07/02/2014

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:00:00. > :00:00.have had a second appeal rejected against the suspension of their

:00:00. > :00:14.striker Andy Carroll. That is all in 15 minutes after The Papers.

:00:15. > :00:19.Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be

:00:20. > :00:22.bringing us tomorrow. With me are Kevin Schofield, Chief Political

:00:23. > :00:32.Correspondent for The Sun, and Peter Conradi, The Sunday Times Foreign

:00:33. > :00:34.Editor. First, let's whizz through some of the front pages.

:00:35. > :00:37.The Independent, like many of the papers, focuses on the floods, with

:00:38. > :00:39.the headline, "An unnatural disaster".

:00:40. > :00:41.The Daily Mail leads on the weather too, reporting on calls to spend

:00:42. > :00:44.foreign aid money on the flooding crisis.

:00:45. > :00:50.Mortgage costs is the lead for the Financial Times. The paper says

:00:51. > :00:52.borrowers are rushing to secure cheap loans, fearing an increase in

:00:53. > :00:55.interest rates. It's back to storms with the Daily

:00:56. > :00:57.Mirror and their headline, "Stormaggedon".

:00:58. > :01:00.The i also leads on flooding, reporting on David Cameron's visit

:01:01. > :01:03.to the Somerset Levels. The Daily Express warns readers to

:01:04. > :01:07.stay safe during the expected weekend storms.

:01:08. > :01:10.The Telegraph shows head of the Environment Agency, Lord Smith,

:01:11. > :01:16.being scolded by a Somerset farmer over the flood response.

:01:17. > :01:21.And the Guardian leads with a photo of the four-ringed Olympic symbol at

:01:22. > :01:34.the opening of the Sochi Games. The snowflake didn't melt into the fifth

:01:35. > :01:39.ring, as planned. I am sure Vladimir Putin was delighted! Good evening,

:01:40. > :01:44.gentlemen. It is difficult, because this is a conveyor belt of storms,

:01:45. > :01:49.ongoing flooding. There are only so many times you can say, flooding

:01:50. > :01:54.crisis, more weather on the way, so the imagination has set in with some

:01:55. > :01:59.of the headlines. Starting with the i, Cameron wades into row over

:02:00. > :02:04.biblical flood. For those in the Somerset levels, it probably does

:02:05. > :02:08.feel biblical. Well, it just seems endless. We have seen in the weather

:02:09. > :02:13.forecast that there is more awful weather to come. Literally, the

:02:14. > :02:19.Prime Minister wading into the row today. It was a carefully

:02:20. > :02:24.stage-managed appearance in Somerset by the Prime Minister, in and out

:02:25. > :02:29.quite quickly, not meeting any angry residents. That was left to Lord

:02:30. > :02:35.Smith, who is on the front page of the Telegraph, getting a bit of a

:02:36. > :02:40.dressing down from a local farmer. I am not sure who his PR advisers are,

:02:41. > :02:44.but for him to turn up and not at least offer some kind of an apology

:02:45. > :02:49.was quite incredible. We will move to the Telegraph in a moment, but

:02:50. > :02:53.staying with the i, David Cameron has defended staying in London,

:02:54. > :02:57.saying he is better off leading the COBRA meetings, making decisions

:02:58. > :03:02.here, rather than being on the Somerset Levels. Do you think he has

:03:03. > :03:06.played it right? I think so. There is a limit to how much time he can

:03:07. > :03:11.spend walking around sodden ground in his Wellington boots. I think it

:03:12. > :03:17.is important to make an appearance, as he has done. But I think people

:03:18. > :03:21.want to see him back in London getting on with his job and

:03:22. > :03:25.coordinating the work from there. You mentioned the Daily Telegraph

:03:26. > :03:28.and we can look at that now. A very downbeat head of the Environment

:03:29. > :03:32.Agency, Lord Smith, getting a telling off from one of the local

:03:33. > :03:38.farmers. As we have seen from our correspondence this week, a lot of

:03:39. > :03:41.farmers in that community have had their businesses ripped apart. They

:03:42. > :03:48.have had to move their livestock. Is his job on the line? I think so. In

:03:49. > :03:52.this day and age, we always look for some kind of scapegoat. We in the

:03:53. > :03:57.media are probably guilty of that, I think. But in this instance, the

:03:58. > :04:02.buck does stop with him. He has been in the job since 2008. There is lots

:04:03. > :04:06.of criticism that there has been very little preparation leading up

:04:07. > :04:11.to the current bad weather, and since it set in several weeks ago

:04:12. > :04:14.nothing has been done. You can't totally blame the Environment Agency

:04:15. > :04:21.and Lord Smith for what is unprecedented weather. I suppose

:04:22. > :04:25.they are supposed to plan for all eventualities. You try planning for

:04:26. > :04:31.the weather in this country! That is true, but we had a succession of wet

:04:32. > :04:35.winters. They have got a lot wetter. This particular winter is

:04:36. > :04:41.exceptional, but I think there is a sense that they have been slow to

:04:42. > :04:46.react and he is the man who should, I think, accept his fair share of

:04:47. > :04:50.the blame. He also fell into a classic trap. He was asked if he is

:04:51. > :04:54.proud of the work of his agency and he cannot say no, but the minute he

:04:55. > :04:59.says that it is used against him and it is a gift for headline writers.

