The budget dominates the headlines today.

The Times calls it the hangover Budget

Drinkers and drivers were hit in the pocket yesterday as Alistair Darling used them and a borrowing surge to try to steer Britain away from recession and through global financial storms.
In an austere first Budget, Mr Darling increased drink prices — from 3p on a litre of cider to 55p on a bottle of whisky — with the promise of automatic above-inflation rises in the years to come. But consumers could be struggling with a severe hangover next Monday because the Chancellor left a four-day gap before the new prices come into effect on Sunday night, prompting predictions of a stampede to the supermarkets this weekend

The hesitant debutante says the Guardian

Alistair Darling forced Britain's drinkers to foot the bill for Labour's crusade to eradicate child poverty yesterday, as his first budget as chancellor revealed the impact of the global credit crunch on the government's already tight finances.
In what one City commentator called a Mother Hubbard package, Darling promised economic stability but offered little hope for Labour MPs that they could go into an election in either 2009 or 2010 with a credible offer of tax cuts, or extra public spending.

The Mail calls him the man with Rose tinted glasses

Alistair Darling took a major gamble yesterday on Britain sailing through a global crisis.
In his first Budget, the Chancellor presented a rose-tinted picture of the economy to disbelieving MPs.He foresaw steady long-term growth, despite City warnings

.

For the Telegraph,the Chancellor

Declares war on family cars

Motorists have been hit by punitive rises in taxes as Alistair Darling targeted the drivers of family cars with a new 'showroom tax'.The Chancellor announced plans that will mean owners of estate cars and people carriers could pay hundreds of pounds a year more to drive on the roads.

Don't drink and drive says the front page of the Sun

Killjoy Chancellor Alistair Darling clobbered drinkers with a SIX PER CENT tax hike on booze.
And he hammered motorists driving typical family saloons with new road tax bands, aimed at cutting carbon emissions.

The Independent on its front page describes

If you want to understand what is happening don't listen to the words; look instead at the numbers. The words were the same as in the previous 10 Budgets, but the person saying those words was different. It was almost as though the new Chancellor was reading out a speech written by his predecessor. Indeed I suspect in large measure that is what happened.

The Express picks up on a comment made in the Commons

SO WHAT!?'

THE shocking extent of Labour’s sneering arrogance was laid bare on Budget Day yesterday.
Tory leader David Cameron accused them of imposing the heaviest tax burden in our history.
With a laugh and a shrug, Children’s Minister Ed Balls sniggeringly retorted: “So what?”
Mr Balls then grinned and widened his eyes into a wild stare as the Tory leader rounded on him in disgust, noting for all to hear: “So what, says the Minister for Children.”

Away from the budget and the Mirror is the only paper not to have the Chancellor on its front page running with

Suicide cops secret lover

Troubled police chief Mike Todd may have killed himself on a mountain over the discovery of his long-running affair with a prominent businesswoman.
A police source said yesterday: "It is thought he has been having a long-term affair with a businesswoman.
"I understand her husband has found out about the relationship and has gone ballistic.

Tormented police chief 'was having affair with high-flyer' says the Mail

Married father-of-three Michael Todd, 50, had drunk half a bottle of gin and 'reeked of alcohol' when he was found face down on a snow-covered slope near the gale-lashed summit of Snowdon.
It is understood the Greater Manchester police chief had been in torment since last Thursday when word of his friendship with Angie Robinson reached his wife Carolyn, 47.

Most of the papers report that

Prostitute behind Spitzer sex scandal revealed

The Times reports

Eliot Spitzer resigned as Governor of New York yesterday after a sex scandal put an abrupt end to the political career of a rising star who seemed destined for the White House.
Mr Spitzer, a crusading former prosecutor once known as the Sheriff of Wall Street, said that he would “leave public life” two days after he was identified as Client 9 in a $5,500-an-hour international call-girl ring.
He will be replaced on Monday by his deputy, David Paterson, who will be New York’s first black Governor and the first blind one in US history.

Appearing in public for the first time in almost two days, the former city public prosecutor, whose contact with an escort agency had brought him to the attention of the FBI, admitted his "private failings" and said he had "begun to atone" for his actions.
"From those to whom much is given, much is expected. I have been given much, the love of my family, the faith and trust of the people of New York and the chance to lead this state," he said, as his wife Silda stood at his side.

says the Telegraph

The Guardian reports that

Iraqi asylum seekers given deadline to go home

More than 1,400 rejected Iraqi asylum seekers are to be told they must go home or face destitution in Britain as the government considers Iraq safe enough to return them, according to leaked Home Office correspondence seen by the Guardian.
The Iraqis involved are to be told that unless they sign up for a voluntary return programme to Iraq within three weeks, they face being made homeless and losing state support. They will also be asked to sign a waiver agreeing the government will take no responsibility for what happens to them or their families once they return to Iraqi territory.

