:00:00. > :00:00.ahead of their first match of the tournament against New Zealand on
:00:00. > :00:20.Saturday. Welcome to our look ahead to what
:00:21. > :00:25.the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With me are the political
:00:26. > :00:30.editor of the Sun on Sunday and the financial commentator Louise Cook.
:00:31. > :00:33.As you can imagine, the Budget is dumb and 80 many of them. The
:00:34. > :00:41.Financial Times says the Chancellor's reforms to tension is a
:00:42. > :00:50.revolution. `` the Chancellor's reforms to pensions is a revolution.
:00:51. > :01:00.The Telegraph says George Osborne has placed savers at the heart of
:01:01. > :01:09.the economic recovery. The Metro has a more traditional tabloid look and
:01:10. > :01:12.feel about it. The Daily Mirror does not lead on the Budget, it focuses
:01:13. > :01:18.on the new lead in the Madeleine McCann case. The Guardian is calling
:01:19. > :01:22.the Budget a blatant attempt by the Conservatives to stem defections to
:01:23. > :01:29.UKIP. We can have a nutter about that one, without a doubt. The Daily
:01:30. > :01:33.Telegraph, Louise, the fact is, savers and pensioners, they have
:01:34. > :01:39.paid an additional price, haven't they, for the Government's attempts
:01:40. > :01:45.to cut the deficit and deal with the economic problems, because of low
:01:46. > :01:51.interest rates? Savers have borne a very large cost. As we know, five
:01:52. > :01:56.years ago, interest rates were cut 20.5%. For the first couple of years
:01:57. > :02:06.in the crisis, inflation was running substantially above that. `` cut to
:02:07. > :02:11..5%. So you were actually getting hit in terms of the purchasing power
:02:12. > :02:17.of your money, year`on`year. Within the first 60 seconds, Osborne had
:02:18. > :02:21.mentioned saver, savour and savour, but we did not get the details until
:02:22. > :02:31.the very end. It was his grand finale. Interestingly, last year was
:02:32. > :02:36.all about house`buying, the house buyer, and this year it is all about
:02:37. > :02:40.the saver. And David? Pensioners, of course. One of the big problem is
:02:41. > :02:44.that they have suffered over the years, and savers in general, is
:02:45. > :02:48.that interest rates have been so low. While it has been good for the
:02:49. > :02:52.borrowers, and let's be honest, borrowing is what has put the
:02:53. > :02:56.country is in this mess, it might be good for growth, but people who are
:02:57. > :03:03.saving for retirement, particularly those in their 50s, 15 years away
:03:04. > :03:06.from retirement, do not know what to do with their money. Saving it is
:03:07. > :03:12.not a good option at the moment. Though this might give some added
:03:13. > :03:16.incentive. The Daily Telegraph, its readers tend to be slightly older
:03:17. > :03:20.and so on, so, if you have got money that you want to put in and I say,
:03:21. > :03:25.you can put more money into that now, and you can mix it up with
:03:26. > :03:30.shares all`cash, one or the other? Yes, he has announced lots of things
:03:31. > :03:37.for savers. He has said you can put ?15 a year `` ?15,000 a year into
:03:38. > :03:46.ISAs. He also announced a pension bond, with up to 4% interest. The
:03:47. > :03:52.key thing, as you said earlier, was the reform to the pension industry,
:03:53. > :03:57.which came as a massive shock to the financial services industry. Some of
:03:58. > :04:01.the stock price reactions are quite dramatic. Legal and general, it is
:04:02. > :04:07.as enormous company, its stock price was down 9%. Essentially, what
:04:08. > :04:12.Osborne is saying is, you have saved for your pension all your life, you
:04:13. > :04:16.can make the decision as to what you want to do with it. In the past, you
:04:17. > :04:22.have been forced to buy annuities, which, with interest rates at .5%,
:04:23. > :04:27.you have been absolutely screwed. If you have retired over the last five
:04:28. > :04:30.years, you have been screwed by this .5% interest rate. Now, finally, you
:04:31. > :04:35.can choose what you want to do with your money. You can buy a house if
:04:36. > :04:39.you want to and went it out, you can keep your money in the stock market.
