:00:00. > :00:00.career begins. He is not wanted by his country any more. And there is
:00:00. > :00:00.the latest from Sochi. British medal hopes have been dashed by eight
:00:00. > :00:17.crash. That is all coming up after The Papers. -- by a crash.
:00:18. > :00:25.Welcome to our lookahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow.
:00:26. > :00:29.With me are the Deputy political editor of the Financial Times, Beth
:00:30. > :00:33.Rigby, and the writer and broadcaster John Kampfner. We start
:00:34. > :00:35.with the Independent, each has an exclusive story about the possible
:00:36. > :00:42.influence of a lobbying company on the NHS. It claims NHS bosses
:00:43. > :00:46.allowed the firm, which was employed by some of the world's biggest drugs
:00:47. > :00:52.companies, to write a draft report which could help shape NHS policy.
:00:53. > :00:58.The Metro has a pun on the weather situation. The Financial Times has a
:00:59. > :01:03.striking photograph, showing the impact of all the floods, referring
:01:04. > :01:08.to the claim by Lord Smith, the head of the Environment Agency, that he
:01:09. > :01:12.had told ministers massive cuts would hit flood defences. The
:01:13. > :01:16.Telegraph has picked up on slightly different comments from Lord Smith.
:01:17. > :01:19.It says he has inflamed the situation by telling flooded
:01:20. > :01:23.residents they were partly to blame I choosing to live in high risk
:01:24. > :01:27.regions. The Prime Minister has waded into the row, according to the
:01:28. > :01:33.Guardian, ordering ministers to stop the blame game. Finally, the Express
:01:34. > :01:39.features the floods. It says, even Windsor Castle has got a new moat.
:01:40. > :01:44.Some of those headlines, trying to have a laugh about all of this! The
:01:45. > :01:49.Daily Telegraph, homeowners, you knew the risk, the boss of the
:01:50. > :01:53.Environment Agency inflames tensions, it says, by saying anybody
:01:54. > :02:01.who buys on a flood plain needs to think about that threat. Does that
:02:02. > :02:06.not sound sensible? It does. But insensitive? Yes. The problem for
:02:07. > :02:10.Kris Smith I do not think has been the actions of the Environment
:02:11. > :02:14.Agency, or necessary his own actions, it has been the
:02:15. > :02:20.perception, of which the Cabinet and the government are also culpable, of
:02:21. > :02:23.just being a bit too slow and casual. And maybe,
:02:24. > :02:25.behind-the-scenes, all of the stuff was happening which should have been
:02:26. > :02:32.happening, within the financial and other constraints, but that
:02:33. > :02:37.perception was allowed to be built up. But on the specific point, if
:02:38. > :02:43.you live next to a river, and a high flowing river, or if you live in a
:02:44. > :02:46.potential flood plain, if you are in America, and you live in an
:02:47. > :02:50.earthquake zone, on a fault line or whatever, your insurance premiums
:02:51. > :03:02.are much higher anyway. So, in that respect, everybody does calculate
:03:03. > :03:06.risk. We do it all the time. I was on the Somerset Levels yesterday, in
:03:07. > :03:09.Burrowbridge, by the River Parrett, and the people there, they are used
:03:10. > :03:13.to flooding, it happens every year, it is part of life. It is the
:03:14. > :03:19.frequency of the floods this year is freaking them out. And also, the
:03:20. > :03:22.fact that they believe that with the increased frequency, there should be
:03:23. > :03:28.increased government involvement and that does not seem to have
:03:29. > :03:33.happened. And actually, tonight, David Cameron has cleared his diary,
:03:34. > :03:36.off he goes. He now knows that he is in a crisis situation, where he
:03:37. > :03:43.needs to be seen to be doing stuff. There was a COBRA meeting today, and
:03:44. > :03:50.a flurry of it over to you tonight, apparently. They are cutting the
:03:51. > :03:54.cost of flights from Newquay and increasing airport capacity. They
:03:55. > :03:59.are centralising the control of sandbags, putting the military on
:04:00. > :04:03.stand-by. Because what they are trying to do is actually to get a
:04:04. > :04:07.grip on the situation. And what the Daily Telegraph is picking up about
:04:08. > :04:13.homeowners who knew the risk is just a sort of inflammatory headline,
:04:14. > :04:18.whereby Lord Smith is getting blamed for what is happening. It is a
:04:19. > :04:25.situation where there has been a gradual build-up over many weeks, of
