Monday's papers

With the budget two days away,many of the papers are looking to Wednesday afternoon's measures.

According to the FT,the chancellor will have to admit to a £60b bail out bill.

Alistair Darling has decided to concede for the first time that the government will not recoup the full costs of its banking interventions and that the bill could be as high as £60bn.

The Times says that the chancellor will have to cut back around £15b on public spending in Whitehall effiency cuts.After projecting his pre budget message on You Tube

Mr Darling acknowledged in his internet message that there had been a “huge downturn”, but said that the “underlying strengths” of British industry would help the nation to take advantage when the global economy emerged from recession.

The Mail asks whether his ask will be sharp enough?

Alistair Darling was accused of dangerous over-optimism tonight as he prepared to make a Budget prediction that the recovery will start by Christmas.
The Chancellor is expected to forecast economic growth of one per cent in 2010, following a crash of 3.5 per cent this year.

Whilst the Telegraph picks up the comments of the opposition who says that he is set to forecast the worst recession since the Second World War after admitting that the economy has suffered a "huge downturn"

The Independent carries an interview with the business secretary and predicts that

New Labour will today abandon 12 years of support for market forces by unveiling an interventionist strategy under which the Government will subsidise the growth industries of the future.

Away from the budget the Guardian leads with the news that it has seen emails that suggest

Government officials handed confidential police intelligence about environmental activists to the energy giant E.ON before a planned peaceful demonstration,