POLICE investigating the cash for honours scandal seized evidence that Downing Street had plotted to hand peerages to eight of the 12 businessmen who had bankrolled Labour’s 2005 election campaign.
A draft honours list, drawn up in September 2005, showed that the plan to offer peerages to businessmen who had loaned Labour millions of pounds had involved twice as many lenders as previously disclosed.
Scotland Yard discovered that every Labour lender who was eligible for a seat in the House of Lords was initially nominated in lists compiled for Tony Blair by his top aides.
The Observer meanwhile reports that
Blair aide's wife attacks police for 'Gestapo' tactics
The wife of Downing Street's former chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, has lifted the lid on the private fury felt by Tony Blair's inner circle over the cash-for-peerages inquiry, accusing the police of 'Gestapo tactics'.
In a remarkable intervention, which contrasts with the measured language of the former Prime Minister, Sarah Helm singled out a dawn raid on the former Number 10 aide Ruth Turner as a sign of police heavy-handedness.
Helm, a journalist and author, writes in today's Observer: 'I know one shouldn't make these comparisons, but I was writing about Nazi Germany right then and I couldn't help think: Gestapo tactics! Pick on the vulnerable, preferably a single woman, living alone. No matter that you may have nothing on her that will ultimately stand up in court - give her a scare.'
Labour donors in 'cash-for-honours' affair still hope for a place in Lords says the Independent
Millionaire donors at the centre of the cash-for-honours affair still hope they will receive places in the House of Lords amid speculation that Tony Blair may deliver a stinging rebuke to his critics over the cash-for-honours affair and grant peerages to his financial backers on his final honours list.
Sir Gulam Noon, the ready-meals millionaire, told The Independent on Sunday that he would be ready to accept a peerage if it was offered in Mr Blair's farewell list, which has been delayed because of the lengthy police inquiry into secret loans to the Labour Party.
And Sir Christopher Evans, whose multi-million biotech empire includes Merlin Biosciences, revealed to the IoS that Labour figures had suggested to him that he should become a science minister in the House of Lords.
As the waters continued to rise yesterday,the papers begin to analyse what went wrong
Ministers blamed for flood defence failures says the Telegraph
Ministers were accused of mishandling the crisis and doing little to ensure that areas were properly protected after three days of downpours.
As the full extent of the latest flooding became clear last night, swathes of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Lincolnshire were under water. A major rescue operation brought hundreds of people from their homes and vehicles. The RAF said it was its largest deployment of rescue helicopters in peacetime.
Met Office warned ministers months ago about flooding says the Observer
Ministers were warned months ago that the country faced heavy flooding this summer but too little was done to protect vulnerable towns and villages, The Observer can reveal.
As communities mopped up after the heavy flash flooding across the country and with the prospect of more to come, Gordon Brown yesterday promised local authorities that they would be given 100 per cent compensation for the costs of dealing with the rainfall.
But experts were asking why more was not done to shore up flood defences. Earlier this year, the Met Office and risk planners in Whitehall told ministers that because of the El Nino effect, which changes global weather patterns, this summer would have much wetter weather than usual.
The Road to hell says the front of the Mail
The largest rescue airlift in post-war Britain was under way as tens of thousands of flood victims were caught up in what emergency services described as 'mayhem and chaos'.
As widescale floods forced overstretched rescuers to call in the Army and RAF, officials warned that two of the biggest rivers in the South West were ready to burst their banks.
The torrential downpours, which stretched from South Wales to Humberside, led to astonishing scenes on the M5, with up to 10,000 vehicles left stranded overnight in a 40-mile gridlock.
It's not over yet: washout Britain on alert for more flooding says the Times
THE Environment Agency yesterday warned of an immediate risk of further flooding, with water released by last week’s torrential downpours threatening to overwhelm river and drainage systems across the country.
Last night six severe flood warnings remained in place in the Midlands and motorists were still facing long delays on the M5 and the M50. Police advised anyone venturing through Hereford and Worcestershire to pack plenty of supplies and warm clothing as more heavy rain is predicted in the region today and into this week.
