The reverberations of the PM's decision not to hold an election dominate many of the headlines this morning

Gordon Brown struggles after election decision says the Telegraph

He will face a grilling at a Downing Street press conference that will be dominated by his decision to pull back from the brink, and in the Commons he will make a statement on Iraq outlining troop withdrawals.

After the election that never was, Brown faces the music reports the Mail

Gordon Brown will today begin rebuilding his reputation by admitting responsibility for a political blunder which has shattered Labour morale and left the Tories jubilant.
His decision to duck an autumn election handed an unexpected coup to David Cameron and triggered a bitter blame-game at the heart of his own party.
Deputy Leader Harriet Harman added to a sense of crisis by suggesting the episode could have caused long-term damage to Mr Brown.

The same paper reporting

Women voters turn to Cameron

Crucially, the Tories have successfully wooed back 'Worcester Woman' - seen by pollsters as the stereotypical Middle England voter whose support for Tony Blair helped him seize power in 1997.
She has been won over by popular pledges including cuts to stamp duty and inheritance tax, as well as family-friendly policies and pledges to get tough on crime. In one poll, Mr Cameron had a six-point lead among women, whereas a week ago he trailed by 16 points.

He's in the Brown stuff is the front page of the Sun

BATTERED Gordon Brown was forced to launch his desperate fightback after the Tories surged ahead with winning tax plans.
The PM has now ordered a review of inheritance tax after David Cameron revealed that the Conservatives would treble the threshold to £1million.
That and a plan to axe stamp duty for first-time home-buyers helped slash Labour’s 11-point opinion poll lead.
And yesterday Mr Brown told the BBC that an election was “unlikely” until 2009. He claimed he scrapped thoughts of a November poll because his priority was “to get on with the job of change in this country”.

Brown fightback begins as aides admit mistakes says the Guardian

Gordon Brown, his credibility severely damaged by his belated decision to call off a planned general election, is to mount an intensive fightback today by announcing further troop withdrawals from Iraq and confronting his media critics at a Downing Street press conference.


He is expected to say that a maximum of 500 new asylum places in Britain will be made available to Iraqis under threat of persecution, including interpreters and others who worked for British forces in Basra or the embassy in Baghdad.

On the topic of Iraq the Times reports that

Government ‘gave public false hopes’ on achieving Iraq goals

The Government as a whole gave the public “false and inflated expectations” of what could be achieved by British troops in Iraq, its top military adviser has admitted to The Times.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of Defence Staff, said that it would take “many years” for conditions to improve substantially in Basra. He also revealed that there were no plans to establish a “permanent British base” in Iraq.
In a wideranging interview, Sir Jock was also sceptical of the call by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army, for homecoming parades for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. “I think a lot of units wouldn’t want parades,” he said.

It leads with a twist on the Brown story

Tightest squeeze on wallets in a decade says the paper

Gordon Brown is facing an economic downturn next year as he struggles to recover from the humiliation of being forced to call off an autumn general election.
Amid signs that the “feelgood factor” is on the wane, a study out today finds the squeeze on people’s spending money is at its worst level in at least 10 years, thanks to higher tax bills and the rising cost of essentials such as food, fuel and mortgages.

The Independent also attacks the government but this time over the NHS,claiming that

NHS PAYS OUT £665M IN BIRTH ERRORS

Childbirth is claimed to be safer than ever. Yet the price paid by the NHS for deliveries going catastrophically wrong has risen 59 per cent to £259m – enough to fund the consultants and midwives needed to save thousands of babies and mothers from harm.
The dangers of childbirth in the modern health service are highlighted today by figures showing that £665m has been paid out over the past three years to settle medical negligence claims where obstetric deliveries have gone catastrophically wrong.

Meanwhile the Guardian reports

NHS patients who complain risk victimisation, say inspectors

NHS patients who complain about a poor standard of care are at risk of being victimised, health inspectors warn today after the first national audit of the complaints system in England. The Healthcare Commission said it launched the review after becoming increasingly concerned about how hospitals and primary care trusts respond when patients criticise the behaviour of staff or conditions in hospitals or GP surgeries.

Both the Mirror and the Express return to the Maddy story for their front pages

WE'LL BE SUSPECTS FOR EVER says the Mirror

Distraught Kate and Gerry McCann fear they will be forced to live under a cloud of suspicion for the rest of their lives.
They believe bungling Portuguese police will never solve the mystery of Madeleine's disappearance - and have little hope of finding her dead or alive.
A source close to the family said: "Gerry and Kate could go on forever without knowing what happened to their daughter and that's unbearable.

According to the Express though

MADELEINE PARENTS IN THE CLEAR

THE case against Kate and Gerry McCann lay in tatters last night after DNA evidence was found to be inconclusive.
With no fresh leads, Portuguese police are coming under increasing pressure to clear the couple.Now friends of the McCanns have said it is time for the investigation to focus on finding missing Madeleine.

.

Many of the papers report that

Disabled girl to have womb removed

A mother has provoked an ethical row by getting the backing of doctors to remove her disabled daughter's womb to improve the teenager's "quality of life" in adulthood.

reports the Telegraph

Alison Thorpe said her 15-year-old daughter Katie, who cannot walk or talk, and needs round the clock care, will suffer undue pain, confusion and indignity by the onset of womanhood.
She wants surgeons to carry out a hysterectomy to save her daughter, who she says has no prospect of having a child, from the distress and inconvenience of menstruating.

