Saturday, February 13, 2010

What Saturday's papers are saying


No one major story this morning.Both the Times and the Mail focus on numbers.

The Times reveals that a rise in VAT is likely after the general election as Labour and the Tories draw up plans to balance Britain’s books.

Alistair Darling and George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, are both considering raising VAT to as high as 20 per cent
says the paper

The Mail meanwhile returns to the subject of banker's bonuses which it says that a quarter of investment bankers will be rewarded with £1million average pay packages,reminding its readershttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

This is more than double the number recently predicted by the City minister Lord Myners, who has slammed the pay bonanza as 'grotesque'.


The Telegraph reports that Private school pupils with straight-A grades are being rejected from elite universities in unprecedented numbers,

Headmasters are blaming a shortage of university places caused by funding cuts, combined with the effect of Labour’s “social engineering” drive that prioritises bright children from under-performing comprehensives.


Meanwhile the Guardian concentrates on the Binyam Mohammed case over which it says

The political storm over allegations of MI5 complicity in torture escalated tonight after Alan Johnson, the home secretary, accused the media of publishing "groundless accusations" and commentators of spreading "ludicrous lies" about the Security Service.

The Independent says that an influential committee of MPs overseeing the role of MI5 was warned last year it had been misled over Britain's alleged collusion in torture.

Meanwhile the secret role of the SAS in Iraq is revealed for the first time today by the Daily Mail.

The Independent leads with a waring from the chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission who says that police forces have become complacent and are guilty of "taking their foot off the accelerator" in the battle against corrupt officers,

Eight Iraqis are to be tried over the murders of six British Royal Military Police officers who were killed by a mob in 2003.reports the Telegraph

The Red Caps died after coming under attack from an estimated 400-strong mob at a police station in Majar al-Kabir in ­Maysan province north of Basra.reports the Guardian

Many of the papers report on the shooting at an American university.

Three people were killed and another was injured during a shooting yesterday on the campus of the University of Alabama.
A woman was in custody following the incident in the university’s Shelby Center, a science building
reports the Times

The Sun carries front page pictures of John Terry embracing his wife,describing how hemiraculously escapes a red card yesterday as he is forgiven by his wife.

Meanwhile the Mirror turns its attention to another Chelsea player.

The winter Olympics began with a tragedy, following the death of a Georgian luge competitor only hours before the opening ceremony.

IOC president Jacques Rogge, wearing a black tie, wiped away tears when he haltingly announced the death of 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili, who crashed at speeds of more than 90mph on one of the most dangerous sections of the luge run that has previously been criticised for its extreme design.
reports the Telegraph

The Guardian has blown the whistle on some of the supermarkets describing how

Supermarket giants Tesco and Asda dramatically increased prices on key items in the runup to Christmas in what an independent expert has called "a systematic, cynical and aggressive attempt to exploit demand",


Finally the Independent reports that

The man who invented the Frisbee – the simple plastic disc that became a billion-dollar craze and a symbol of misspent youth on beaches, parks, and university campuses all over the world – has died, at the age of ninety.
however it continues

Despite the fame and fortune it brought him, Morrison apparently never liked the Frisbee name. "He thought it didn't apply to anything," his biographer Phil Kennedy told the The Wall Street Journal yesterday. "It was just a crazy name that didn't mean anything."





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