Alistair Darling accused of data cover-up headlines the Telegraph this morning.The paper revealing that

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) director Nigel Jordan was copied in on the decision not to remove crucial personal details from the 7 million missing child benefit files before they were posted to another department - in a bid to cut costs, the messages show.The newly-released internal emails revealed that the catastrophic decision not to filter out the sensitive information, made against the advice of the National Audit Office (NAO), was therefore not a low-level administrative error as the Chancellor claimed.

Brown in the frame as emails suggest cost-cutting was to blame for lost data says the Independent

A desire to cut costs at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) may have contributed to the fiasco in which the sensitive personal data of 25 million people was lost, it has emerged.
Emails disclosed last night also suggested that a senior manager at HMRC was informed about the decision to send the information to the National Audit Office (NAO), the public spending watchdog. The Tories claimed this undermined the Government's attempt to blame a 23-year-old junior official.

Revenue email rejected call to filter out data says the Guardian

The Times reports that

Poll tracks anger over data loss

Public anger over the loss by Revenue & Customs of 25 million sets of personal details and deepening gloom over the economy has led to a dramatic collapse of confidence in Gordon Brown’s competence. The number of voters who think that the Prime Minister and Alistair Darling, his Chan- cellor, can be trusted to handle economic problems has more than halved in a little over two months, according to a poll for The Times.
In a further blow to the Government, a majority is pessimistic about the economic outlook as voters feel the effects of falling house prices, the Northern Rock crisis and the wider credit crunch. The Populus poll of 1,025 adults, undertaken on Wednesday evening, shows that public confidence in the Government’s ability to handle confidential data has been profoundly shaken by Britain’s biggest data security breach.

And the bad news continues in the Guardian

Revealed: massive hole in Northern Rock's assets

Fresh doubts emerged last night about Northern Rock's ability to repay the £23bn of taxpayers' money it has been lent by the Bank of England.
A Guardian examination of Northern Rock's books has found that £53bn of mortgages - over 70% of its mortgage portfolio - is not owned by the beleaguered bank, but by a separate offshore company.
The same investigation reveals just how vulnerable the bank is to a cooling property market and demonstrates the scale of Northern Rock's exposure to mortgages where customers have borrowed heavily against their homes.

Along with

New leak of foot and mouth disease discovered at Pirbright laboratory

Ministers admitted the virus "probably" escaped through a faulty valve at the Merial plant in Pirbright, Surrey, on Monday - two weeks after the facility was given the all-clear to start producing foot and mouth vaccine again.
The private vaccine manufacturer and the nearby Government-owned Institute for Animal Health were criticised earlier this year after foot and mouth escaped into nearby farms. reports the Mail

And back to data fraud where the front page of the Independent reveals

New front in the battle against identity theft

Millions of young people have made themselves vulnerable to identity theft as well as putting their future academic and professional prospects at risk by recklessly posting personal information on the internet, Britain's privacy watchdog warns in a report published today.
The report's findings will add to increasing fears about the unchecked growth of personal information held in Britain and the way it is protected after a security blunder at HM Revenue & Customs in which highly sensitive details belonging to 25 million people were lost in the post. Now, in a far-reaching study of the internet behaviour of young people, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) says that 4.5 million web users aged between 14 and 21 could be vulnerable to identity fraud because of the carefree way they give up information on the internet, especially when visiting social networking sites.

Not a good day for the fooball association.

The Mail leads with

Why should he get a penny?

As England football fans vented their anger and dismay over another humiliation yesterday, one man and his wife were still smiling.
Steve McClaren, the manager who masterminded his team's failure to qualify for Euro 2008, walked away with a £2.5million payoff after being sacked by the Football Association.
He had refused to resign immediately after England's defeat against Croatia on Wednesday, which led to him being dubbed the "wally with the brolly" as he watched from beneath an umbrella to protect his thinning hair.adding that

He now plans a sunshine break with wife Kathryn at a holiday home he has bought in the Caribbean.

Sweet FA says the front page of the Sun

THE FA’s Dirty Dozen are the blazer-clad bunglers who dragged English football into the gutter.
Clueless coach Steve McClaren was swiftly axed yesterday after the abject failure to qualify for Euro 2008 in a 3-2 defeat by Croatia.
But the clowns who sent our national game down the drain by appointing him 18 months ago were still in their jobs last night.

Laughing all the way to the bank says the Express whilst reporting

HOW ENGLAND’S EURO CALAMITY WILL COST THE ECONOMY UP TO £2BN

while fans are feeling down in the dumps, it spells disaster for those businesses banking on an outbreak of football fever.
Retailers would normally have looked forward to rocketing sales, with a surge in demand for everything from televisions and football shirts to beer and snacks.


The Mirror reports that

FA want Mourinho after axing £2.5M McClaren

Officials phoned the charismatic former Chelsea manager last night and begged him to return to London to save the team from any further humiliation following the embarrassing defeat to Croatia that dumped us out of the Euro 2008 championships.

