:00:00. > :00:00.also bring you the details of England's cricket edition as they
:00:00. > :00:14.seek to rebuild after their Ashes humiliation. That is after the
:00:15. > :00:17.papers. Hello and welcome to our look ahead
:00:18. > :00:21.to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With me are
:00:22. > :00:23.the journalist and blogger Susie Boniface, aka the Fleet Street Fox,
:00:24. > :00:34.and political correspondent at the Financial Times, Kiran Stacey. The
:00:35. > :00:37.Financial Times leads with the Bank of England's forecast of interest
:00:38. > :00:40.rates, which are not expected to rise before the election. The Metro
:00:41. > :00:45.calls today's storm "The Big One" and warns there is more bad weather
:00:46. > :00:51.to come. The Telegraph has a picture of a woman who it says was blown off
:00:52. > :00:54.her feet by the wind in Manchester. The Independent says the African
:00:55. > :00:58.elephant could be extinct within a decade because of poaching. The
:00:59. > :01:05.Express predicts "mortgage joy for millions" because of the prospect of
:01:06. > :01:07.low interest rates. That's the Guardian's main story too,
:01:08. > :01:18.underneath a satellite image of the storms engulfing the UK. And guess
:01:19. > :01:25.what, that is what we are starting with, the storms. Susie, the metro
:01:26. > :01:30.is talking about the big one, 100 mile an hour storms battering
:01:31. > :01:36.Britain. We don't have hurricanes here, apparently, we can only have
:01:37. > :01:40.storms. Those pictures are reminiscent of one that was released
:01:41. > :01:43.a couple of years ago when we had a very big snow . We have a similar
:01:44. > :01:48.picture than about how much of Britain was affected. This is not
:01:49. > :01:51.just affecting people in Windsor or Datchet or Somerset, it is
:01:52. > :01:56.everybody. This has been going on since the end of November, since the
:01:57. > :02:01.St Jude's storm. Everywhere was flooded then and people died in that
:02:02. > :02:04.terrible storm, and it is affecting everybody so badly now.
:02:05. > :02:08.Unfortunately, where the coalition have in handling it is that all the
:02:09. > :02:11.ministers have gone down their one-way after another, each of them
:02:12. > :02:16.have found a way to screw it up. Owen Paterson did not even get his
:02:17. > :02:21.feet wet. David Cameron visited only after Prince Charles. Philip Hammond
:02:22. > :02:25.was wandering around Wraysbury in Berkshire this week in his Hunter
:02:26. > :02:29.wellies and a long scarf and Barbour coat, looking like a squire going to
:02:30. > :02:35.look at the peasants. They are not handling it well. I know they can't
:02:36. > :02:40.influence how much rain is falling, but there was high spending on flood
:02:41. > :02:46.defences after 2007, when more houses were affected. David Cameron,
:02:47. > :02:49.in PMQs today, praised the Labour government for increasing spending
:02:50. > :02:56.after that and saving more thousands of houses this time round. But it
:02:57. > :03:00.has all been cut since 2010. Of course, the coalition says it has
:03:01. > :03:05.spent as much as the last Labour government did. They say they have
:03:06. > :03:12.spent more. They did take into account inflation. -- they did not
:03:13. > :03:18.take into account inflation. So it is a cut in real terms. They are
:03:19. > :03:21.some clever accounting tricks. It has only gone up in the last couple
:03:22. > :03:26.of weeks, since they have announced more cash. But is spending more
:03:27. > :03:29.money on flood defences the answer? These storms are going to happen
:03:30. > :03:35.with increasing frequency, we are told. That is probably because of
:03:36. > :03:39.climate change. 90% of scientists would say that. If this stuff is
:03:40. > :03:44.going to happen, the Somerset Levels are a flood plain and they are going
:03:45. > :03:50.to get flooded more often. We are also likely to see it in the
:03:51. > :03:53.south-east and Norfolk. Building sea walls are bit higher will not really
:03:54. > :03:58.tackle the problems we are likely to see if it happens year after year.
