Ian Huntley should never go free
The Lord Chancellor said Huntley, who was sentenced to a minimum of 40 years for killing Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both 10, was among those killers who should never be released because of the "heinousness" of their crimes and because society demanded "retribution".
He also named Robert Black, who was told he would serve at least 35 years in 1994 for the abduction and murder of three young girls and the attempted abduction of a 15-year-old, as a killer who should spend "the rest of his natural life" in prison.
Lord Falconer's dramatic intervention came after Lord Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice, called for an end to mandatory life sentences for killers. He warned that jails would be full of "geriatric lifers." Lord Phillips is expected to return to the attack this week.
The papers have a wide variety of headlines this morning.The Sunday Times leads with an exclusive
Labour’s lobby scandal
LOBBYISTS have been secretly recorded claiming that two government ministers are helping their business by providing them with sensitive information.
Gerry Sutcliffe, the prisons minister, and Stephen Ladyman, the transport minister, were named during a two-month investigation into “cash for access” by The Sunday Times.
The lobbyists claimed Sutcliffe was prepared to hand over his private Whitehall diary to them, while Ladyman was claimed to have divulged information on policies such as road-charging. Their close relationship with Golden Arrow Communications, a London-based lobbying firm, was witnessed by an undercover reporter working for the firm.
The paper continues
The allegations will prompt fresh concerns about how business is able to use lobbyists to gain access to decision-makers. After almost a decade in power, there are now up to a dozen former Labour ministers assisting firms in their relationship with the government.
This weekend David Davis, the shadow home secretary, called for an independent investigation into Sutcliffe’s behaviour.
The only secret lender arr
Patients miss out as NHS cash floods in reports the Observer
Billions of pounds of taxpayers' money pumped into the National Health Service has gone on improving the salaries of GPs and consultants and paying for increased pensions rather than on improvements in patient care and frontline services.
A damning report by the highly respected health think-tank, the King's Fund, reveals that productivity in the health service has actually declined, despite the huge injection of cash.
The report reveals that only 30 pence in every pound of the Government's record NHS budget has been aimed at directly improving patient care. As well as salaries, the rest has gone on a growing bill for clinical negligence payouts and rising drug costs.
The Independent apolgises for one of its earlier campaigns
Cannabis: An apology
In 1997, this newspaper launched a campaign to decriminalise the drug. If only we had known then what we can reveal today...
Record numbers of teenagers are requiring drug treatment as a result of smoking skunk, the highly potent cannabis strain that is 25 times stronger than resin sold a decade ago.
More than 22,000 people were treated last year for cannabis addiction - and almost half of those affected were under 18. With doctors and drugs experts warning that skunk can be as damaging as cocaine and heroin, leading to mental health problems and psychosis for thousands of teenagers, The Independent on Sunday has today reversed its landmark campaign for cannabis use to be decriminalised.
And it looks back to its previous campaign
Were we out of our minds? No, but then came skunk
When Rosie Boycott, the then editor of The Independent on Sunday, launched her campaign for the decriminalisation of cannabis in 1997, the decision caused a furore.
At the start of the campaign, Ms Boycott wrote: "Certainly, no one has ever been disfigured by a joint. The truth is that most people I know have smoked at some time or other in their lives. They hold down jobs, bring up their families, run major companies, govern our country, and yet... cannabis is still officially regarded as a dangerous drug."
Just a few months later, on Saturday 28 March 1998, thousands of supporters gathered in Hyde Park. Ms Boycott was pictured pushing a wheelchair-bound MS sufferer who used the drug to ease the symptoms of his condition. The campaign had secured the support of celebrities such as Sir Paul McCartney, Martin Amis, Harold Pinter, Nick Hornby, Peter Gabriel and Anita Roddick. They were joined by scientists, lawyers, academics, doctors and artists.
According to the Mail
Wounded soldiers: 7,000 in wait for payouts
Thousands of British war heroes from Iraq and Afghanistan are living in poverty because their injury compensation payouts are being delayed for up to three years.
MPs and former SAS soldier Colonel Tim Collins have called for an inquiry into The Mail on Sunday's shocking findings. One private who had part of an arm blown off could not afford to heat his house at Christmas.
On the same theme,the Independent reports
This is no way to treat a soldier
Pte Steve Baldwin was badly injured in the bomb attack that claimed the lives of three friends in Iraq. His doctor says he has post-traumatic stress disorder. The MoD says he must leave the Army because of his 'temperamental unsuitability'
The Observer reports on the aftermath of the court martials this week
How army's £20m trial failed to find the killers
Just when it mattered most, they couldn't remember. The soldiers were providing evidence at the most expensive court trial in British military history, but often they struggled to remember a thing.
The trial into the death of Baha Musa ended last week in acquittal. Baha was beaten to death in British custody by British soldiers, the father-of-two sustaining 93 separate injuries in a detention centre once used by Saddam's secret police.
The six-month court martial found no one responsible for his death, an outcome that raised fresh concerns over the effectiveness of the military justice system. Now for the first time The Observer can reveal the full story behind the court martial and how the process failed to find answers to vital questions surrounding Baha's brutal death.
Meanwhile the Times reports that
Iraqis: life is getting better
MOST Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein, according to a British opinion poll published today.
The survey of more than 5,000 Iraqis found the majority optimistic despite their suffering in sectarian violence since the American-led invasion four years ago this week.
Just one in 58 police is patrolling the streets reports the Telegraph
Only one in 58 police officers is out on patrol at any given time, despite an increase in officer numbers, new Home Office figures show.
Just 2,400 out of a record 143,000 officers in England and Wales are out deterring criminals and reassuring the public - about four per town of 90,000 people - while more than twice as many are back at the police station doing paperwork.