On the same topic the Independent reports

Peers lobby Smith to halt deportation of gay Iranian

More than 60 peers have signed a letter to the Home Secretary urging the Government to halt the deportation of a gay Iranian teenager who faces execution if he is returned to his homeland.
Mehdi Kazemi, 19, has lost his claim for asylum in Britain, even though his family has told the Home Office that his life is in danger after his former boyfriend in Iran was arrested and hanged for sodomy. The case has now attracted worldwide attention and, last night, 63 members of the House of Lords signed a letter to Jacqui Smith calling on the Government to show compassion and to grant Mr Kazemi sanctuary in Britain

Kicked and stamped to death for being a goth reports the Telegraph

A drunken 15-year-old boy kicked and stamped to death a young woman because she was dressed as a Goth, a court has heard.The teenager was among a five-strong gang, "acting like a pack of wild animals" as they "savagely and mercilessly" attacked Sophie Lancaster, 20, and her boyfriend, Preston Crown Court heard.

The Times reports

Boy, 9, took on knifeman to save mother

A nine-year-old boy who was slashed in the face as he tried to protect his mother was praised for his bravery by a judge yesterday.
Nathan Thomson was recommended for a bravery award for his attempts to fight off an armed intruder who broke into the family house last year in Rosyth, Fife.
Hugh Clark, 35, attempted to murder Nathan’s mother, Ena, stabbing her eight times in the head, neck, chest and shoulders. When the boy jumped on Clark’s back to try to protect her the intruder turned on him, slashing him across the face with a kitchen knife.

How could she just vanish asks the Sun

CLINGING desperately to hope, the mother of missing nine-year-old Shannon Matthews told yesterday how she believes her daughter is still alive.
But with every passing day that hope, and the thoughts of millions of anxious wellwishers, grows more forlorn.
It is more than three weeks since Karen Matthews’ freckle-faced “little princess” Shannon disappeared on her way home from school in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorks.

Religious state schools accused of fuelling social segregation reports the Guardian

Covert selection by religious state schools has fuelled social segregation in education, some of the most respected academic authorities on schools admissions have told MPs. Class and ethnic divides between faith schools and other state schools have grown since 1990 and are worst in areas where faith schools apply "potentially selective" admissions criteria, research shows

.

The Telegraph reports

Pratchett attacks the NHS over Alzheimer's policy

The bestselling author, who was diagnosed with the early-onset form of the disease last year, will also say it is a "shock and a shame" that research funding for the disease is a tiny proportion of that available for cancer, as he donates £500,000 towards research into a cure.
As someone in the early stages of the debilitating brain disease, he is denied the drug Aricept on the NHS and, like other sufferers, must pay for it himself.

The Mail reports on the

Bombed cadet loses half of blindness payout because he had already lost an eye

An army cadet who lost his sight in an IRA bombing has been docked £55,000 in compensation because he was already partially blind.
Stephen Menary, 21, suffered horrific injuries in the blast outside a Territorial Army centre seven years ago.
The bomb blew off his left hand and ear and ripped open his chest and stomach.
It also destroyed his left eye – the right he had lost to cancer as a baby.
Bureaucrats seized on this to rule that rather than get £110,000 for total blindness Mr Menary would receive £55,000, the payment for losing one eye.

Most of the papers report on the royal visit to the Caribbean

I'M JUST BONGERS says the Mirror

Prince Charles becomes the Prince of Wailers as he bops a bongo drum yesterday.
The royal and his wife Camilla were cheered as they tried to keep time with local musicians in the fun session at the former home of reggae legend Bob Marley in Kingston, Jamaica

Finally back to the budget and Simon Hoggart in the Guardian reports

Howe's title snatched heads down

Is Alistair Darling the most boring chancellor ever? Put it this way: he sent Geoffrey Howe to sleep. This is an epoch-making achievement, like Andy Murray beating Roger Federer - a portent that the torch has been passed to a new generation.
The former chancellor, now Lord Howe, was the proud holder of that ancient title, the ultimate mega-snooze, Denis Healey's "dead sheep", a man whose first throat-clearing could empty a packed room