:03:59. > :04:07.It works in the Netherlands, and they are below sea level. But that
:04:08. > :04:12.would take a huge decision. The Netherlands has a tiny coastline
:04:13. > :04:16.compared to the UK, and it is a relatively small country, and it
:04:17. > :04:20.spends double what we do on flood defences. To get to that kind of
:04:21. > :04:28.protection, we would be looking at 20, 50 times what we spend at the
:04:29. > :04:31.moment. But money is no object! It was a strange day today, because we
:04:32. > :04:35.were told yesterday that money was no object by David Cameron, and then
:04:36. > :04:42.this morning other ministers were saying, we are not writing a blank
:04:43. > :04:46.cheque. So money is no object, as long as people are bailing water out
:04:47. > :04:50.of their houses. But preparing for the next one? The front page of the
:04:51. > :04:56.Daily Telegraph says it is an unparalleled natural crisis. This is
:04:57. > :05:02.the age Chief of defence staff, who is helping coordinates the military
:05:03. > :05:08.involvement in this. Is that true? No, it is not true. I assume he
:05:09. > :05:15.means in Britain, firstly. But even if we take it in that context, there
:05:16. > :05:20.are at the moment 5800 homes flooded. In 2007, it was extra
:05:21. > :05:26.thousand. This is not unparalleled. We have had floods before and they
:05:27. > :05:30.have been worse. What is bad tonight is the winds. We are starting to see
:05:31. > :05:36.power lines go down, train services affected. But even if they damage
:05:37. > :05:42.buildings and power lines and, it is nothing compared to the flood damage
:05:43. > :05:49.that creates absolute havoc. Not only does it bring the water in, it
:05:50. > :05:52.destroys fields and homes. If we were looking at 60,000 people
:05:53. > :06:01.underwater, that would be almost unparalleled. But at the moment,
:06:02. > :06:03.there is a huge amount of water. We have seen pictures of the Somerset
:06:04. > :06:09.Levels, where water has reached the roof. There used to be a road, and
:06:10. > :06:13.it looks like an ocean. But it has not affected the same numbers of
:06:14. > :06:18.April as a few years ago. But this is forecast to go on until the end
:06:19. > :06:23.of March. For as long as the jet stream wants it to go on. But in
:06:24. > :06:31.1947, when there were floods, 200 thousand people -- 2000 people died.
:06:32. > :06:36.This is nothing on that scale. It is not an unparalleled natural crisis.
:06:37. > :06:41.I like the forecasters telling us that the storms are remaining for
:06:42. > :06:49.the foreseeable future. They just mean for a few weeks! Hopefully!
:06:50. > :06:53.Staying with the Daily Telegraph, the three main parties unite to deny
:06:54. > :06:56.a separate Scotland the pound. The Liberal Democrats, Labour and the
:06:57. > :07:01.Conservatives are as one on this. And every time they have been as one
:07:02. > :07:05.previously, it has gone wrong. They were as one on the European exchange
:07:06. > :07:10.rate mechanism, which went wrong. They were as one on the Iraq war and
:07:11. > :07:15.on intervention in Libya. They were not as one on the Iraq war. But the
:07:16. > :07:19.vote was pretty much unanimous. They were as one on intervention in
:07:20. > :07:24.Libya, which has now turned into one of the major terror training centres
:07:25. > :07:31.on earth. They were as one on the Leveson report. But what about the
:07:32. > :07:37.pound? Let's stick with that. They clearly do not think Scotland will
:07:38. > :07:39.work if it has the pound, or they don't feel the relationship they
:07:40. > :07:43.will have with an independent Scotland is what they would want. If
:07:44. > :07:47.they deny Scotland the right to have the pound, they are pretty much
:07:48. > :07:51.saying they all want Scotland to stay within the union. That is the
:07:52. > :07:54.one thing which might make people vote to stay in if you were
:07:55. > :07:59.otherwise wavering. If you don't have control of your own currency or
:08:00. > :08:03.have some impact upon a currency like the euro, it is like being in a
:08:04. > :08:06.car where someone else is controlling the brake and
:08:07. > :08:15.accelerator. It is aft. You want to have some impact upon your own
:08:16. > :08:19.currency. You can't have your cake and eat it. They want the pound, but
:08:20. > :08:27.they don't want the national debt. It is all up in the air. Is this
:08:28. > :08:32.lack male? That is what the SNP will say -- this is lack male. They have
:08:33. > :08:41.said this is bullying by Westminster. Somebody else and they
:08:42. > :08:45.are being bullied into accepting more independence. It is a step that
:08:46. > :08:48.none of the parties have taken so far, for a good reason, which is
:08:49. > :08:52.that they don't want to look like it is the powerful Westminster
:08:53. > :08:56.government telling the Scots they can't run themselves. I wonder if,
:08:57. > :09:01.in the last few weeks, the polls have started to close. There is more
:09:02. > :09:04.worried in Westminster that actually, the Scots might vote to go
:09:05. > :09:10.independent in September. Maybe they have thought, we have to press the
:09:11. > :09:12.big red button and warned them that they can still have something they
:09:13. > :09:17.can call the pound, but they can't share a currency and they can't make
:09:18. > :09:22.interest rate decisions. They would not have the same fiscal constraints
:09:23. > :09:25.they would have if they shared the pound and have a seat on the
:09:26. > :09:31.monetary policy committee at the Bank of England. It is a massive
:09:32. > :09:36.issue for Scots. They now have to say, what do we do? Create our own
:09:37. > :09:43.currency? Or do we join the Euro? Which used to be the SNP policy.
