18/03/2014 The Papers

We'll have the latest on England's preparations for the World Twenty20

in Bangladesh in Sportsday in 15 minutes, after the papers.

Hello there and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow. The Westminster editor for the Daily

Record and the Asssistant p editor of the Spectator join me. The

Financial Times leads with Mark Carney's shake`up at the Bank of

England as he warns that risks are building in the housing market. The

Daily Telegraph has calls for senior MPs of the 2022 World Cup to be

rerun. The Met row says tensions boiled over when a soldier and

militiamen were gunned down by Russian forces. More on that story

in The Guardian `` the Met the Metro. D militiamen were gunned down

by Russian forces. More on that story in The Guardian `` the Metro.

We'll talk about Mick Jagger's heartbreak after his girlfriend

reportedly commits suicide. Exactly 60 years this year Russia

lost Crimea or rather it was handed over to Ukraine? Yes, here we are at

the stroke of a pen and within three weeks, with the assistance of some

soldier, Russia's annex add territory in Europe, the first time

it's been done since before the Second World War. The Guardian

states the imperial scene of the Russian President coming to address

the Kremlin and really being quite furious claiming Russia's been

cheated again and again with decisions being taken behind their

back, reeling against the West, claiming that this wasn't Russian

aggression that, there had been no shots fire and no casualties. That

didn't last long because the Crimean soldier lost his life. Obviously,

for Russia, this is no turning back. Half way through the story, it flips

to show the scene in the West with William Hague in the House of

Commons warning of consequences. Exactly. Isabelle, twhes and

principally the European Union and America have been outflanked again

by Mr Putin. We saw it happen on the situation in Syria and it's

continuing to happen with Syria `` the west and principally the

European Union. The response to the sanctions has been derice i, the

sanctions make no difference at all and have probably been part of

Putin's calculations all along and have probably been something he can

weather. The debate today, Sir Malcolm Rifkind gave a forceful,

disapproving speech. He was warning Europe that actually failing to act

even if it's in a way that costs European countries something, will

cost Europe as a community far more in the long`term.

Yes, sanctions themselves have consequences as well, Europe fears

that. Exactly. But there is a School of Thought suggesting you didn't

want to be too hard with the sangtions going in at the beginning

because if you were really hard, that might push pew into going

further town the east. Is there credence in that do you think? ``

push Putin into going further. The G8 mean pollutely nothing to him, in

fact they are part of the calculation he's made, he doesn't

really care. Rifkind said today Putin needs feel the hurt of these

sanctions on the Russian economy that. Might mean European economies

taking a bit of a hit as well. The Russian population can take a

far hit than the Soft western populations. Putin is running this

to his own timetable. He says he's not going to go any further. We

don't want to see Ukraine split up any more, he says. Should we believe

him? He's obviously not going to announce plans to have tanks rolling

further into Ukraine or anything like that, but what he'd be more

likely to do would be to talk about protecting the population at risk,

as he devoid Crimea. If there's any m un unrest, he'd be licking his

lips hoping that would happen, that would be the way. I liked the line

last week that if she's worried about Russian minorities, why

doesn't he protect them in Chelsea. Exactly. Let's stay with The

Guardian actually. There's a strange picture of a new coin coming into

circulation. The Queen was apparently told about it this

evening, in the last couple of hours by the chance, will and it would be

a big announcement in the budget tomorrow? The exciting overnight

briefing for budget tomorrow. We are getting a new pound coin which is an

anti`forgery pound coin with 12 signed two colours and looks

suspiciously like a euro actually. You wonder whether there's something

big being stored back for tomorrow's budget announcement. I don't Kneen

undermine Osborne's excitement about the new pound coin, but it's not

exactly the sort of thing people will be leaping in the streets with

excitement about saying this will solve all of my problems `` I don't

mean to undermine Osborne's excitement.

It's actually a sort of gold and slightly less gold rabbit and the

point is that it's to make it more difficult to forming? Yes, twost

metals, 12`sided. `` it's two metals, 12 sided.

The pound is 30 years old. He's getting rid of it with a look over

his shoulder because it's a nostalgic look. The thriftny bit was

popular during the blitz because you could feel nit your pocket. If Putin

turps the gas off, we might want to do that again in the blackout. This

isn't good enough for you, this announcement tomorrow? The

threepenny bit coming back, it's not the kind of thing you want to hear

in a budget, you want more? It's easy for Labour to say Osborne's

changing the shape of the pound coin but that doesn't may doesn't may any

difference to the family who is have however many less hundreds of pounds

in their pockets. Labour are going to drum on about this because they

know people are hurting and feeling it. Osborne will say the economy's

growing, that in the next quarter we'll be back to 2008 rates of gold,

that wages will have gone up higher than prices this year, but go tell

that to the marines. Nobody feels that in their pockets. OK, on to the

Daily Telegraph. It is suggesting, down bottom, don't blow Britain's

recovery by borrowing too much, from the Governor of the Bank of England,

Mark Carney. He is saying that his policy, his policy of keeping

interest rates at record lows should not mean people go out and splash

the cash. That sounds bizarre, that Tess the whole point of having a low

interest rate policy? This is the problem with the low interest rate

policy is that it's incentivised people to borrow and it's punished

savers. It's a little strange that rather than changing the incentives,

the Governor's saying we know this is very attractive to borrow at low

cost bus please don't do it and hoping Brits will be obedient, while

at the same time overseeing the Help To Buy policy which encourages

borrowing. At 95%. But he's the bank manage, he has to say don't borrow.