:04:26. > :04:29.water. It does not help those thousands of people who have got
:04:30. > :04:37.three feet of water in their living rooms. What is perplexing is that
:04:38. > :04:40.for all of the previous inaction, and Beth has just come out with a
:04:41. > :04:45.very good list of measures, but they have been having these COBRA
:04:46. > :04:50.emergency committee meetings for weeks. They love the external
:04:51. > :04:55.panoply, it sounds terribly military, they do it for
:04:56. > :05:03.anti-terrorism, they do it for wars. It invokes a warlike spirit, and the
:05:04. > :05:08.attempt is to show that the Government is in control, but on the
:05:09. > :05:13.rather than glamorous and basic lists which you have just
:05:14. > :05:19.reviewed... We were talking about the foot and mouth crisis earlier,
:05:20. > :05:23.which set Gordon Brown, when he first became Prime Minister, and he
:05:24. > :05:33.took it on and was at the forefront, and his son the ratings spiked. --
:05:34. > :05:36.his poll ratings spiked. He was in a sweet spot. David Cameron knows that
:05:37. > :05:41.this is going to put him in a really bad spot, especially if his cabinet
:05:42. > :05:45.spends the whole time arguing about who is to blame. E-border not care
:05:46. > :05:53.about that now. Have that discussion in a few weeks' time. -- people do
:05:54. > :05:59.not care about that. Moving onto this one, Nick Clegg, we would tax
:06:00. > :06:06.the rich to clear the deficit. You have just finished a book on the
:06:07. > :06:10.super-rich. People got cross last time when I plugged a book! I am
:06:11. > :06:18.looking for deep insight into this now. What would the Medicis have
:06:19. > :06:22.felt about that? What is interesting is the differentiation. It is
:06:23. > :06:28.obviously a policy thing, but it is Nick Clegg saying, not quite lying
:06:29. > :06:34.in the sand, but it is saying that there is only so far -- line in the
:06:35. > :06:39.sand -- that any government wants to go. This idea that you have to
:06:40. > :06:48.always have low tax to encourage enterprise, but at what cost? Do
:06:49. > :06:52.politicians really think that if tax rates go from 50 Pete to 40 5p,
:06:53. > :07:01.somehow, you are going to stop this mass exodus to Switzerland in
:07:02. > :07:10.Cyprus? -- from 50p to 40p. A lot of it is showboating. Nick Clegg is
:07:11. > :07:20.making it clear, it is a rehash, but it is very calf early targeted
:07:21. > :07:27.insane, -- very carefully targeted, in saying, while using the language
:07:28. > :07:34.they like to use, we, the Lib Dems, are different. Lib Dems want to tax
:07:35. > :07:44.wealth, not income. That is the point of the mansion tax. It is to
:07:45. > :07:49.tax assets, not income. In this story, the Telegraph says, how could
:07:50. > :07:55.this affect a possible second coalition deal with the Tories? I
:07:56. > :08:00.think the Lib Dems are trying to find five or six key policies to put
:08:01. > :08:08.on the manifesto, to say, this is what we are about, which can then
:08:09. > :08:12.become their red lines. The fact that he is highlighting the mansion
:08:13. > :08:16.tax, something that they wanted to do within the coalition, but they
:08:17. > :08:21.could not, because the Tories are absolutely opposed to it, but does
:08:22. > :08:28.that mean, what does that mean, for trying to form a coalition, if this
:08:29. > :08:34.is Nick Clegg's redline? The Institute for Fiscal Studies last
:08:35. > :08:39.week said that the top 1% pay 30% of income tax. Does that explain the
:08:40. > :08:42.emphasis on taxing assets, because the rich are being soaked enough as
:08:43. > :08:49.it is quick and Mark also, there is a principle, which is, why just tax
:08:50. > :08:58.income, why not tax assets? Lots of people come here and have second
:08:59. > :09:06.homes and live abroad. -- enough as it is? Why can we not start taxing
:09:07. > :09:11.these properties instead of hitting everybody with income tax? The
:09:12. > :09:17.problem is, if you are super-rich, if you are in not just the 1%, but
:09:18. > :09:25.the 0.1%, you do not own properties in your name, they having credibly
:09:26. > :09:28.completed devices, they are not even paying the council tax. The
:09:29. > :09:36.extraordinary thing is, you look at those amazing ?70 million apartments
:09:37. > :09:40.in Knightsbridge, a lot of oligarchs, they are doing it through
:09:41. > :09:46.offshore devices, Cayman Islands, whatever, Westminster Council and
:09:47. > :09:55.the others, they cannot get the money.