:05:00. > :05:05.Many homes have been saved, as David Cameron pointed out. Yes, but many

:05:06. > :05:08.others have not. It is those people, you can understand their anger,

:05:09. > :05:15.particularly farmers whose livelihood is a risk and is being

:05:16. > :05:19.washed away. But you do want to ask who was his PR adviser who

:05:20. > :05:22.encouraged him to stand there. You would think the first thing he would

:05:23. > :05:28.do would be to hold up his hands and show some level of apology. It is

:05:29. > :05:31.reminiscent of Gordon Brown being ambushed by the woman he accused of

:05:32. > :05:42.being a bigot. There were shades of that. Let's move on to the Daily

:05:43. > :05:46.Mirror. It is a staggering headline, really. We were talking

:05:47. > :05:52.about this earlier, before we came on air, this millionaire's home,

:05:53. > :05:56.which you can see in the top right of your screen, where he built his

:05:57. > :06:01.own flood defences which are just about holding off the water around

:06:02. > :06:05.his home in Somerset yesterday. The wider picture on the front page of

:06:06. > :06:11.the Daily Mirror, showing more storms to come. It is just

:06:12. > :06:15.relentless. If you live in Somerset and wake up tomorrow morning to this

:06:16. > :06:19.front page you will just think, this is never going to end. It is a

:06:20. > :06:25.pretty stark satellite image and it speaks for itself. There is another

:06:26. > :06:31.huge storm coming our way. It is quite a remarkable picture of the

:06:32. > :06:39.house which has been cut off. He spent ?1 million, apparently, making

:06:40. > :06:43.this house. And he also has ?10,000 of his own money to build his own

:06:44. > :06:47.defences which, until now, appeared to be working, but who is to say

:06:48. > :06:51.that will not change? Do you think this could be the start of seeing

:06:52. > :06:56.some more serious investment in flood defences, modernising many of

:06:57. > :07:01.what are described as Victorian defences, particularly on the coast?

:07:02. > :07:06.Is this when David Cameron has to take long-term leadership over this?

:07:07. > :07:12.I think you are right. There has been a succession of mistakes. Not

:07:13. > :07:16.just by him. I suppose it is bound to happen, he is blaming labour for

:07:17. > :07:21.not doing enough during the 1990s and the last decade. The rivers were

:07:22. > :07:31.not drenched, so they were more prone to flooding -- they were not

:07:32. > :07:36.drenched. They have to try and find the money to make sure this kind of

:07:37. > :07:40.thing does not happen. The Daily Mail is one for you, Peter,

:07:41. > :07:44.suggesting we should spend foreign aid on British victims of flooding,

:07:45. > :07:49.rather than foreign victims, often of flooding, in countries like

:07:50. > :07:53.Bangladesh. This is a huge budget, in ?11 billion. Is this a case of

:07:54. > :07:58.where perhaps charity should begin at home? It is a difficult question.

:07:59. > :08:02.Being cynical, you would say this prince together two of the Daily

:08:03. > :08:11.Mail's favourite subjects, the floods and the iniquity of foreign

:08:12. > :08:14.aid. -- the iniquity of foreign aid. There are arguments that you could

:08:15. > :08:18.spend the entire foreign aid budget at home, or you could spend none of

:08:19. > :08:22.it. It is a question of looking at flood defences, the economics of

:08:23. > :08:26.flood defences, and finding money within the money we spend at home

:08:27. > :08:31.and diverging it to more spending on floods. I think they are bringing

:08:32. > :08:35.together two completely separate things. It is another example of

:08:36. > :08:40.UKIP forcing the political agenda in Britain. Nigel Farage, UKIP leader,

:08:41. > :08:45.said yesterday that this should happen. At the time, it did not get

:08:46. > :08:48.much of a pick-up, because you always expect Nigel Farage to say

:08:49. > :08:53.something like that, but now it has become more mainstream. You have

:08:54. > :08:58.Conservative MPs, nervous about UKIP, making the same call. You can

:08:59. > :09:01.understand where it is coming from but I think it would be a

:09:02. > :09:05.controversial thing. There is no prospect of the Prime Minister doing

:09:06. > :09:09.it. Flooding is going to become political in the weeks ahead. There

:09:10. > :09:20.are some other stories on the front pages. Let's go on to the financial

