The Media Standards Trust has begun a lecture series on 'Why Journalism Matters'. It is disconcerting that it feels we have to ask the question. The argument put forward by the British group's director Martin Moore is that news organisations are so preoccupied with business survival that discussion of the broader social, political and cultural function of journalism gets forgotten. It is a pertinent review then, given the icy economic blasts hitting most Anglo-Saxon media groups, and notwithstanding the recent examples of self-evidently broader journalistic 'value' produced by London's Daily Telegraph in its politican-shaming investigations into parliamentarians' expenses.

First up in the series was Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, who cantered through the justifications for a vibrant, independent press. Watchdog, informer, explainer, campaigner, community builder and debater - those are the roles that journalism plays. The value that it brings is most evident by comparison with the unhealthiness of states where the press is not free, noted Barber, citing the struggles of the citizenry in China and Russia to hold their leaders to account.

The FT's USP as a media group, according to Barber, is as an explainer and analyser of complicated events that play out across a global stage. But analytical reporting of global stories costs serious cash, he noted, in a question-begging aside. That you get the quality of journalism you are prepared to pay for, ultimately, is his response to the challenge posed to mainstream media by Internet-enabled communicators. For free you can have the rawness of a blog. For crafted journalism that is properly sourced, reviewed for taste and style and checked for accuracy, you must find ways to charge. At your peril do you blur the edges between the crafted and the raw world of easy comment, hasty opinion and rumour billed as fact, argues the FT editor.  (There was a hat tip, however, to the bloggers that have broken news, such as Guido Fawkes who forced the resignation of an advisor to Gordon Brown by revealing his plans for a smear email campaign.)

So a sharp distinction was drawn between the value proposition of professional journalism and its unruly blogging and twittering cousin. No such clarity yet, though, on the funding model for the former when the Internet has made audiences expect to read most general interest news and a lot of specialised niche content for free.  No secret that each and every news group is daunted by this obstacle, even the FT, which has not been immune to the downturn in advertising revenue.

We were left with a couple of clues on the way forward.  Barber predicted that within a year all news organisations will be charging for online content in some way. (The FT's model is to allow readers access to a few articles for free and then charge for further use.)  Will Google ever pay for content - unlikely says Barber. But at least they might be prepared to talk about linking via searches to articles requiring subscription, which they do not do currently.

And his flippant response to the demographic challenge posed to a print-based news organisation by the emergence of a generation of youngsters who get all their information from screens? People are living longer - they will still buy newspapers.

• You know exactly what the population of Iceland is and can also pronounce the name of its prime minister.
• Even the word ‘crisis’ seems to have lost its currency.
• Countries pop up for sale on eBay for 99p and get few offers.
• Posters on BBC messageboards stop discussing the undulating pitch of Robert Peston’s voice and listen to what he’s actually saying.
• The speech bubble on Page 3 of the Sun is given over to discussing the credit crisis.
• Financial market updates displace stories about Jade Goody on the tabloid front pages.
• Bad news stories from government departments are rushed out day after day and not even the Opposition seems to notice.
• Estate agents finally admit house prices have fallen but tell you now is a really great time to buy because the market is stabilising.
• People marketing get-rich-quick property seminars don’t get taken seriously any more.
• The Chancellor, writing in the Financial Times, says that “now, more than ever, we need new ideas”.
• Your primary school-aged children know that credit crunch is not a type of biscuit and that IMF isn’t just a fictional organisation in Mission Impossible.
• You go for a while without noticing one estate agent’s mini and then you see a whole bunch of them on the back of a car transporter.
• A pensioner on the evening tube train from Canary Wharf gives up her seat to a banker because she reckons he might need it.
• The Ivy rings to ask if you’d like a table tonight or any night.
• There are no spare trolleys when you turn up at Aldi to do your weekly shop.

Do you have any better suggestions? All contributions welcome - please send in your selection.

Unions and energy watchdogs lashed out at Gordon Brown’s aid package aimed at helping householders cope with soaring energy bills, saying it was ”too little, too late”. Even  pensioners’ charities gave a frosty response.