:09:56. > :10:01.The Conservatives would argue with a policy like this that what is unfair
:10:02. > :10:04.is that somebody might be a wealthy pensioner, in the sense that they
:10:05. > :10:08.have an iPhone that they have lived in all their lives and it has
:10:09. > :10:15.appreciated because it is in London. -- nice home that they have lived
:10:16. > :10:20.in. They don't have disposable income to pay an extra tax. It is
:10:21. > :10:28.interesting. It is a differentiating policy. It will not raise much
:10:29. > :10:36.money, will it? Really? It is the same thing with is Labour are going
:10:37. > :10:39.back up to 50% tax rate. It is not always just a question of how much
:10:40. > :10:44.you can race but how much you will raise by people not disappearing.
:10:45. > :10:47.You always get the counterargument against higher taxes by saying that
:10:48. > :10:52.everybody will like it too Switzerland or somewhere else. And
:10:53. > :10:59.actually for all the huffing and puffing, very few people, very
:11:00. > :11:05.little happens. Let's go back to the flooding. The PM says stop the
:11:06. > :11:11.flooding blame game. Chris myth of the Environment Agency issued a
:11:12. > :11:19.warning to ministers. -- Chris Smith. It concerned the funding for
:11:20. > :11:24.the Environment Agency. The FT did an interview late in the day-to-day
:11:25. > :11:29.with Lord Smith, and it is on our front page, in which he says that he
:11:30. > :11:32.did warn the Government that massive cuts to their budget, the
:11:33. > :11:37.Environment Agency budget, would affect their ability to defend the
:11:38. > :11:40.against flooding. This goes in direct contradiction to what the
:11:41. > :11:45.Government have consistently said over recent weeks, which is that as
:11:46. > :11:53.a whole, they have increased spending in this area. Actually the
:11:54. > :12:00.independent climate committee, the details are in the FT, but they say
:12:01. > :12:03.there has been cut to funding. Lord Smith has actually been slightly
:12:04. > :12:07.hamstrung by the fact that he has not been able to put the money into
:12:08. > :12:11.flood defences that he would have liked. That comes back to the point
:12:12. > :12:15.of don't attack the Environment Agency when you are in the middle of
:12:16. > :12:19.a crisis because what actually begins to happen is that he feels
:12:20. > :12:27.defensive and said you are partly to blame. Ministers say they are to
:12:28. > :12:30.blame and it is very tawdry. You would have thought that Eric Pickles
:12:31. > :12:35.would have been brought up to speed with the exact situation with
:12:36. > :12:38.funding and the Environment Agency and so on and so forth when he was
:12:39. > :12:45.given the job of stepping into the breach to take over from Mr
:12:46. > :12:54.Paterson. Which is what the Guardian and other newspapers are quoting. So
:12:55. > :12:59.bizarre. Shooting from the hip? If that was the case, why was he not
:13:00. > :13:03.briefed? Saying it was all down to Environment Agency and what a bunch
:13:04. > :13:09.of bloggers they are. Today it is saying that it is entirely wrong to
:13:10. > :13:13.say I have made the slightest criticism of their marvellous work.
:13:14. > :13:21.It is ridiculously hammed up. My admiration for the Environment
:13:22. > :13:25.Agency exceeds everything. And Owen Paterson, who has gone off to have
:13:26. > :13:31.an eye operation, and according to the Guardian was so cross about Eric
:13:32. > :13:40.Pickles's attacks on Chris Smith as the Environment Agency, and we had
:13:41. > :13:45.two Cabinet ministers fighting each other, Pickles said of Paterson that
:13:46. > :13:52.they are two peas in a pod. We are brothers from another mother. What
:13:53. > :13:59.is he on about? I heard that as well! A mental typo. We will stop it
:14:00. > :14:04.there. You guys will be back in another hour for a look at the other
:14:05. > :14:12.stories. Stay with us on BBC News for that. At 11 o'clock we will have
:14:13. > :14:14.much more on all the flooding situations and the developing
:14:15. > :14:20.situation around the Thames Valley because more rain is forecast. Not
:14:21. > :14:30.looking good. Stay with us for that. Now it is time for Sportsday.
:14:31. > :14:36.Hello and welcome to Sportsday. I'm Hugh Ferris. Coming up on the
:14:37. > :14:39.programme: He won't play T20 for England any more but he will be
:14:40. > :14:43.playing in England. Kevin Pietersen re-signs for Surrey for the revamped
:14:44. > :14:45.T20 blast. British medal hopes on day three in
:14:46. > :14:46.Sochi are