The Indpendent leads this morning with
Campbell: We all had doubts about Iraq except Tony
All of Tony Blair's closest aides had "severe moments of doubt" about his decision to join the American invasion of Iraq, Alastair Campbell reveals in his diaries, published today.
Downing Street's former director of communications suggests that Mr Blair was the only member of his inner circle who did not have private reservations about the decision to topple Saddam Hussein.
The Blair Years describes the scene in the former prime minister's Commons room after he won the crucial vote on the eve of the war despite a rebellion by 139 Labour MPs. He wrote at the time: "All of us, I think, had had pretty severe moments of doubt but he hadn't really, or if he had he had hidden them from us. Now there was no going back at all."
It is also the lead story in the Guardian
Campbell: cabinet's severe doubts on Iraq
Mr Campbell records how one of Mr Blair's staunchest allies, John Reid, and the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, looked "physically sick" when cabinet met on the day before the Commons vote to endorse the war.
Mr Reid, then party chairman, "said never underestimate the instincts for unity and understand that we will be judged by the Iraq that replaces Saddam's Iraq, and by the Middle East", Mr Campbell wrote in the first publication of extracts from his long-awaited, but heavily edited, diaries.
The Mail meanwhile claims
Brown pours scorn on Campbell's diaries: 'It's gossip and I won't read it'
As he prepared to publish his memoirs, Alastair Campbell carefully deleted any references which could make life difficult for the new Labour leader.
But if the former spin doctor thought Gordon Brown would be impressed, he was mistaken.
The Prime Minister dismissed the diaries as rumour and gossip - and said he would not be reading them.
Mr Campbell claims to have a potential "gold-mine" of information detailing the "pretty tense" relationship between Mr Brown and Tony Blair. But he held this back to avoid handing the Tories a political gift, he said.
The Telegraph leads with
Brown's Strategy on Terrorism is fatally flawed.According to the paper
As new concerns were raised that the intelligence services are struggling to monitor more than 200 extremist groups operating in Britain, it emerged that a loophole on student visas could allow terrorists in.
Many students from "hot spots" of Muslim unrest around the world are thought to obtain visas for study but "go under the wire" by failing to show up for their courses when they arrive in Britain.
The head of Interpol also accused the authorities of failing to check visitors to Britain against its global database of 11,000 suspected terrorists.
The Times reports that
Recruit Muslim spies in war on terror, urges new security chief
Police must develop a network of Muslim spies to gather intelligence on terror suspects plotting attacks in Britain, the former head of MI5 has recommended.
Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller’s demand comes as the country’s new Security Minister urged the public to “grass” on individuals about whom they have suspicions.
An MI5 map indicating the extent of terror networks has been circulated to all police forces in the country.
The terror hot spot is the West Midlands, with about 80 suspected terror networks under surveillance by MI5 and the police, according to security sources yesterday.
It leads though with the news that
Children to get lessons in money - and debt
A new subject called “economic wellbeing and financial capability” will be introduced to the curriculum for all 11 to 16-year-olds to help youngsters to prepare for financial pressures after leaving school.
Anxiety is mounting that a generation is in danger of moving straight from their studies into long-term debt. Higher interest rates have caused misery for millions of households that are struggling to pay mortgages and credit card bills, and mortgage repossessions have gone up by 10 per cent.
Consumer debt stood at £1.25 trillion at the end.
The Mail's lead looks forward to the release today of the Tory party report into social behavoir
Tories: 'We'll stand up for marriage'
Cameron pledges tax shake-up to repair Britain's 'broken society'
David Cameron will pledge to tear up the tax and benefits system in favour of marriage as part of a Conservative crusade to mend Britain's 'broken society'.
The Tory leader said yesterday that there was something 'deeply wrong' with the nation despite its continued economic prosperity.
He highlighted high rates of teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, failing schools, crime rates and prison populations in Britain compared with other European countries.
A landmark Tory report to be published tomorrow is designed to draw clear battle lines with Labour, paving the way for tax breaks and benefit reforms in favour of married couples and families.
The Independent says
The former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who has chaired the party's social-justice policy review, said: "Government needs to recognise where it has been involved in these areas. It has upset the balance, so the balance is against couples that choose to stay together. There are massive financial disincentives and blocks."
Mr Duncan Smith's report, to be published tomorrow, proposes that disaffected youths should be given concert tickets and other rewards in return for doing charity work. Under the scheme, young people would earn credits for doing voluntary work which could be exchanged for tickets and other items. The policy group also proposes tax breaks for charitable giving and suggests making volunteering part of the national curriculum.
Mr Duncan Smith's report will propose charging drinkers up to £400m a year extra in tax to fund new treatment for drug addicts.
FROM HUG A HOODIE TO TREAT A HOODLUM says the Mirror
YOBS should get concert tickets as rewards for staying out of trouble and doing charity work, according to the Tories.
They also want to slap as much as 7p on a pint in extra tax to try to beat binge drinking. They aim to set up alcohol treatment centres and reward married couples with tax breaks with the £400million raised from the booze revenue.
The Sun has not the best news for the advocates of this policy on its front page
Mugger won £4m on lottery
LOTTO jackpot winner Neil Murray is a convicted mugger who robbed an 88-year-old woman, The Sun can reveal.
His shameful past was exposed weeks after he scooped a £4million prize.