But newspaper editorials on the whole were supportive, describing it as “bold politics. More importantly, it was good policy”, as The Times said.

From The Guardian to the Financial Times, the editorials praised the “eminently sensible” measures which concentrated on big companies helping householders to lag their lofts and cavity walls.

It may not have delivered on the pre-hype, but the editorials blame the government for bumping up the publicity in a desperate attempt to boost its poor showing in the opinion polls.

But the government resisted the temptation to impose a windfall tax on big power companies — a target on so-called excess profits.

Instead, the utility companies have been persuaded to invest 910 million pounds in helping householders pay the cost of insulating their homes.

The editorials said the government was right to resist pressure from Labour MPs and unions to impose a tax.

“In recent months, the government has often changed its tax plans under pressure,” the FT observed. “Not this time. It has been right to resist a windfall levy so far. It should continue to do so.”

The Guardian said: “Despite the chorus of carping, there was much to welcome in the devilish detail of the plans.

“Each of the biggest power firms has been forced to contribute an extra 50 million pounds to energy-saving funds.”

It added: “Much in energy policy is prosaic. A battered government in need of a political fix will not get much joy from publicising and planning the lagging of lofts. That does not stop it being a sensible thing to do. Minutiae it may be, but it matters.”

The Daily Mail believed a windfall tax would have distorted the market and driven big business abroad.

The FT suggested it would have eroded confidence over the fiscal structure’s stability and would have raised the prospect of further levies.

There were fears the companies would pass the cost on to customers, but the leader writers hoped regulator Ofgem would deal with any industry malpractice.

The Times looked at how they could be rewarded for their social contribution, and suggested tradable carbon permits could serve this purpose, as could allowing them to keep the proceeds of any efficiencies they achieved.

The Daily Mail, in a rare show of support for Brown, supported his ”wise” decision not to give large-scale handouts to people to help with fuel bills.

“Isn’t it better to offer every family the chance to cut their bills permanently, by fitting better insulation, than to hand over a one-off voucher for 100 pounds, as was suggested?” it asked.

The energy efficiency measure would pay for itself within three years, though the Guardian pointed out that many would suffer during this time  and would continue to do so afterwards.

“Asking someone who is already cold to shiver their way through another three winters before the lagging arrives is not an acceptable policy,” it said.

“And even after the insulation arrives, the millions of hard-up households who have neither lofts to lag nor wall cavities to fill will still feel short-changed.”

It also said the country now faced a shortage of loft laggers.

The government gained “brownie” points for its green credentials. The country’s housing stock is among the least fuel-efficient in Europe, the FT pointed out, and reducing waste is critical to cutting emission of greenhouse gases.

The Times backed the view: “It sends a vital signal that efficiency must be at the heart of any sound energy policy, not the fringe.”

The media is still confused about the motives behind the Chancellor’s observation that “(the times we’re facing) are arguably the worst they’ve been in 60 years”.

What about the 27 percent inflation and 12 percent unemployment rates the country endured during the 1970s and 1980s, they ask?

The country has not been forced to go to the IMF, cap in hand, as it did in 1976, nor is it 1992 and another Black Wednesday, leader writers point out in Monday’s newspapers.

The problem seemed to be compounded when Alistair Darling was then forced to explain in a series of TV interviews that he was talking about severity of current economic conditions — the global credit crunch and rising commodities prices — rather than predicting a great depression.

“The pity is that the public doesn’t know what to believe or who to trust,” the Daily Mail says.

Darling also frets in the Guardian article on the weekend about the state of the Labour Party, saying the cabinet was partly to blame for its recent electoral woes and poor showing in the opinion polls because it has ”patently” failed to explain the party’s central mission to the country.

Was Darling then being honest or foolish, newspaper editorials ask.

One thing it seems certain about is that his comments were “astonishing” and in danger of “over exaggeration”, the Mail adds.

“Instead of talking our economy up — as Chancellors traditionally do in time of trouble — he talked it down, undermining confidence even further,” the Daily Mail says in an editorial on Monday.

The Financial Times believes Darling has his priorities the wrong way around.