Anti-war protesters to defy ban for Parliament march says the Independent

Anti-war protesters are expected to clash with police today as they defy a ban to march to Parliament on the day MPs return to work after the summer recess.
Campaigners say this is the first time Scotland Yard has invoked an ancient law to prevent them demonstrating near Parliament, describing it is an "unprecedented attack on civil liberties". One said the impetus for the crackdown on the march had come from Government, adding: "In this new era [under Gordon Brown] they want to draw a line under the anti-war movement."

Iraq insurgency: Fighting on the beaches reports the Telegraph

US Marines in Iraq's Anbar province have taken the battle against al-Qa'eda to the unlikely setting of a beachside resort in the desert.
Daily patrols to prevent extremists gaining control of a dilapidated, formerly opulent tourist hotel are assigned to C Battery, 1 Battalion, 11 Marines.
At stake is the security of coalition airbases across the horizon of Lake Habaniya, as well as regular helicopter patrols around the rim.

The Times reports on the

Briton in coma after mosquito bite in US

A Briton who is in a coma after being bitten by a mosquito is thought to have become the first European victim of the deadly “Triple E” virus.
Michael Nicholson, 35, began to feel tired after he returned from a fishing holiday in Rhode Island, in the northeast United States, with bites around his ankles.
When Mr Nicholson, a painter from Livingston, West Lothian, went to see his GP he suffered a seizure and then lost consciousness. If he lives, he is expected to be severely disabled for the rest of his life.

Switzerland reeling as radicals create havoc at rightwing political rally says the Guardian

The Swiss capital of Berne was turned into a battle zone at the weekend when leftwing radicals seized control of the main square outside parliament, routing the main far-right political party two weeks before a general election and catching the Swiss police off guard.
Dozens of protesters were arrested and around two dozen people injured, mostly police officers, as police deployed tear gas, water cannon, and rubber bullets to try to regain control from gangs of highly organised, masked people who turned the small and normally sleepy capital of Switzerland into a scene of devastation.

POST STRIKE TO LAST TILL CHRISTMAS says the Express

THE longest Royal Mail strike for more than a decade could continue until Christmas.
Postal workers were due to begin the second of their two 48-hour strikes this morning. The first strike ended at noon on Saturday.
And more rolling strikes are planned from next Monday till the dispute over pay, jobs and pensions is resolved.

‘Hoodie not a goodie’ says the Sun

THIS new type of hoodie – which hides the wearer’s face – was branded a hooligan’s tool yesterday.
Made of camouflage material with two plastic discs to see out of, it is one of a range that has sparked fury.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: “It is the height of irresponsibility for companies to be marketing clothes that would not be out of place in any hooligan’s tool kit.”

Many of the papers report that

YOB PUNCHES FIST THROUGH £20M MONET

The Mirror reporting that

Thugs broke into a museum and punched a hole through a £20million painting by Claude Monet.
Cctv cameras caught four to five youths, believed to be drunk, entering the building in Paris as the city held its annual all-night festival of music and art.
One of them thumped the 19th century Impressionist masterpiece Le Pont d'Argenteuil leaving a 10cm gash in the middle.
The gang fled when the alarm went off and staff arrived at the Museum Orsay in the early hours of yesterday.

Summer's here - just a few months too late! says the Mail

The Indian summer is expected to continue this week, with temperatures hitting 70F in many parts.
Long spells of sunshine will provide a welcome pick-me-up following the wettest June, July and August on record complete with hail, torrential downpours and floods.
Today should be mild and dry in all areas. And although rain is expected tomorrow, we are promised that the sun will soon be back. Bright spells are expected on Wednesday and it will stay dry, with light winds of less than 10mph helping keep the weather fine for the rest of the week.

Back to nature: £12m plan to let sea flood reclaimed land and recreate lost habitats says the Guardian

Conservation experts are to reverse five centuries of British history and deliberately allow rising sea levels to flood a huge stretch of reclaimed Essex coastline. In the most ambitious and expensive project of its type, the RSPB intends to puncture sea defences around Wallasea island, near Southend, and turn 728 hectares (1,800 acres) of farmland into a mosaic of saltmarsh, creeks and mudflats - making mainland Britain just a little bit smaller.

Finally the Indy reports on

Clone-town Britain faces a rebellion on the high street

Towns sporting rows of identical houses and predictable shops have become the norm across Britain, but their days may be numbered. Independent retailers and creative new buildings are starting to break up the monotony.
The British high street is breaking free from the tyranny of the chain store and using home-grown businesses to attract visitors, says the Work Foundation think-tank. Its investigation into the identities of the nation's towns and cities found a growing backlash against uniform housing estates and unimaginative architecture. From Cambridge to Cardiff, towns and cities are keen to assert their regional identities, says the paper, "Distinctiveness and Cities – Beyond 'Find and Replace' Economic Development". It pointed to the success of Manchester's gay-friendly Canal Street and Edinburgh's flourishing financial centre as examples where inspiration has been drawn from local characteristics