:09:21. > :09:23.Times weekend. The rate fears prompt a rush to fixed mortgages. Many

:09:24. > :09:28.people worried about mortgages and interest rates going up, and many

:09:29. > :09:32.people very happy about it as well. If you are a pensioner on a fixed

:09:33. > :09:36.income, relying on savings, the prospect of ink -- interest rates

:09:37. > :09:43.going up is probably quite pleasant, but if you have a mortgage

:09:44. > :09:51.it is scary. We were told by the Bank of England governor, Mark

:09:52. > :09:56.Carney, last year, he introduced this idea which was supposed to calm

:09:57. > :09:59.the markets and make us be reassured that interest rates would not go up

:10:00. > :10:04.quickly. Unemployment has come down so fast that there is now a major

:10:05. > :10:08.concern that interest rates will go up. I suppose it causes other

:10:09. > :10:11.problems because if people are making money out of savings they are

:10:12. > :10:16.less bothered about spending it. That is another thing the government

:10:17. > :10:26.want us to do, to go and spend money. But I suppose it will settle

:10:27. > :10:30.house prices in some areas. It will dampen them down. Such low interest

:10:31. > :10:34.rates in the last few years have been extraordinary, and we'll got

:10:35. > :10:39.used to them, which is dangerous, because they can only go up. The

:10:40. > :10:44.fact they are going up is a sign of economic health, that the economy is

:10:45. > :10:49.recovering, and it will be a bit more painful for those who have

:10:50. > :10:57.mortgages. But they will have a bit more disposable income. I am a play

:10:58. > :11:02.it safe guide! Fixed rate. They probably won't be such good deals.

:11:03. > :11:07.Just staying with the FT, we have a picture there of some of the

:11:08. > :11:11.fantastic scenes from the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic

:11:12. > :11:18.Games. The most expensive Olympic Games ever to be staged. This was,

:11:19. > :11:22.hopefully, Russia's time to get back at the critics, really, and show

:11:23. > :11:27.them what they were made of. But it is such a huge cost. This is a real

:11:28. > :11:37.prestige project. More than ?30 billion. An enormous cost. A huge

:11:38. > :11:42.amount of Russian prestige is resting on it. We've had the first

:11:43. > :11:47.hiccup, one of the rings not lighting up properly. Probably will

:11:48. > :11:51.not be the last. The boycott, the controversy around it... It's not

:11:52. > :11:58.going as smoothly as it could've done. We can show that. It's on page

:11:59. > :12:04.seven the Daily Mail. A lot of our BBC correspondent there, some of our

:12:05. > :12:08.coverage team, were tweeting it earlier. You can see what was meant

:12:09. > :12:14.to happen. One of these snowflakes was meant to become the fifth Ring

:12:15. > :12:18.of the Olympic symbol, and it just didn't happen. Somebody is going to

:12:19. > :12:24.be in trouble tonight in Moscow! We can afford to be a little bit smug,

:12:25. > :12:29.given how successful the Olympics in London were, so we can maybe laugh a

:12:30. > :12:33.little bit. But on the scale of things that could go wrong, that is

:12:34. > :12:43.not the worst thing. It was a very enjoyable is ceremony to one. -- to

:12:44. > :12:49.watch. Yes, with opening ceremonies, the bar is always raised. London,

:12:50. > :12:53.Beijing... It was spectacular. I think we can forgive them that

:12:54. > :12:58.little hiccup. A huge global audience for the Olympics as well.

:12:59. > :13:04.Is there as much enthusiasm for it as with other Olympics? It is never

:13:05. > :13:07.as big as the Summer Olympics, but with all the controversy that

:13:08. > :13:12.surrounded it this time around... Who remembers the last Winter

:13:13. > :13:17.Olympics? Was it thank you the? And we have all this again when the

:13:18. > :13:25.World Cup goes to Russia, and there will be more controversy. It will be

:13:26. > :13:30.fascinating to see how they handle it. President Putin will be hoping

:13:31. > :13:34.it passes off without incident. My favourite line in the coverage was

:13:35. > :13:40.that Prime Minister Medvedev apparently fell asleep during the

:13:41. > :13:45.ceremony! It is a long flight, and a huge time difference. You will be

:13:46. > :13:50.back at 11:30pm. But for now, thank you very much to our guests. Join us

:13:51. > :13:56.later. Still to come on BBC News at 11pm,

:13:57. > :13:59.more on the floods afflicting the south of England. David Cameron

:14:00. > :14:03.visits one of the most worst affected areas of Somerset. Coming

:14:04. > :14:18.up next, it is sports day. Hello and welcome to Sportsday.

:14:19. > :14:21.Here's what we have for you tonight. The World is welcomed to Sochi, as

:14:22. > :14:22.the 22nd Winter Olympics are