“It’s not over yet,” said Phil Rothwell, head of flood risk policy at the Environment Agency. “Over the next one to two days some of our biggest rivers like the Severn will keep rising. The areas around the Severn, [upper] Thames, upper Great Ouse and others in Lincolnshire will remain at risk of floods.”
MY WATERS HAVE BROKEN reports the News of the World
BABY was born in a monster 10-mile traffic jam on the M5 as heavy rain brought more chaos to Britain's flooded roads, towns and villages.
Amazingly, a midwife was travelling just two cars behind and helped deliver the child in a caravan at 6am on Saturday.
The mum, believed to be from Halifax, West Yorks, had no way of getting to hospital after her waters broke when she was stuck in a nine-hour tailback near junction 6 in Worcester.
Another road to hell perhaps as the Telegraph reports that
Tories call on David Cameron to quit
The bid to destabilise the Tory leader comes after months of dissent over his modernising strategy, including a revolt over grammar schools, and his party's humiliating third-place defeat in two by-elections last week.
At least two MPs, and possibly as many as half a dozen, have written to Sir Michael Spicer, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, to call for a vote of no confidence, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
The letters are the first concrete evidence of rebellion since Mr Cameron took over in December 2005 and will be seized on by his enemies as evidence that the Cameron project is unravelling.
TORY CRISIS AS CAM AIDE QUITS reports the Mirror
DAVID Cameron's polling day disaster claimed its first casualty yesterday as a vicious turf war erupted among his downcast troops.
The Tory leader was today heading for a photo opportunity in an African village as news broke that top aide George Bridges was quitting.
Campaigns director Mr Bridges - a key member of Mr Cameron's inner circle and an old Etonian chum - walked out after a series of rows at Tory HQ, according to insiders. It plunged the party into meltdown after their two "appalling" by-election results last week when they failed to make headway against Labour.
Gordon Brown has presided over a surge in support for the Labour Party that today breaks through the politically symbolic 40 per cent barrier for the first time in nearly two years.
As David Cameron faces the first signs of a shadow cabinet revolt after the Tories slumped to third place in two by-elections on Thursday night, an Ipsos MORI poll for today's Observer puts Labour on 41 per cent, a six-point lead over the Tories on 35 per cent. This is the first time Labour's support has risen above 40 per cent since November 2005. The Liberal Democrats remain unchanged on 15 per cent.
The Mail reports on the
Cameron and a 'Haynes guide' to fixing broken down Britain
David Cameron has borrowed from the iconic Haynes guides to car repairs in his latest attempt to sell Tory ideas.
The Conservatives have produced an eye-catching pamphlet called Breakdown Britain - in the style of the hard-back motoring manuals found in every garage - to highlight their plans to combat drugs and family breakdown.
Described as a 'citizen's repair manual' it illustrates social problems as if they were broken car components, suggesting potential Tory solutions.
Meanwhile according to the Independent
Brown's plans to build three million new homes 'will bankrupt social housing
sector in five years'
Government plans to ease the country's housing shortage by building three million homes will bankrupt most of the social housing sector within five years, an industry body claims.
The National Housing Federation (NHF), which represents England's social housing providers, says ministers' financial predictions are based on an assumption that housing associations will fund the work by taking out huge loans which, in reality, they will be unable to afford.
The NHF hit out before the publication tomorrow of the Government's Housing Green Paper, which is expected to include the release of public sector land for housing and carbon-neutral eco-towns.
It has a rather strange lead though
Fat: a middle-class issue
Middle-class mothers who work long hours increase the risk of their offspring being overweight or obese, according to an astonishing new study.
Research revealed by The Independent on Sunday for the first time will turn perceived wisdom on its head with the revelation that the nation's higher-paid working mothers bear much of the responsibility for the country's ticking obesity time bomb, and not the poorer working-class families who are usually blamed.
