Friday, March 14, 2008

The papers continue to attack the budget this morning

Higher tax for 9 in 10 drivers is the lead in the Telegraph

The full scale of the clampdown on middle-class motorists has become clear after it emerged that nine in 10 cars will be affected by higher rates of tax under plans announced in the Budget.Analysis shows that over the next two years, millions of drivers will face soaring bills as road tax on some popular family models doubles


Now a tax on hard work says the Express

Hard-working families will suffer most under Alistair Darling’s stealth-tax Budget, it emerged yesterday.
Meanwhile, lone parents and households where no one works will be rewarded with a significant boost to their incomes.


Budget will worsen the slowdown, say business leaders reports the Independent

A survey of 100 prominent businessmen and women by ComRes found that three in four rejected Mr Darling's central claim that his strategy would help Britain weather the global economic storm. Some 73 per cent said they believed the Budget would contribute to an economic downturn in the UK, while 23 per cent thought it would not.


Meanwhile the Times reports that

Gold soars as panicking investors seek safety

Panicking investors snapped up gold yesterday as the price rose to more than $1,000 per ounce for the first time amid escalating fears of the global credit crisis.
Oil also rose to a new record, at $110 a barrel, as the US dollar fell to fresh lows, fuelling fears of an American recession.
News that a $21 billion mortgage fund had collapsed sent shivers through markets. Bankers said the collapse of Carlyle Capital Corporation (CCC), a fund listed in Amsterdam and owned by the US private equity giant Carlyle, was a sign that the credit crunch had taken a deadly turn


Dollar plunge sets off global alarm bells says the Telegraph

The greenback broke below 100 yen in a day of wild trading, setting off alarm bells at Japan's Keidanren industry lobby. It touched a record $1.5620 against the euro and came within a whisker of parity with the Swiss franc for the first time in history.



And if it's not the budget then MP's are under attack

The Mail reveals on its front page

The extraordinary £22,000 shopping list of luxury goods every MP can buy at YOUR expense

They are allowed to claim a total of £22,000 for a range of items ranging from a £200 food processor and a £750 high-definition TV to £10,000 for a new kitchen and £6,000 for a bathroom.
The secret list of 38 items MPs can claim back from the taxpayer for their second homes was revealed last night under the Freedom of Information Act after the authorities fought to keep it under wraps


On the makeover says the Sun

A LUXURY “wedding list” of household items MPs can order with taxpayers’ cash was revealed yesterday.
Politicians can spend up to £10,000 for a new kitchen and £6,335 to instal a new bathroom.
They can choose beds costing up to £1,000, DVD players up to £270, TVs at £750 and £750 stereo systems.


And the Guardian has

the MPs' guide to setting up home on expenses adding that

Parliamentary officials had previously declined to release the list, fearing that MPs would automatically claim the maximum amount available for each item. But last night the Press Association accessed the list through the Freedom of Information Act.


The paper leads with the news that

Blair to lead campaign on climate change

The former prime minister believes he can help prepare a blueprint for an agreement to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2050, and has the backing of the White House, the UN and Europe, including Gordon Brown.
He told the Guardian he has been working on the project with a group of climate change experts since he left office last summer, and will publish an interim report to the G8 group of industrialised nations this summer
.

There is continuing speculation about Mike Todd,the Telegraph reports

The tangled love life of the chief constable found dead on a Welsh mountain was disclosed last night, as it emerged he had a three-year affair with a high-flying businesswoman, a relationship with another police officer and made advances towards a series of other women.


Husband of dead police chief's mistress is battling bowel cancer reports the Mail

Estate agent John Robinson, 52, is fighting the disease at the same time as trying to save his 30-year marriage to Angie Robinson.


'I loved Michael very much and the last time I spoke to him he told me he loved me too' says the Mirror

Carolyn Todd, 47, dismissed reports that their 27-year marriage had ended because of the dashing Chief Constable's string of affairs.
The mum of three praised him as a "caring and loving father and husband" and added poignantly: "I loved Michael very much and the last time I spoke to him he told me he loved me too."