“On the economy, his prognosis is too bleak. On Labour, his prognosis is nowhere near bleak enough.

“The government will only make matters worse politically and economically if it overreacts to the downturn.”

It adds: “His precise meaning has been in dispute but it would certainly be nonsense to suggest the UK faces the worst downturn in six decades.”

The Daily Telegraph believes it “shatters the myth that Labour’s stewardship has created economic stability”.

Anatole Kaletsky, writing in the The Times, says Darling has got his figures wrong: “On closer inspection, the Chancellor’s reputation for frankness makes his political blunder worse, since it reveals a flaw more serious than deviousness: basic ignorance of economic facts and figures.

“This is a failing that the minister responsible for national finances can never live down.”

He adds: “There is no way of messaging the facts and figures to make his statement even half-right. Despite all the headlines about a credit crunch, financial conditions are also relatively benign.

“What on earth, then, was Mr Darling talking about?”

The Daily Mail said his comments “seem over the top”.

“As to why, we can only guess. Trying to distance himself from Gordon Brown perhaps?”

Kaletsky adds: “Suppose, then, that the Treasury decides to spin his comments not as a description of what has already happened but as a prediction that Britain will suffer its worst economic crisis since 1948 in the year or two ahead.

“If this was what Mr Darling meant, will anybody believe any economic forecast he presents in his next Budget if this is less than catastrophic?

“And if Mr Darling does present a catastrophic forecast in a pre-election Budget, what will this do to Gordon Brown’s chances of survival?

“These questions can yield only one answer: the next Budget will be presented by a new Chancellor.”

 THE GUARDIAN: Recession alert as Brown fights back

Gordon Brown’s drive to recapture the political agenda with a programme of new laws to create “an opportunity-rich Britain” was badly shaken yesterday by King’s warning.

“The nice decade is behind us,” Mervyn King declared in funereal tones, warning that the economy was “travelling along a bumpy road” as he predicted rising prices would put a squeeze on take-home pay for millions of workers.

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FINANCIAL TIMES: No rate cuts before 2010

Britons should not expect another cut in interest rates for at least two years, the Bank of England indicated yesterday as it warned that inflation would rise far above its previous forecasts and persist at levels well above the government’s target until early 2010.

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DAILY TELEGRAPH: Recession danger is real, says Bank governor

The British economy faces the real risk of falling into recession, the Governor of the Bank of England has admitted.

Mervyn King warned families to brace themselves for a further “squeeze” on household finances as energy bills and food prices continue to rise.

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THE TIMES: The “nice decade” is over, says Bank chief

Britain faces two years of economic pain and could sink into recession, the Governor of the Bank of England has said in a stark warning to the nation.

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THE INDEPENDENT: Meningitis: Defeated at last?

The annual scourge of deaths and severe illness caused by meningitis could be consigned to the history books after scientists announced startling results from trials of a potential vaccine.

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DAILY MAIL: Death of the ‘nice’ decade

The good times are gone and there is now a real risk of recession, the Bank of England warned yesterday.

Families face a five-pronged assault on their finances, the BoE’s Mervyn King said in his bleakest assessment yet of the state of the country.

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DAILY EXPRESS: New bin tax bombshell

Ministers are pushing ahead with plans for pay-as-you-throw bin taxes – just days after Gordon Brown signalled they would be axed.

Five pilot schemes are being rolled out across the country which could slap up to £1,000 a year on every family that fails to recycle enough.

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THE SUN: Crackers
Amy Winehouse will not be prosecuted for smoking crack.

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DAILY MIRROR: Help him

He’s just two days out of rehab - but as troubled Paul Gascoigne staggers along a road at 8am yesterday, it’s clear he is still urgently in need of help.

The ex-England star, 40, looked dazed as he tottered along in Gateshead with a towel flung over one shoulder.

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DAILY STAR: Cellar boy: My Story

Cellar monster Josef Fritzl’s freed dungeon kids have spelled out their simple dreams for a happy life.

Felix, 6, says all he really wants is a ride in a car - and to run across a meadow playing with other normal kids.

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