fiufigfifi lflrr—m err coronavirus budget. budget billions to beat the virus is on the daily mail, talking about a 600 million pounds boost for infrastructure projects. virus sufferers given bra kes projects. virus sufferers given brakes on their mortgages amid fears that the virus will plunge the uk into recession. in the times, the health minister nadine dorries is diagnosed with the virus and is now in isolation. she has met hundreds of people in parliament and been at number ten with the prime minister. and something different in the mirror. the parole board is set to considerfreeing jon mirror. the parole board is set to consider freeing jon venables. there is no doubting the two big stories dominating the papers today and the two of them are sort of interwoven, really. let's start with the front page of the financial times. an

extraordinary pictures of the steps in rome there. one of the premier tourist attractions in an amazing city totally deserted. there are a couple of people on the edge of it, but it looks like a ghost town. that is what happens when you quarantine an entire country and when you tell people they can't move around, it seems that they actually obey it, as we have seen from italy today. interesting that the financial implications which i starting to be felt there. if you stop economic activity happening, you are guaranteeing economic recession for your country is not a depression. rome is talking about a package, mortgage payments, really dramatic stuff. the question is, is italy where the rest of european countries are going to go? mass quarantine, economic stimulus to keep the

country working? we will be looking at this and thinking, is this as in at this and thinking, is this as in a few weeks‘ time? at this and thinking, is this as in a few weeks' time? we are also thinking about the fallout. you might be isolating a country that in terms of how globalisation works, you cannot shut down a country and then not see a ripple effect across then not see a ripple effect across the supply chains. that is what we saw when they shutdown the supply chains. that is what we saw when they shut down the north of italy to start with. that is an important industrial hub that serves germany and france. many important factories in other countries. what you see is an example of what might come to other countries, but you do feel those economic effects starting to spill out. lets go to the guardian which marries those two stories. the budget and coronavirus. some of the detail about how measures in the uk to tackle the virus are interesting. the treasury has been spinning furiously tonight trying to get out the message that there will be a lot of spending on

measures to deal with coronavirus. more spending on the health service as you would expect, lots of talk about mechanisms similar to italy about mechanisms similar to italy about how to try and help get over the hunt. if people do have two self—isolate and they can't go to their job, self—isolate and they can't go to theirjob, however self—isolate and they can't go to their job, however they self—isolate and they can't go to theirjob, however they going to pay theirjob, however they going to pay their mortgage? they will be a lot on that. they also want to make it clear of their levelling up agenda, the £600 billion figure in all the papers. they have done theirjob there, the treasury, is getting that message across. they will be this huge stimulus effort to try and level up the country, but they do not want that message to be lost amidst the countermeasures to coronavirus. you think these details have been given out today. would you agree with that, that they want to... ? they would always press release so that the narrative of the next day fits with the budget. there

is an unusual amount of detail being given. they were sending it out without embargo earlier in the day to make sure that it catches traffic and does not get lost in the coronavirus noise. if you look at how they've tried to convey the messages to the media, i think there isa messages to the media, i think there is a real fear that this, which was sort of to be the rebuilding of the country after brexit, is there. downing street have admitted that the nhs iii downing street have admitted that the nhs 111 online service has been giving wrong advice to travellers returning from italy. we, in fact, had eight young people and her —— a young child and her mother who were given conflicting advice. 0nto the mail, budget billions to beat the

virus. what i find interesting about some of these headlines is the big number, the £600 billion. we have been working out how that breaks down. they have got a fiscal rule that says they can't spend over 3% of gdp. that adds up to about £60 billion, so where have they got this figure from? is its smoke and mirrors, have they done something iffy with inflation, not adjusting the figures? everyone is asking how they got to this big figure. it will all be revealed tomorrow. the smoke and mirrors, if there are any, will be dismantled and we will see what is going on. it is a strange thing at the moment if we look at what the forces are playing with those calculations. budget normally has to go through a watchdog to the figures. because of the impact of coronavirus, all of these figures will be out of date. you have things like, borrowing costs have fallen by

gdp costs have also fallen. working out the figures right now is incredibly difficult. these huge market shifts we have seen over the next few days have very real world ramifications in terms of how affordable this big figure might be. it isa affordable this big figure might be. it is a very difficult thing to put together. a detail in this male figure about footfall having half in restaurants and high streets, uk hospitality. when you are dealing with a big drop in economic activity, it is really difficult to work out what these figures will be. already we are going into it with slow growth, that is a very big shock to the economy. white backed let's go to the front page of the telegraph. —— virus sufferers getting a break from their mortgages. an attempt to soft in the economic blow. i can see both sides

of it here. what is happening is a big public information exercise to try and offer some comfort to people who have mortgages to know that there is compassion built into the system. it makes sense for banks because they are more likely to get repayments because they are more likely to get re payments if they because they are more likely to get repayments if they don't come down to hard on people missing a couple. already baked into them in most jurisdictions is some kind of forbearance close. if you were to suddenly full on hard times of face ill— health and struggle suddenly full on hard times of face ill—health and struggle to meet repayments, ill—health and struggle to meet re payments, you would ill—health and struggle to meet repayments, you would already be able to get some compassion for your banks and some leniency. what is different here is that the systemic banks gathered together by the treasury, they have thought about how they can share a message to say, don't panic too much. what they are trying to do is introduce come into the system. people might be a bit confused by the reporting which makes it sound like it is a new

