Amid economic gloom,pictures of John Sergeant announcing his quitting of strictly come dancing this morning.

The Guardian leads with Bloodbath on the high street as the paper reports that

The scale of the crisis facing Britain's high streets was underlined in dramatic fashion yesterday as Woolworths revealed it was seeking a rescue takeover of its stores and Marks & Spencer slashed its prices by 20% in an attempt to pull in shoppers and shift unsold stock.
Woolworths is likely to get just £1 for its loss-making 800-store chain. The decision to seek a buyer for the shops in mid-November reveals that the chain is dangerously close to bankruptcy. It makes 90% of its profits in the six weeks before Christmas and should be raking in cash at this time of the year, selling Christmas goods and toys

The Express reports that

PRICES are being slashed on the high street today as shops start the sales season early.
Marks & Spencer has cut 20 per cent off most goods at its stores across Britain in a one-day event.
It comes as Debenhams holds a three-day sale and other high street favourites rush to offer early Christmas discounts.

Meanwhile the Independent reports that

Darling cuts costs to upstage Tories

A new front in the political battle over the economy will be opened today when Labour tries to trump David Cameron's plans for finding big savings in government spending to keep down taxes.
The Treasury's drive to reduce Whitehall waste has found between £4bn and £5bn more than the £30bn it has already announced. The efficiency savings will be used to limit the hike in borrowing needed to fund the tax cuts to be announced in Monday's pre-Budget report by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling

According to the Times

Schools and hospitals are likely to benefit from Gordon Brown’s decision to spend his way out of a recession but most departments still face a tight squeeze in the next two years.
On Monday Alistair Darling will fast-track a range of small and medium-sized capital projects in an attempt to rescue the construction industry. This will lead to more schools being refurbished, one-stop health centres being built, social housing accelerated and roads repaired. Bigger projects take too much time to plan, commission and design and are less likely.

The Mail leads with the story that

Speed twice and face a ban, drivers are told

Motorists could be banned from the road after just two speeding tickets.
Ministers are doubling the penalty for the worst offences, in a crackdown on Britain's most dangerous drivers.
Those caught significantly over the limit would be hit automatically with six points on their licence.
If this happens twice in three years they reach the total for a six-month ban.

The Telegraph adds that

The proposals would see motorists given six penalty points for breaking the speed limit by a significant margin. A driver with 12 points on their licence is disqualified automatically.The excessive speeds could be defined as more than 50mph in a 30mph zone, 70mph in a 50mph zone or 90mph on a motorway. Ministers will consult, however, before determining the exact thresholds.

According to the Times

Four at-risk children die from abuse every week

The damning report by Ofsted makes clear that the death of Baby P was far from an isolated tragedy. It found that 282 vulnerable children – many of them already known to social services – died in the 17-month period to the end of August. A further 136 suffered serious harm or injury.
Two thirds of those killed or hurt were babies less than a year old

The Guardian says that

Councils have systematically failed to learn from the mistakes made in dozens of the most serious cases of child abuse, while too many frontline staff in schools and health centres are still unable to recognise signs of abuse, Ofsted said in a report yesterday. Its verdict comes amid public concern after the death of 17-month-old Baby P in Haringey, north London, who died from 50 injuries despite being in regular contact with child protection officers and medics.

There is much fall out from the release of the BNP membership details,

The wide array of jobs held by BNP supporters – exposed in a leaked internal document – brought demands last night for a ban on BNP membership in public sector professions.
The disclosure of the membership list, containing 12,000 names, phone numbers and addresses, prompted an investigation into the activities of a Merseyside police officer and a presenter's departure from a talk radio station. Several people named on the list denied ever having been members of the far-right organisation and called police after receiving death threats.

reports the Independent

The Mail reports that

A servant of the Queen was last night 'outed' as an alleged member of the BNP.
Buckingham Palace storeman Paul Murray's name was on a leaked copy of the far-right party's confidential membership list.
The 41-year-old, who until earlier this year lived in a £1million grace-and-favour apartment, was allegedly a paid-up member along with his wife, Jennifer, 44.

And the Times reports that

The second-in-command of the British National Party is employed at public expense by the Greater London Authority, The Times has learnt.
Simon Darby admitted to The Times yesterday that he regularly used his City Hall office to work in his capacity as the BNP’s media spokesman, a job that is unrelated to his publicly funded position.