:09:44. > :09:47.They could return to bartering. Actually, there is a good case for
:09:48. > :09:49.them to have their own currency. If they are supposed to be an
:09:50. > :09:57.independent country, why not have their own central bank? If the SNP
:09:58. > :10:02.had any guts, I would say they would say, that is fine. Full independence
:10:03. > :10:05.means an independent currency. The Hubble is, they know that that
:10:06. > :10:08.worries people and their entire policy since they announced the
:10:09. > :10:14.referendum has been not to worry people. Onto the Financial Times.
:10:15. > :10:21.Rate rise unlikely before election, according to the Governor of the
:10:22. > :10:24.Bank of England. Forecast boosts Osborne's claims on the economy.
:10:25. > :10:28.This is because they Governor of the bank of England, Mark Carney, came
:10:29. > :10:32.across from Canada and said he would link fitting to a 7% rate of
:10:33. > :10:35.unemployment. When we hit at level, good times are here again and
:10:36. > :10:42.interest rate will go up and stop he has now said the opposite. I think
:10:43. > :10:45.this is because... He made his first announcement after one week in the
:10:46. > :10:51.job. While he has been here, he has realised the way we can unemployment
:10:52. > :10:54.in this country. Our figures include people in part-time work and people
:10:55. > :10:59.on zero hours contracts who are not necessarily earning. It includes
:11:00. > :11:02.people who have been sanctioned from their job-seeker's allowance at
:11:03. > :11:08.other benefits, who are not necessarily working. So he came over
:11:09. > :11:11.here from Canada, thinking, they are going to count the unemployment
:11:12. > :11:15.figures in a certain way, and I am going to base my entire policy on
:11:16. > :11:22.the way that is counted. But in fact, they did a switch and started
:11:23. > :11:32.counting unemployment differently. He has realised our unemployment
:11:33. > :11:38.figures are bogus. Easy! Is that fair? Not entirely! The policy was
:11:39. > :11:43.probably fairly nuts in the first place. Chris Charles, our economics
:11:44. > :11:48.editor, has said right from the beginning that this means nothing.
:11:49. > :11:51.We will get to 7% unemployment and then the Government will take a look
:11:52. > :11:55.at the economy and say, if everything else is in the right
:11:56. > :12:00.place, if people are getting wage increases, people are in full-time
:12:01. > :12:06.employment, then there will be a rates rise. Why did he say it? He
:12:07. > :12:15.wanted to give banks more certainty in the long run. He wanted to say,
:12:16. > :12:20.don't worry, it will be a long time before we raise rates again. But now
:12:21. > :12:23.we are wondering if they will move the goalposts again when some
:12:24. > :12:29.indicator does not fit the methods that he had. He is being a good
:12:30. > :12:34.banker, being cautious. It may be that unemployment would hit a
:12:35. > :12:38.certain level and then it would be OK, but having got here it is not a
:12:39. > :12:45.cave. The boom is not sustainable and could be temporary and we have
:12:46. > :12:50.to be cautious. -- having got here it is not OK. He is being a cautious
:12:51. > :12:53.man. The trouble is the Bank of England are talking about
:12:54. > :12:56.underemployment, the number of people in part-time work wanting to
:12:57. > :13:00.be working full-time. It is larger than they expected and it is not
:13:01. > :13:06.changing. Over the last few months, unemployment rates have gone down
:13:07. > :13:10.about underemployment rates are stable. People are going into work
:13:11. > :13:14.but only getting part-time jobs. Lots of people want to do more work
:13:15. > :13:18.but the work is not out there, which is the big worry. If businesses do
:13:19. > :13:22.not feel confident enough to employ people on a full-time basis, are
:13:23. > :13:27.they going to be strong enough to keep the recovery going next year?
:13:28. > :13:32.All right. You will be back to look at more stories on half an hour. At
:13:33. > :13:36.11 o'clock we will have much more on the ongoing problems with all the
:13:37. > :13:40.storms and bad weather today. But now an BBC News, time the Sportsday.