More shockingly, the risk of childhood obesity soars in direct correlation with family income. Children in families where household income is greater than £33,000 are significantly more likely to be overweight or obese than youngsters from families with the lowest incomes, the new study shows. And in higher income households, the longer a mother worked each week, the greater the risk of the child being overweight
Missing: MoD's army of 1,000 press officers reports the Telegraph
Defence chiefs are spending millions of pounds of taxpayers' money on 1,000 "spin doctors" in an attempt to boost the military's public image.Yet in a striking admission, an internal Ministry of Defence (MoD) document reveals that senior officials have "no clear idea" of who they are, whether they are making an impact, or their actual cost to the country.
The document, The Defence Communications Strategy, also contains what is believed to be the first official admission by the Government that there is little or no support for the war in Iraq among the British public.
Anger over NHS plan to give addicts iPods reports the Times
DRUG addicts are to be offered gift vouchers and prizes on the National Health Service under plans by the government’s medicine watchdog to encourage them to stay clean.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) will recommend the system of inducements, which could enable clinics to offer televisions and iPods as prizes, to tackle the burgeoning drugs problem. But patients denied drugs for blindness, Alzheimer’s and lung cancer under Nice rationing are likely to accuse it of wasting public money.
The Observer reports that
Science chief: cut birthrate to save Earth
The new head of the Science Museum has an uncompromising view about how global warming should be dealt with: get rid of a few billion people. Chris Rapley, who takes up his post on September 1, is not afraid of offending. 'I am not advocating genocide,' said Rapley. 'What I am saying is that if we invest in ways to reduce the birthrate - by improving contraception, education and healthcare - we will stop the world's population reaching its current estimated limit of between eight and 10 billion
The Sunday Mirror reports that
LEWIS SURVIVES HORROR CRASH
FORMULA One racing driver Lewis Hamilton smiles with relief after he survived a terrifying high-speed crash yesterday.
Wheel failure caused the 22-year-old Briton's McLaren car to career out of control across the Nurburgring track in Germany at 175mph before skidding across a gravel trap and smashing into the barriers.Dramatic TV pictures of the qualifying session showed Lewis stagger from his car before collapsing at the feet of marshals.
Millions of viewers at home and abroad had to wait an anxious 15 minutes to find out how badly injured he was.
Then, as the great British hopeful was stretchered off the track with a neck brace and saline drip, he gave a defiant thumbs-up - and the nation breathed a sigh of relief.
Beijing’s ‘war on terror’ hides brutal crackdown on Muslims says the Times
Today China is waging a propaganda and security battle to guarantee its control over Xinjiang, its name for the vast province rich in minerals and strategic supplies of oil and gas which are vital to the expanding Chinese economy.
China claims that Al-Qaeda has trained more than 1,000 members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, classified as a terrorist group by America and the United Nations.
The group took its name from the short-lived Republic of East Turkestan that was declared in Xinjiang after the second world war, then crushed by the communist revolution of 1949.
China has persuaded Pakistan and Kazakhstan to hand over captured militants for interrogation, secret trials and execution, a policy that may have fuelled the fundamentalist rage now gripping Pakistan.
Nationalism casts shadow over Turkey's poll battle reports the Observer
Turkey today holds perhaps the most important parliamentary elections in its history. The poll was called four months early after the political deadlock over a suitable presidential candidate that paralysed the country in May.
The governing AKP has based its campaign on its economic record. The opposition parties have focused on accusing the Islamic-rooted party of threatening Turkey's secular system.
But it is the reigniting of the Kurdish conflict, which has killed more than 70 soldiers this summer, that has become the unexpected big issue for voters in today's elections, bolstering nationalist candidates such as Bahceli.
Finally The News of the World reveals on its front page that
BRITAIN will say a tearful ‘Ta-ra, chuck' to Vera Duckworth later this year when actress Liz Dawn exits Coronation Street—ending one of TV's best-loved partnerships.
Loudmouth Vera and her henpecked husband Jack have kept Corrie fans entertained for almost three decades. She will quit the Street before Christmas after 34 years and more than 2,000 episodes. But she won't be killed off, leaving the way open for special appearances alongside screen hubby Bill Tarmey, 66, who will carry on as Jack despite his own problems with heart disease
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