I like this guy, he can't stay away from the news vent, he has to put

his oar in. He put it into the Scottish independence issue. He's

advising us and warning against excessive risk taking by households

on financial traders requests rs "requests. I wonder how the words

will go down with Neil Trotter, the guy who's just won ?108 million.

Yes. He won't need borrow anything. He won't be holding back. He'll be

splashing the cash somewhat. The suggestion has been made that

perhaps Canadians with lots of low interest rates swirling around them

wouldn't splash the cash the way that perhaps we are, we are just a

Professorially Kate bunch and Mr Karni's `` Carney Reiterating that

point? There's one interesting thing about this. He's had to adjust to

the way his interventions are read. He's often read as being more

political than previous governors, perhaps because he's not used to the

way things are going to be interpreted. When he steps in and

says something that's helpful to Osborne and not Miliband

necessarily, it's read as being partisan. That's your fault isn't

it? ! Politicians are used to being

careful. Know the lie of the land. Maybe he does have to make, tune his

dialogue down. Onto the Daily Express. UKIP's U`turn on gay

marriage. It's pretty straightforward, what he's saying,

there needs no calibration. There he's going against a policy that has

been forefront and centre for UKIP for some time. Thnchts may pb a you

are `` This may be a surprise for Daily Express leaders. UKIP

distinguishing itself by being outside the mainstream consensus on

almost everything. It's a story from the pink paper, from a Q he did

from pink news. Picked up on it then. Yes, they have. He has been

asked if he would go back on gay marriage. He said no. It's an

interesting signal. It's Farage mainstreaming hisself. He always

said `` himself. He always said he would do that. It's a test for him

as well. He's a leader. He's having to lead his party now. Follow me.

Some may not feel that comfortable with. It that's what successful

leaders do. It's upsetting for some people. It's a bold thing to do

ahead of European elections. There are some UKIP voters who are UKIP

partly because they believe in the past and they don't see of the other

parties representing that. For him to say that they wouldn't repeal gay

marriage is a break with that. And also a certain amount of honesty.

UKIP pitches itself as a Libertarian party. That's been a contradiction,

you are can't be a Libertarian party that opposes gay marriage. Perhaps

he's trying to make UKIP more grown up at a costly time for him. He

wants to get the best result possible in the European elections.

This may upset some of the natural voters. He wants to make UKIP

attractive to voters. The majority of voters do not oppose gay

marriage. That's what most politicians want to do. He may have

a problem pulling some members of the party with him. Where else can

they go? He won't have a problem with the wider population. He's on

the march. Onto the Daily Record. "I want to be the next First Minister",

the Deputy First Minister making her pitch. One assumes she would be the

heir apparent any way. There is no vacancy. Exactly. But there is an

inheritance strategy. Whenever Alex Salmond appears on his helicopter,

the first person to greet him is the heir apparent Nicola Sturgeon. They

work as an effective team in the Scottish Parliament and referendum

campaign. He's ready and willing to do it when the time comes. She wants

to be Queen Nick is what they say. It's exactly six months to the day

to the vote in September. How are the polls looking? The polls are

tight. It looks like it's going to be a tight result. The last poll was

in the Daily Record last week, which had if I remember rightly, no ` 39,

sorry, let me get this right. Now that is a story. Yes, 39. No 48.

That's the way it was. If you strip away the don't knows, obviously I

sound a bit undecided myself there! It's 45, 55, in favour of staying in

the UK. There's six months to go. It's tight. It's a big task to turn

around that kind of lead. But they're a capable team. Indeed, the

suggestion is that Mr Salmond is the kind of man that people will follow

in the way that Nigel Farage hopefully feels that he can be that

kind of person for his party. The race has tightened a little bit.

Yes, and you see the Westminster parties trying to work out what

their offer is. You had Scottish Labour today setting out its

devolution offer if Scotland doesn't vote to go independent, which

includes devolving more powers on welfare, for instance. Now Labour

was given a scare by the SNP on the bedroom tax, which it eventually,

after a campaign by the Record, decided to back repeeling. We will

be back in an hour's time. Many thanks for that. Stay with us here,

at the top of the hour we have much more on the situation in Ukraine.

But now, it's time for Sportsday. Hello. Welcome to Sportsday. Here's

what's on the way tonight: Chelsea march on in Europe as they cruise

into the quarter finals of the Champions League.

David Moyes is defiant, as he faces questions over his Manchester United

future. And England