14/04/2014 The Papers

director. And we hear from the last Liverpool team to win the title, and

why he feels the race for the Premier League are still wide open.

That is in Sportsday in 15 minutes, after the papers. Hello and welcome

to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With

me are Pippa Crerar, City Hall editor at the London Evening

Standard, and Hugh Muir, diary editor of The Guardian. Tomorrow's

front pages, starting with: the Financial Times leads with the

crisis in the Ukraine. The paper says posturing by Moscow is

highlighting just how disunited the West is, in trying to deal with the

situation. George Osborne's Budget last month has failed to translate

into potential Tory votes according to the Guardian's latest poll. The

Metro leads with a warning by teachers that primary school

youngsters are being left like "ghosts" at school for long hours

because parents are too busy working. A warning from First Sea

Lord that Scottish Independence would damage the navy is the lead in

the Telegraph. More concern about the rising costs of housing is the

Express top story. The Mail front page features more allegations of a

Lib Dem cover up over the Cyril Smith scandal. The Independent

claims the NHS is facing a financial crisis as early as next year,

according to a report by a leading think tank. And the health service

is also the lead in the Mirror which turns it attention to patient care

in hospitals. We will start with the Telegraph. Threat if Scotland quits

UK. They have got the first Sea Lord, saying a yes vote would weaken

the defence of Scotland and the Navy. And we can put defence of the

country overall `` we can defence of the country overall `` weaken the

defence of the country overall. It is almost an appeal to the

romanticism of it all. Not to go ahead and do this, because of the

implications for defence. I'm not sure how much, how effective that is

going to be. I'm not sure that in all the arguments we will have about

the referendum, and the issues about Scotland, whether it says yes or

no, I'm not sure this will really cut through. There seems to be an

effort to push this. Defence has become a big part of this whole

debate. Is there a sense that the Better Together campaign has done

nothing but talk about what will be lost as a result of the breakup of

the union, rather than what will be gained by staying together? Rumack

this is a problem many have warned about for some time. It seems ``

this is a problem many have warned about for some time. It seems,

according to the secretary general's warnings last week that

the security of the whole country will be put at terrible risk if

Scotland becomes independent. It is a series of negative headlines. I

think, actually, the significance of this cannot be overstated. This is

yet another warning. Dire warning, Scots, your life will be terrible.

Your security will be under threat, at your economy will collapse, if

you go independent. I think it is working. I think that Alex Salmond

has consistently been scaremongering. That has up until

this point not had that much traction. It is now gaining

traction. Many people in Scotland who are not necessarily in favour of

an independent Scotland, are getting fed up with being dictated to by

Westminster and told that things will fall apart if we go

independent. There is a strong argument for self`determination.

Many people are really starting to feel, it is a powerful phenomenon

when you feel excluded and separated from what is going on at

Westminster. It seems very far away. It's difficult to know how it could

have been played differently. In a way, Scotland has the easier task.

It is a romantic argument they can put forward. And they are trying to

counter that with a very pragmatic argument. One will always be more

appealing than the other. Maybe that is why they're relying so heavily on

the dangers. You have to hope there is a bit of the other side as well.

David Cameron will have been warned that he needs the English to

convince the Scots. He can't, but you can get others to do it for him.

UK draws battle lines on nuclear weapons, trying to stay longer a yes

vote. Again, if you say yes to independents, what Alex Salmond says

will come to pass will not happen. `` to independence. This is a speech

being given tomorrow. In the same speech, he makes remarks about

nothing being off limit with regards to negotiations. Nothing is cut and

dry. One MP said last week that negotiations for a yes vote... Or

that seems not to be what is happening here. It is always one of

those totem issues rather than more substantive. What is interesting is

the tone and the fact that the Cabinet minister suggesting that

there might be more to... More room to manoeuvre. Is there a sense that

the Scots have realised the jig is up? That membership of the European

Union, Trident, all of that is up for discussion, and is not as cut

and dried as the Better Together Campaign suggest. Do they suspect it

is all bluster for the debate? We have a story a few days ago about

the currency, saying the argument was not cut and dry. The government

found that alarming. It was in their interest to say it was. They do have

a credibility problem. That is why the warnings, they can either

recalibrate it and make a campaign which is more optimistic, which can

get more `` Audette more and more apocalyptic `` or get. The front

page of the Scotsman, with the Defence Secretary, they might be

related. It is really important for both parties. That's the thing. If

it is a yes vote, and Scotland goes independent, I don't see how David

Cameron can survive. An English MP has always been careful about

getting too involved. But can they take Labour in Scotland for granted?