Obama brings US in from the cold is the lead in the Independent

Prospects for success in the world's struggle to combat global warming have been transformed at a stroke after US President-elect Barack Obama made it clear that America would play its full part in renewing the Kyoto Protocol climate-change treaty.
His words, in effect, brought an end to eight years of wilful climate obstructionism by the administration of George Bush, who withdrew the US from Kyoto in March 2001, thus doing incalculable damage to the efforts of the international community to construct a unified response to the threat.

The Telegraph meanwhile reports that

Animals and plants in danger of extinction could lose the protection of government experts who make sure that infrastructure projects don't pose a threat, under regulations outgoing US president George W Bush is set to put in place before he leaves office.

It has an interview with the subject of yesterday's headlines

The first woman to have a transplant of an organ grown from stem cells has spoken of the moment she opened her eyes following the pioneering surgery and knew that her life had changed forever. In an exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph Claudia Castillo said she feared she would never be able to take her two children to the park, read her youngest a bed time story or take them to visit family in Colombia.
"The moment I woke after the procedure, I looked up at the doctor and he smiled and told me it had been successful - it was the best moment ever," she said. "I knew then that I had a life and a future."

The Sun leads with the news that

THE drunken goalkeeper who killed two little boys in a motorway smash is to become a father, The Sun can reveal.
Jailed Luke McCormick’s fiancée Naomi Richards is about five months pregnant.

reminding us that

The ex-Plymouth Argyle keeper, 25, raced along the M6 after a boozy wedding and rammed a car carrying Arron Peak, ten, and brother Ben, eight.
And last night the mother of the tragic youngsters told of her heartbreak after she learned their killer is to be a dad.

Indian frigate destroys 'mothership' as raids off Somalia continue reporst the Guardian

Somali bandits terrorising the busy shipping routes around the Horn of Africa suffered a rare setback when an Indian warship destroyed a pirate "mothership" after coming under fire in the Gulf of Aden.
The Indian Navy said that its frigate, one of the numerous international warships dispatched to patrol the waters around the Horn of Africa, had approached a suspicious vessel on Tuesday evening. It turned out to be a previously captured ship being used by pirates as a base to launch their speedboats far out to sea.

The Times adds that

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said yesterday that the Royal Navy was coordinating the European response to the supertanker’s seizure from its warship in the region, HMS Cumberland. Saudi Arabia has also pledged to join the international task force operating under a UN mandate, along with new pledges of ships from Sweden and South Korea.

And so to that story

'Dancing pig in Cuban heels' quits while ahead says the Independent

John Sergeant, the rotund 64-year-old who became one of the favourites to win this year's Strictly Come Dancing, despite being labelled "a dancing pig in Cuban heels" by one of the judges, has quit the show, sparking yet another debate about television phone-in shows.

It might have pleased the judges, but John Sergeant's surprise decision to waltz off Strictly Come Dancing has sparked a furious backlash against the BBC.
Some fans accused the judges of hounding the leaden-footed former political journalist off the hugely popular Saturday night show.
Many threatened to boycott the programme and others demanded - and were promised - a refund of money spent on phone calls supporting the unlikeliest star on the dance floor.

reports the Mail

Denying he was bullied out, he said he wanted to avoid a “bloody battle” and was going back to his “rather quiet life”.
John — partnered by Russian dancer Kristina Rihanoff — said it was a “frightening thought” he might have won, adding: “I didn’t want that to happen because it would have been a very bittersweet victory.”

says the Sun

The Mirror though claims that

Jolly John Sergeant quit Strictly Come Dancing yesterday just in time for an all-expenses paid Caribbean cruise.
John said he made his shock decision to waltz away from Strictly Come Dancing because he feared he might win it – and that would take the joke too far.

Britain 'not ready' for outright ban on men paying for sex says the Times

Ministers have been prevented from introducing an outright ban on paying for sex because they found that prostitution was too big a business and commanded too much public support.
A Home Office study released yesterday revealed a £1 billion market with 80,000 sex workers. It estimated that as many as 10 per cent of men had used a prostitute at some point.

Finally the Guardian reports that

Joe the Plumber becomes Joe the Writer after signing book deal

The book is being co-written with little-known novelist, Thomas Tabback. Joe the Plumber, real name Samuel Wurzelbacher, said he chose to turn his back on lucrative offers from the big publishers to go with a smaller firm to help "spread the wealth". PearlGate Publishing has previously published one book, says its website: Tabback's debut novel, Things Forgotten.