The paper leads with

Madeleine is dead: Law chief's cruel outburst

Madeleine McCann was almost certainly killed by any kidnapper because of her parents' intense publicity drive, Portugal's law chief said yesterday.
In a cruel blow to Kate and Gerry, Attorney General Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro said: "Imagine, would an abductor with all this publicity and with the whole world having Maddy's photo still demand a ransom?

The Telegraph adding

The law chief said in an interview with the Portuguese magazine Visao that he was pessimistic about solving the mystery.
He said: "If you asked me at this moment in time if I was going to discover anything, I'd have to say, 'I don't know.'
"This sort of crime is extremely difficult to solve."

According to the Mail

Young Britain is cocaine capital of the world with more abuse than U.S. for first time

The proportion of young Britons who take cocaine is now the highest in the developed world, a report revealed yesterday.
For the first time, the percentage of 15 to 34-year-olds trying the drug has overtaken that in America.
Nearly one in 20 young Britons took cocaine last year, as it replaced cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamines as the most fashionable drug among the young.

Killer should have been in jail when he stabbed bus passenger over chips reports the Times

An investigation has started into the criminal justice failings that resulted in a bus passenger being killed by a man who should not have been released from prison.
Richard Whelan was stabbed seven times after trying to stop Anthony Joseph throwing chips at his girlfriend on the top of a double-decker bus.
Joseph had been released from a young offender institution hours before the attack, despite a warrant being in force for his arrest on another matter.

Do'nt let Huntley get transplant asya the Sun

FURIOUS victims of Soham monster Ian Huntley last night urged doctors NOT to give the ailing murderer a liver transplant. They hit out after it was revealed Huntley, 33, has turned yellow with liver failure from an overdose — and may need a new organ to survive.
The mother of a girl he bedded when she was just 14 said the evil killer of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman should “rot in hell”.

The Guardian reports that

Priority NHS treatment promised to war veterans

Millions of war veterans are to become eligible for fast-track medical treatment by the NHS as part of a government drive to improve the standard of care for servicemen and women, it will be announced today.
Alan Johnson, the health secretary, is expected to write to GPs instructing them to extend priority treatment to all 4 million existing veterans. Those with injuries received as a result of their service will be able to bypass hospital waiting lists, get priority access to specialist care and become eligible for free prescriptions.

All work and no play for today's pupils says the Telegraph

Children are being forced to work harder than ever with little to show for the extra effort, according to a major inquiry by Cambridge University.They spend less time enjoying outdoor play and unsupervised sport while their lives become increasingly "scholarised", it is claimed

The front page of the Express warns of

NEW MIGRANT JOBS MADNESS

Employers will break race relations laws if they refuse to consider foreigners for jobs, even if the candidates do not speak English, the Home Office warned yesterday.
And any job applicant, including British candidates, will be treated as a potential illegal immigrant and have to prove they have a right to work in the UK

Abroad and on the eve of Australia's elections the Independent reports

Howard rocked by smear scandal as defeat looms

John Howard, Australia's Prime Minister, was fighting for his political life yesterday as details emerged of an attempt by senior members of his Liberal Party to smear the opposition Labour Party and whip up anti-Muslim feeling in a key marginal seat.
Mr Howard, who wanted to spend the penultimate day of the election campaign convincing voters to re-elect his Liberal-National Coalition government tomorrow, instead faced repeated questioning about a bogus leaflet distributed in the name of a non-existent Muslim organisation, the Islamic Australia Federation, in the Sydney seat of Lyndsay.

Split widens over Iran’s nuclear plans reports the Telegraph

International divisions over Iran's nuclear ambitions deepened yesterday after the world's nuclear watchdog pleaded for more time for its inspections regime despite admitting international knowledge of Teheran's nuclear programme had diminished.

Christmas cancelled for presidential hopefuls says the Guardian

The 16 candidates vying for the Democratic and Republican nominations for next year's US presidential elections are facing a busy and unfestive Christmas period of almost non-stop campaigning, after New Hampshire announced it was bringing forward its primary elections to January 8.
The decision confirms the extraordinary crunch in the 2008 nomination process that will see the Iowa and New Hampshire counts falling early in the New Year and extremely close together. The Iowa caucuses will kick off the round of elections on January 3, putting just five days between the counts that many observers believe could be decisive in establishing early leaders in both main parties.

The Mirror reports

Meredith: I had sex but I didn't kill her

Meredith Kercher murder suspect Rudy Guede admitted he had sex with the student the night she died but claimed she was killed by a stranger who burst in and stabbed her.
The 20-year-old drug dealer said he fought off the "brown-haired Italian" attacker then fled because he was worried he would be implicated in the death.
Guede also claimed fellow suspect Amanda Knox was NOT in Meredith's flat in Perugia, Italy, when she was stabbed. In a series of internet messages to a friend, the Ivory Coast national said: "I remember having sex with Meredith, she invited me over, but I did not kill her.

Finally to the Mail which tells us

Policemen banned from riding bikes... until they pass their cycling proficiency test

Police officers must pass a cycling proficiency test before they are allowed to patrol the streets on their bikes.
They have been told to walk, drive, or use public transport until they succeed.
But the decision by Cheshire Police has been described as "health and safety gone mad".