Suddenly labour will be in a position where they cannot win a

general election again. George III went mad. Maybe that is not the

right president. Ukraine calls for UN peacekeepers. Members here of the

pro` Russia mob storming a police station. I wonder what the West can

do. More sanctions perhaps, but that is really not going to have an

effect, is it? Or Mac problem we not. The West is in a quandary ``

probably not. The West is in a quandary. As we were saying earlier,

the big problem is that no one quite knows Russia's endgame, and whether

there is a desire for more territory to be brought back into the fold.

And whether it is more than muscle flexing. Whether it has a strategic

dynamic. Further than his backyard. Until they get their head around

exactly what is going on there, it will be very difficult for anyone to

actually take action which will have any impact on Moscow. You have a

sense of world leaders playing the time. Don't really know what to do

about Vladimir Putin so they are just playing for time to sit down

and work it out. To worked their way through it. They don't really know

how to handle that. They don't know his endgame, I don't know that any

of the world leaders can say they have spoken to him and have a sense

of how his mind works. Until they can do that, until they can get a

sense of where he is going and why he is doing it, they are playing

catch up. We will stay with that... We will go to the Metro actually.

The ghost children. Moves to elongate the school day. This shows

that phenomenon. At its most extreme, ten hours a day at school.

Of course, it is a difficult issue. Parents have two work. The way the

economy is, you have to work. And what you do about your children?

Many will leave their children at school for these long school days.

Can schools cope with that? Are their resources to make sure that

people are being looked after for those long days? There's an argument

about whether children at four should be in school at all? You look

at most countries, like the United States, where formal education

begins at six. You then say, are you talking about a formal school

environment, or being away from home, as being a problem. And then

what about working parents? Because 9am to 5pm is currently not a long

working day. If you have to commit an hour at either end of the day,

you suddenly need to find care for your children from 8am to 6pm. How

else can parents, when you consider that in London, ?14,000 a year for a

nursery place is standard. How can you possibly afford that? London has

the highest rate of mothers not returning to work in the country,

because of the cost of childcare. You can understand the appeal of

breakfast clubs and after`school clubs, which are much cheaper. You

can also see why schools might be wary. Because they are required to

step up and put on this extra provision, without resources.

Teachers might ask about having to work these extra days, and they may

end up like ghosts. This is an arresting headline in the Mirror.

Stay the night in a hospital, and you are more likely to die. Yes,

they have investigated and the upshot is that 59% of nurses on

night shifts are unable to deliver copper care because of cuts. It is

not in terms of their relationship with the government. They have gone

big on it. Politically, the NHS is a hot potato, always is coming up to

the election. You will read some of this, and no one will be

particularly surprised, they talk about the best and worst times to be

in hospital in terms of level of care. We will see more of this

overcoming months. Every other in we love to talk about this. In some

ways, it is politically toxic. Going on to The Independent. Financial

crisis in 2015. Like the story in the Mirror, is this a surprise? We

are always hearing about the dire financial straits of NHS trusts. No

political party wants to make dramatic cuts. The electorate have a

strong emotional bond with the NHS. We all love it. No one wants to take

the axe to it. But can it go on growing irrespective? Can we go on

throwing money at new treatments and new drugs as patient expectations

increase? We were talking about this earlier, and suggested middle

management was the answer. Cut back on them. If you decentralise the

system, you by definition need good managers. That has been a problem

for the NHS. At least with centralisation you have a level of

central expertise to rely on. You don't have that in a de` centred NHS

Trust. They are being left to their own devices and getting into

trouble. You can't take it back and renationalise it, and no government

would want to do that. That is what is apparent. These kinds of

statistics and financial crises, and it happens again and again and

again. This government does not have an ants are two square that circle.

According to the happy captain dependent, the next government must

choose between cuts and extra spending. `` according to The