Murray, 27, is now refusing to share his windfall with close family because of a bust-up over his cannabis smoking.Murray snatched the purse, containing just £6, and pumped it into arcade fruit machines.
The Mirror hails a British winner of Wimbledon
A BRIT WINS WIMBLEDON
Murray takes doubles title P.S. SOME BLOKE CALLED ROGER DID QUITE WELL TOO
JUBILANT Jamie Murray yesterday became the first British Wimbledon winner for 20 years.
Scot Jamie, 21 - older brother of injured singles star Andy - picked up the mixed doubles trophy with Serbian partner Jelena Jankovic, 22.
He said after their thrilling Centre Court victory: "It was destiny."
Murray finally wins Wimbledon (but it's Jamie, not Andy) says the Mail.
Many papers have pictures of Roger Federer collecting his fifth title.The Guardian reporting that
Roger Federer may be Mr Cool but he was so overcome with emotion after winning his fifth successive Wimbledon title, thereby equalling Bjorn Borg's modern record, that he managed to put on his signature long white trousers the wrong way round for the presentation ceremony. No doubt royalty and officialdom averted their collective eyes or, like everybody else, simply did not care. Surely no men's champion has been so loved and respected at the All England Club, other than Borg himself.
And in a weekend of sporting action,the Telegraph reports on
Le Jardin d'Angleterre hails Gallic tour de force
The Tour de France snaked its way through the Garden of England yesterday, leaving a trail of disgruntled motorists and hungry pensioners in its wake.
But apart from the traffic mayhem and the OAPs in Dartford who had to make do with day-old sandwiches because ''meals on wheels'' could not get through the road closures, the people of Kent embraced this iconic French event with extraordinary enthusiasm.
More than two million spectators lined the tortuous, 216-kilometre (134-mile) route between Greenwich and Canterbury.
It was greeted with parties, picnics and street entertainment of a peculiarly British stamp. The day-long festivities in the small town of Tenterden in the Weald of Kent, for instance, marked the coming of the Tour de France with a tour de force by that celebrated Francophile and cycling enthusiast, Darth Vader. Backed up, of course, by a samba band.
A multi-coloured invasion on two wheels as Le Tour comes to Britain says the Indy
The early birds were at the kerbside with their garden chairs. Other people leaned out of upstairs windows or stood on garden walls. One young man in cycling gear had scaled a telephone box, Goudhurst being the sort of place that still has telephone boxes. A live band had set up in the car park of the Vine restaurant, and Mrs Jill Thorn, whose house overlooked the route, was allowing people to park their bikes in her front garden. "Well, it's difficult if you don't have a lock," she said. Bike thefts in Goudhurst on Tour day? Surely not.
The same paper reports on another less welcome "sport"
'Tombstoning' man killed after jumping off pier
The craze for "tombstoning" - jumping into water from cliffs or buildings - claimed its second life in less than a month this weekend when a man leapt into the sea from an Essex pier.
The man, in his forties, was one of a group of five men who jumped from the end of the pier at Clacton-on-Sea on Saturday evening. He and a second man got into trouble after a strong tide swept them out to sea.
Both men were found lying face down in the water 600ft from shore by a lifeboat crew which was called to the incident. They were taken to hospital by a rescue helicopter.
The second man was last night critically ill in intensive care. His friend died despite intensive resuscitation efforts by paramedics
BOY, 15 KILLED IN SEA HORROR reports the Mirror
A TEENAGER washed out to sea by strong tides died last night after a 90-minute rescue operation.
The 15-year-old boy was taking part in a Tamil Festival when he was swept away in notoriously dangerous waters.
An RAF Sea King helicopter managed to find the youngster and winch him to safety still alive at Wells harbour, north Norfolk.
But by then he had been in the water for too long and was suffering from severe hypothermia. He died several hours later in hospital.
The Telegraph reports that
Miliband warns Iran over nuclear ambitions
Mr Miliband insisted the new Government would “not retreat from the world” in the wake of Tony Blair’s departure but would be a “robust defender” of the national interest. He also signalled Britain was preparing a tough response if Russia this week formally refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the man wanted by the UK authorities for the murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. Jack Straw, one of Mr Miliband’s predecessors as Foreign Secretary, once said that military action against Iran was “inconceivable”.
The Guardian focuses on a
Weekend of death and destruction dents Bush's hopes of turning the tide in Iraq
President George Bush's hopes for making progress with his new Iraq strategy suffered a double blow when there was an upsurge in violence over the weekend and fresh political turmoil in the country.
Twenty-three Iraqi army recruits were killed yesterday the day after a truck bomb killed 150 people in Armili, the second worst attack on civilians since the US invasion in 2003.
The flare-up came as the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, on whom Mr Bush is dependent, faced renewed pressure from both Shia and Sunni parliamentarians. The latter disclosed they are planning a vote of no-confidence on July 15.
Iraqi politicians call on civilians to arm themselves says the Independent
Prominent Shiite and Sunni politicians called on Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend of violence that claimed more than 220 lives, including 60 who died yesterday in a surge of bombings and shootings around Baghdad.
The calls reflect growing frustration with the inability of Iraqi security forces to prevent extremist attacks.
The weekend deaths included two American soldiers - one killed Sunday in a suicide bombing on the western outskirts and Baghdad and another who died in combat Saturday in Salahuddin province north of the capital, the US command said. Three soldiers were wounded in the Sunday blast.
Monday, July 09, 2007
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