thing. what is new is that banks are being very clear about it and offering some comfort at a grander level, but it is not new. white back let's go over to the other story on the front page of the telegraph, which is more specifically about the budget and about rishi sunak's £600 billion. one or two possibly eye—catching measures that have been announced. you could say that. the bridge and tunnel between scotland and northern ireland which boris johnson was talking about. the telegraph suggests this is something which may be earmarked out of this capital expenditure part. i would ta ke capital expenditure part. i would take that with a little bit of caution at the moment, obviously. 0ne caution at the moment, obviously. one of the interesting things about this budget is that we have learned that they are not going to say, all these projects are going to be funded tomorrow. that was the original plan. they have put it off.

not sure why that is. maybe rishi sunak has come in and decided he wa nts to ru n sunak has come in and decided he wants to run his eye over them himself before signing them off. it could be an argument about the fiscal rules and what they can actually fit in there. i do not think we are going to get this bridge, this tunnel, this road funded tomorrow. we will get the broader envelope, which is where this £600 billion is coming from. white back back to the financial times which, as you would expect, the main story is on the budget. massively and borrowing, it says. the treasury is no longer focused on cutting public debt levels with ministers now at the forefront of international thinking on public finances. i think it is more that in the wake of the financial crisis, people see us as having this

uncontrollable international debt. the only way was to try and dramatically cut back the spending oi'i dramatically cut back the spending on things like welfare. in the last few years, you have had a change in narrative. in 2017, in the autumn of that year, theresa may said that this was going to be the end of austerity. we have been talking about the end of austerity ever since. everybody wants to deliver the budget that ends austerity. the big leap in borrowing shows that there is this change in attitude and perhaps a more relaxed attitude in having a slightly higher ratio of debt to gdp. as i touched on earlier, it is very difficult to know exactly what that is going to look like when you have got borrowing costs changing very rapidly in the financial markets, potentially going down. we really do not know how affordable anything is at the moment because it is so hard to know what the real state of the public finances are. got a little

bit of time left. i want to join your attention to the cartoon in the telegraph, which is not much to laugh about with coronavirus, but this is pretty funny, isn't it? i know this is the cheltenham festival, i'm working from home. the horse on the treadmill. a lot of people will be working from home for the first time. going into the weeks and months ahead, will this signal a major shift in the way that we worked after this crisis is over perspective is this proof that home—working, remote working works for companies? if it works, why don't we do it again because may be people's quality—of—life will be better if people do not have to commute. not everybody can do that. but maybe this will change the way that we were in future. white back we will find out. then, anna, thank you very much indeed. then anna will

be back at half past 11 to look at the papers. you can see the front pages of the paper online. it is all there at the website. if you miss there at the website. if you miss the programme any evening, you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you both very much again. hello there. the next few days will turn cooler and more showery. today, we had the warmest day of the year so far but at the same time we saw the number of flood warnings in england and wales increasing. this is all that is left of the earlier rain. it is patchy rain and drizzle sinking down to sit in the english channel later. here is the showery weather coming into scotland and northern ireland. very much wetter and windier weather. it is a little bit linear further south. it will be

quite milder at the end of the night. into tomorrow, more wet weather for scotland and northern ireland. some sunshine, but some showers as well. some snow over the hills in scotland. it may well be dry in the midlands and south—east of england. quite a windy day again. strongest wins in the north—west of scotland. still a bit of warmth, actually. although temperatures won't be quite as high as they were today, they still could reach about 14 or 15 degrees across parts of england. it does get colder on wednesday night. we have got a weather front bringing rain down into england and wales. behind it, we've got much colder air and we will find snow falling to lower levels in scotland. some ice around here and perhaps into northern ireland as well. snow levels will rise, but there is more wet and increasingly windy weather coming

into scotland and northern ireland. further south, some sunshine and a few fleeting showers. could stay dry in the midlands, and in the afternoon, there's temperatures are nearer what they should be at this time of year. as we move into friday, the wetter weather should be moving out of the way. we are waiting for this pressure to come m, waiting for this pressure to come in, and we had a ridge of high pressure on friday. the wins should ease by morning. it should start off a little bit silly, but it shouldn't ta ke a little bit silly, but it shouldn't take too long for the cloud bubbles up take too long for the cloud bubbles up and spreads out. later on, we are likely to find some of that rain from that low pressure arriving in northern ireland, western wales and the south—west of england. that rain lives eastwards on friday night, clearing by saturday. it is not too bad this weekend. we identified some wet weather coming into the north—west on saturday. we will have chillier area arriving in the north—west and sunshine and showers.

it has been a lot worse over previous weekends, mind you, and there is a hope that it will get better. this is bbc news. the headlines at 11pm: a sixth person dies of coronavirus in the uk, as health experts warn that cases could peak in a fortnight‘s time. health minister nadine dorries has revealed that she has contracted the virus and is currently self—isolating. 60 million italians under travel restrictions, as the country struggles with coronavirus amid a sharp rise in cases and deaths. public gatherings are forbidden, tourist sites are virtually deserted, and doctors give stark advice