The findings highlight the impact of Whitehall-imposed targets and red tape, say rank and file officers and Opposition MPs.
Another teenager is murdered in London reports the Times
A 15-year-old boy was found dying in the street in East London by passers-by after he had been stabbed in the leg as he returned from the cinema.
The distinctively tall boy, who has not been named, collapsed on the pavement a few hundred yards from West Ham’s football stadium at 9.30pm last night. An ambulance took him to the nearby Newham General Hospital where he died just before 11pm.
This follows says the paper
In Manchester police are also investigating three separate murder inquiries after three young men were stabbed to death in one night. The men, aged 21, 24 and 30, were murdered in unrelated knife attacks during Friday night and Saturday morning.
The Express reveals on its front page that
Polonium killers poisoned me too
A BRITISH businessman was poisoned by the killers of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.Father-of-two Steve Atkins unwittingly drank from the same cup laced with radioactive Polonium 210 which killed the 43-year-old former KGB agent. Mr Atkins, 41, had gone to the Millennium Hotel in central London for a business meeting when he got caught up in the biggest spy scandal since the Cold War.Breaking his silence in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Express, he said: “In the back of my mind I wonder if I’m more likely to develop cancer in the future and, although I try to stop myself from worrying, there is always a nagging fear.
Whilst the same paper reveals that
Harry to throw the mother of all parties
PRINCE Harry is to receive a rousing send-off from his friends and girlfriend Chelsy Davy before he begins a six-month tour of Army duty in Iraq. About 100 of his pals have been invited to a London nightclub for a night of “exotic cocktails, supper and dancing”.The invitations, sent from his father’s office at Clarence House, show a mocked-up picture of the Prince wearing a white turban and sitting on a camel, against a backdrop of a map of Iraq.
The Mail reports a
World Exclusive: Delighted Duchess to become a grandma
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have been celebrating the news that they are to become grandparents.
Camilla's son, Tom Parker Bowles, has confirmed that his wife, fashion journalist Sara Buys, is three months pregnant with their first child.
According to the Independent,
Marilyn: The case for 'assisted suicide'
Marilyn Monroe may have been tricked into killing herself as part of a plot hatched with the knowledge of the former US attorney general, Robert Kennedy, according to a secret FBI file.
The document, uncovered by an Australian film director, Philippe Mora, suggests Monroe was "induced" to make a suicide attempt, in the belief she would be found in time, and her stomach pumped. Instead, it suggests, she was left to die by staff and friends, including the actor Peter Lawford, who was married to Kennedy's sister, Patricia.
The exploits of the England cricket team occupy the front page of the news of the world.
DRUNKEN FREDDIE'S 4AM SEA RESCUE
BOOZED-UP England cricket hero Andrew Flintoff had to be rescued by frantic hotel staff after toppling into the sea in the dark.
The former skipper grabbed a pedalo from a beach near the team's 5-star Caribbean hotel at 4am after an eight-hour bender with team-mates.
He dragged it out to sea and wcas seen rocking it from side to side before it capsized.
The embarrassing incident came just hours after Flintoff, known as Freddie, scored a duck in England's defeat to New Zealand in their World Cup opener.
The Mirror continues to investigate the Tv phone in
EXCLUSIVE: PHONEY A FRIEND
CHRIS Tarrant's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire show has been cheated out of millions of pounds in an elaborate high-tech sting.
The mastermind behind the scam is businessman Keith Burgess, 50, who boasts that he has helped more than 200 contestants win at least £5million on the TV quiz - and made himself a fortune in the process.
His scam involves some of the country's top quiz contestants, a system designed to make sure they get selected for the show...and not one Phone-a-Friend but an entire team.
In return for his help he pockets up to 50 per cent of any winnings.
The same paper taking great delight at the end of a green news week to tell us
CAM'S BIN RUMBLED
DAVID Cameron is always lecturing the nation about going green... but he blatantly flouts recycling policies in his own home.
A Sunday Mirror investigation has revealed how the Tory leader puts recyclable waste in with his general rubbish.
We saw bottles, paper, cardboard and food waste thrown out in supermarket plastic bags.
Worse still, he has been throwing out a mountain of non-biodegradable nappies in black bin liners.
The Independent reports on the Prime Minister's appearance on Red Nose day
Is the Prime Minister bovvered?
Cherie Blair's daughter threatened to disown her after she gave an impromptu rendition of "When I'm 64" during a visit to China. Charles Kennedy, the former Liberal Democrat leader, may regret playing the Ghost of Christmas Future during an EastEnders special in 2004, and Paul Boateng, the former cabinet minister and now Britain's High Commissioner in South Africa, has never lived down his appearance at a GLC panto wearing suspenders and a thong.
So when the Prime Minister agreed to do a turn in aid of Comic Relief, his advisers may have warned him that politicians who stray into the world of show business have rarely proved a success. Take the radical MP George Galloway, whose appearance in Big Brother led him to be filmed imitating a kitten being fed by Rula Lenska. Mr Blair, on the other hand, is said by his critics to be one of the finest actors of his generation. And with comic timing honed by almost 10 years of starring in Prime Minister's Questions, he pulled off his comedy sketch with some aplomb.
Mr Blair imitated Catherine Tate's petulant teenager, Lauren, uttering the words you would expect to come out of her mouth. "Look at my face. Bovvered? Face. Bovvered? Face. Bovvered?" he went. In the sketch, Lauren meets Mr Blair for a day of work experience at Downing Street. Afterwards, the Prime Minister said he hoped "she will put her time spent at No 10 to good use".
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