:04:40. > :04:44.You can choose what to do with your pension pot, and that is a very,
:04:45. > :04:47.very big change. Clearly from the stock price reactions from some of
:04:48. > :04:51.the big pension providers, the view is, they have made a lot of money
:04:52. > :04:56.out of the fact that you have had no choice. Interestingly, it used to be
:04:57. > :04:59.the case that we had no idea what was in the little red box when the
:05:00. > :05:06.Chancellor came out, but now, of course, we get titbits. This, on
:05:07. > :05:09.pensions, that could not be leaked. That would have completely messed
:05:10. > :05:15.things up for the insurance companies. They kept a big lid on it
:05:16. > :05:23.this year. One job I have to do is to try to get the leaks. I got quite
:05:24. > :05:27.a bit right. But nobody got a sniff of the pensions. I was getting some
:05:28. > :05:31.people from certain industries ringing me, texting me last night,
:05:32. > :05:37.as late as this morning, asking me, have I got a sniff of what was
:05:38. > :05:42.happening in their particular field? And nobody knew. Louise was
:05:43. > :05:46.talking about stocks and shares going up. I'll tell you who's stock
:05:47. > :05:51.has gone up today, that of George Osborne. There is a piece in the
:05:52. > :05:58.Telegraph, which says, an improving Chancellor. If you turn the clock
:05:59. > :06:04.back two years to the Omni shambles, it was a disaster. George's stock
:06:05. > :06:07.went through the floor, he was regarded as a no hope Chancellor,
:06:08. > :06:11.the pasty tax and everything. Now, he is growing in confidence. He is
:06:12. > :06:23.leaving going out once a week and meeting people! I hear the reason it
:06:24. > :06:25.was kept so quiet was that essentially, it is inside
:06:26. > :06:34.information. Regarding the stock price, if you did that, there could
:06:35. > :06:40.be criminal charges. Moving onto the Guardian, you talked, David, about
:06:41. > :06:44.Mr Osborne's stock going up. Attention, he would say, and the
:06:45. > :06:52.Tory half of the coalition would hope, that all their stock is up,
:06:53. > :06:55.with the election next year. Hence the Budget being aimed at older
:06:56. > :07:02.people, savers and pensioners, people who vote. Is that what the
:07:03. > :07:08.photo is about? I thought it was a printing error. What I want to know
:07:09. > :07:21.is what you would have to vote to go back to blonde again. That is what I
:07:22. > :07:24.want to know. Now, this is an attempt to get back some of the core
:07:25. > :07:30.Conservative vote who have fled to UKIP. They are the people, probably
:07:31. > :07:35.in their 50s, who are fed up with the Conservative Party and David
:07:36. > :07:40.Cameron generally. And verily holding this out. It is also savers,
:07:41. > :07:44.as we said, younger people saving up, those who want ISAs, those
:07:45. > :07:49.coming up to retirement, and those who are retired. He is giving savers
:07:50. > :07:56.the chance to claw the moneyback. So, we have got a guaranteed
:07:57. > :08:00.referendum, 2017, under the Tories, pensioners have been helped, savers
:08:01. > :08:06.have been helped, he has sorted it out, hasn't he, as far as his base
:08:07. > :08:11.is concerned? The trouble is, he has so little fiscal room to move. This
:08:12. > :08:18.is the problem. It still lasted 15 minutes, however long it was, but he
:08:19. > :08:25.did not actually say that much `` 50 minutes `` in terms of impact on the
:08:26. > :08:30.economy. That is Labour's point. The government is so indebted, he cannot
:08:31. > :08:36.do very much. And so, there was quite a lot of typical rallying
:08:37. > :08:40.cries, Thatcher rallying cries, it is your money, we will give it to
:08:41. > :08:44.you. Attach any, many Tory backbenchers want him to cut
:08:45. > :08:50.spending a lot faster and to cut taxes. `` actually. But he is not in
:08:51. > :08:55.the position to be able to do it. So, the Thatcher rallying cries may
:08:56. > :09:01.have been there, but the debt position is dire and remains dire.
:09:02. > :09:08.The bottom of the front page of the Financial Times also talking about
:09:09. > :09:13.pensions revolution, with Osborne wooing the silver haired, and the
:09:14. > :09:18.savers. At the bottom, he says, a totem for Thatcher's ageing
:09:19. > :09:23.children. This idea that it is about you having control of your pension,
:09:24. > :09:26.being able to save more. You are the agent of your own destiny,
:09:27. > :09:30.basically. One wonders why Thatcher did not have this revolution, or
:09:31. > :09:36.even Tony Blair, who apparently was advised to have these pension
:09:37. > :09:42.changes? Well, to me, it shows the lack of financial knowledge, that
:09:43. > :09:45.nobody could get out a financial calculator and work out the damage
:09:46. > :09:53.to annuity rates done by .5% interest rates and ?370 billion of
:09:54. > :09:57.QE. Anybody who has retired in the last five years has bought an
:09:58. > :10:01.annuities at rates which are unheard`of, which means that their
:10:02. > :10:10.pension is affected for ever. They have bought that annuity, end of.
