Snowmail: it's the economy, stupid

Tonight it's the economy, stupid. I feel stupid for not having committed myself to the view that inflation would hit 3 per cent this month, for it has.

It seems to me that such a figure is a completely inevitable consequence of everything that's been going on in the last few months in food, in energy, in telephone calls, and in just about everything else.

And yet the economic gurus are saying they are shocked and surprised that interest rates have shot through the chancellor's own ceiling. Tonight the economy, housing, and much else.

I'll be talking to Chancellor Darling later this afternoon.

I must confess, I was at a meeting at Amnesty International and I got a text from my producer which read: "Darling sit down at 1630" And for a moment I wondered what on earth was going on.

And then I realised it meant: "You have an interview with the chancellor at half past four!"

His availability no doubt a reflection of the fact that he's about to stand up in the house and flesh out the government's proposals to compensate the losers from the end of the 10p tax rate.

CHINA QUAKE TOLL CONTINUES TO MOUNT

The earthquake disaster in China gets worse and worse. In contrast to Burma, the authorities are moving everything they can to bring rescue to the Sichuan province.

But we're now learning of an urban centre where 18,000 people are missing. The death toll is climbing by the minute, and the sense is that it could reach 50 or 60,000 dead.

Lindsey Hilsum has gone back to Chengdu, the nearest urban centre to the epicentre of the quake.

She describes people in vast numbers sleeping out in the open in the pouring rain.

PLANE BOMB TRIAL

Well, the prosecution in the plane bomb trial have decided to illustrate physically what might have happened had the alleged conspirators managed to put their bomb together and detonate it.

And, of course, it's devastating. Carl Dinnen is on the case.

POST OFFICE CLOSURES

A judge has ruled in favour of the case brought by a disabled person about post office closures.

The request was for a judicial review of the government's decision to recuse the government from an obligation to provide disabled access to postal services.

It was a move made just before the post office closure plan went into action.

The judge is dubious that the case can be won, but if it is there will be more serious egg on the government's face.

The Turner Prize finalists have been nominated.

As usual, there are four. But three of them are women, and the prize has only been won three times by women in the 25 years of its existence.

Somalia is now in a wholesale emergency crisis. We have pictures, together with a keynote interview with the UN man responsible for Somalia.

FROM RUSSIA WITH HATE?

Finally, from Manchester tonight, the build-up to tomorrow's game between Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg, the latter with an alleged affinity for racism.

Nick Martin has the inside story at seven, on four.

See you then. Jon

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