyers
:12:33. > :12:37.having been going on strike. Some of them don't get paid very much. Some
:12:38. > :12:42.people out there might think that's not the case. But actually,
:12:43. > :12:48.according to the Criminal Bar Association half their members
:12:49. > :12:52.earned ?27,000 a year. Yes, they are saying they earn ?27,000 and that
:12:53. > :12:55.this is going to be cut by 30% and they're saying that the trouble is
:12:56. > :13:00.that people will just say we don't want to do Legal Aid. Therefore,
:13:01. > :13:05.they're saying that justice is at stake and this is a problem. This is
:13:06. > :13:09.the first strike I think, the walk-out by the profession in 400
:13:10. > :13:16.years. It is - you look at the pictures and you just go, yes, they
:13:17. > :13:23.look like they're 400 years. I know. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to make
:13:24. > :13:27.light of it. But, really, it's the wig-wearing lawyers. They're saying
:13:28. > :13:33.it's about British justice at stake. The Government have taken the old
:13:34. > :13:37.adage crime doesn't pay to heart. If you're a criminal barrister it
:13:38. > :13:41.certainly won't. Is that self-serving, the idea that they're
:13:42. > :13:47.saying it's all about justice and people not having access to Legal
:13:48. > :13:50.Aid and they're worried about their pay packets. The Government have
:13:51. > :13:55.played a dicey game with the statistics. 84,000 was the average
:13:56. > :14:00.income, but when you took out the people who earn over 500 grand to a
:14:01. > :14:05.year you got down to 54,000. But that's everything. You have to pay
:14:06. > :14:10.rent and VAT off that and - And there are a lot of them who are paid
:14:11. > :14:17.?27,000. It's like the banking. There are still people being paid
:14:18. > :14:26.?1.5 million bonuses. But many are on a quarter of that. 25 grand. Good
:14:27. > :14:30.if you're at the top and bad if you're at the bottom. Thank you
:14:31. > :14:35.both. We'll look at some of the stories later. Stay with us here on
:14:36. > :14:39.BBC News for that. Also, coming up at 11.00pm, we'll have more on the
:14:40. > :14:46.extreme weather, as storms and huge waves continue to batter western and
:14:47. > :14:48.southern parts of the UK. Coming up now, it's Sportsday.