:10:11. > :10:14.You are done. And so, to me, they could have done with some financial
:10:15. > :10:19.brains in there, going, if we are cutting rates 2.5%, then the people
:10:20. > :10:22.who are really going to get shafted is those retiring right now. This
:10:23. > :10:28.should have been done as soon as the rates were cut. It wasn't, it has
:10:29. > :10:31.taken them five years. I am really sorry for anybody out there who has
:10:32. > :10:39.retired in the last five years. Because now, you would not have to
:10:40. > :10:45.buy an annuity. One person sent in an e`mail question ` can it be
:10:46. > :10:51.retrospectively applied? It can't. We were talking about going grey and
:10:52. > :11:00.pensions. It's ` the "grey vote" is more likely to turn out. 76% of over
:11:01. > :11:05.65s voted in the last election. This is clearly a vote`winning strategy.
:11:06. > :11:11.This is clearly... It is. This is clearly, you know, savers ` I said `
:11:12. > :11:15.I predicted help for savers. I thought it might come through
:11:16. > :11:19.monetary policy ` interest rates are going to go up before the general
:11:20. > :11:27.election rather than this. There was no chance of that. It could still
:11:28. > :11:31.happen. He knew he had to do something for the savers. It looks
:11:32. > :11:41.like he's done it through fiscal policy. Let's go on to the Metro. In
:11:42. > :11:53.the pub landlord did budgets, Osborne rewards... LAUGHTER This is
:11:54. > :12:01.a traditional tabloid red top ` blue top in this case. He did talk about
:12:02. > :12:06.scrapping above`inflation rises for wine, freezing duty on whisky ` a
:12:07. > :12:12.boost for the Scottish economy. He called it a great British export!
:12:13. > :12:16.Indeed. Cut beer tax by 1p. Indeed, Mr Grant Shapps of the Conservative
:12:17. > :12:32.Party, he put out a tweet this evening and he said, "Budget 2014 `
:12:33. > :12:37.cuts ` bingo, and beer tax." The implication for some people is is
:12:38. > :12:42.that all hard`working people interested in ` beer and bingo?
:12:43. > :12:46.Grant Shapps is trying to show he is a man of the people! I don't think I
:12:47. > :12:52.have seen him with a bingo pen in his hand. I did tweet an Al Murray
:12:53. > :12:59.line ` a glass of wine for the lady. Some of my Twitter followers didn't
:13:00. > :13:03.get it was an Al Murray joke. Clearly, as far as savers are
:13:04. > :13:07.concerned, pensioners, it seems like it is good news. The devil is in the
:13:08. > :13:11.detail. That is what the Labour Party are saying. This stuff on
:13:12. > :13:15.bingo and beer and wine and that kind of stuff, is that an obvious
:13:16. > :13:21.attempt to rope in another section of society? Let's not underestimate
:13:22. > :13:25.this. Yeah. A lot of people do enjoy a pint. They do have their
:13:26. > :13:29.cigarettes and cigarettes did go up 23p, I think it was. Still above
:13:30. > :13:33.inflation. They do have their pleasures in life. These little
:13:34. > :13:42.things are important. People look out for that. You can't
:13:43. > :13:47.underestimate that. I would say there were a lot of frivolities like
:13:48. > :13:52.the cut in bingo hall tax, but in terms of the British economy and the
:13:53. > :13:56.big picture, how much wealth we generate, that is irrelevant. When
:13:57. > :14:02.we are so indebted, he can't do that much. Let's get back to what Ed
:14:03. > :14:06.Miliband and why he has been so successful ` the cost of living
:14:07. > :14:11.crisis. Everybody is feeling the squeeze as wages are going down, or
:14:12. > :14:17.being frozen and the cost of living is going up. That's why knocking a
:14:18. > :14:22.penny off a pint hits you directly, or people can feel the benefit and
:14:23. > :14:25.understand that. A lot of people don't understand the fiscal big
:14:26. > :14:28.picture and growth. Growth means nothing to a lot of people unless
:14:29. > :14:33.they can feel it in their pocket. That will be the central issue when
:14:34. > :14:40.it comes to the election. You will be back in an hour's time. Stay with
:14:41. > :14:54.us for that. So, here, now on BBC News, it is time for Sportsday.
:14:55. > :14:58.Hello and welcome to Sportsday ` I'm John Watson. On the way this
:14:59. > :15:01.evening: Relief for David Moyes, as
:15:02. > :15:02.Manchester United qualify for the quarterfinals of