Eliot Spitzer sex scandal cashes in says the Times

The call-girl who brought down the Governor of New York moved yesterday to use her new-found celebrity to boost her flagging singing career.
Ashley Alexandra Dupré, a struggling singer, uploaded a new track to Amie Street, an online music-seller, hours after she was exposed as the prostitute Kristen talking on tape about the disgraced Eliot Spitzer


The Guardain reports

Runway invader sparks new security fears

British airport chiefs were facing renewed questions over security yesterday after an intruder carrying a rucksack managed to get on to the runway at Heathrow in the second serious breach at the UK's biggest airport in three weeks.
The man ran on to the northern runway after clambering over a chain link security fence and had to be forced to the ground at gunpoint by armed police. He had been able to walk under a parked Emirates passenger jet before being challenged, a senior police source said.
The breach, which delayed several flights, came on the eve of the opening the new Terminal 5 by the Queen.


Canoe man gets his memory back says the Sun

CANOE man John Darwin’s memory came back yesterday – as he finally confessed to faking his own death.
The debt-ridden dad – who claimed he had amnesia when he walked into a police station five years after being “lost” at sea – admitted to a judge his disappearance was all a scam.
He pleaded guilty to SEVEN charges of deception involving £250,000 in life insurance and other payouts
.

Give flexible leave to new parents, say Tories reports the Telegraph

Fathers and mothers will both be able to take more than six months paid leave together after having a baby, under radical Conservative plans to make the party appear more family friendly.The proposals, unveiled by David Cameron, would introduce a system of "flexible parental leave" allowing parents to have up to a year off between them following the birth of a child



The front page of the Independent says that

Iraq: teachers told to rewrite history

Britain's biggest teachers' union has accused the Ministry of Defence of breaking the law over a lesson plan drawn up to teach pupils about the Iraq war. The National Union of Teachers claims it breaches the 1996 Education Act, which aims to ensure all political issues are treated in a balanced way.
Teachers will threaten to boycott military involvement in schools at the union's annual conference next weekend, claiming the lesson plan is a "propaganda" exercise and makes no mention of any civilian casualties as a result of the war


Islamic Jihad resumes rocket attacks on Israel after brief lull reports the Guardian

After seven days of relative calm between Hamas and Israel, rival Palestinian groups indicated they would no longer support Hamas's proposal for a ceasefire. Islamic Jihad, a group backed by Iran, said it had launched 17 rockets from Gaza as an "initial response" to Israel's raid in the West Bank the night before, in which four fighters were killed


Meanwhile in the Independent,Robert Fisk reports

Few players in the 'war on terror' are more chilling, or misunderstood, than suicide bombers. Yet the true scale of their grisly activities has never been properly calculated. Five years after the invasion of Iraq, Robert Fisk details the shocking extent of the most widespread campaign of self-liquidation in human history


The Telegraph reports that

Kidnapped Archbishop found dead in Iraq

Paolos Faraj Rahho, the 65-year-old head of the Chaldean Catholic church in the northern city of Mosul, was leaving a church after afternoon prayers on February 29 when his car was surrounded by armed men.In the subsequent gun fight his two companions and his driver were shot before he was seized.
The kidnappers subsequently demanded a £1.5 million ransom.


The Times reports that

Tibet monks attempt suicide as China intensifies siege

Beijing has imposed tighter controls across Tibet as the biggest anti-Chinese demonstrations in nearly two decades begin to spread to more far-flung monasteries.
Two monks at Drepung monastery, on the edge of the capital, Lhasa, are reported to be in a serious condition after stabbing themselves in the chest, hands and wrists.
Radio Free Asia said Kalsang and Damchoe had refused to be taken to hospital and were in the monastery clinic. The apparent suicide attempt at the monastery where the protests began on Monday highlights the anger among Tibetans at Chinese repression and the exile of the Dalai Lama.


Father and daughter charged with $70m fraud on 15,000 Britons says the Guardian

Some 15,000 Britons are believed to have fallen for a fake shares scheme which netted millions of dollars, according to charges unveiled in Florida yesterday.
The American father and daughter team behind the scheme face more than 100 years in prison if found guilty on charges of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering, as well as possible fines of double the $70m (£34.5m) they are alleged to have taken from their mainly elderly victims.


According to the Mail

Posh and Becks set a bad example for children, say teachers

David and Victoria Beckham are the leading icons in a damaging celebrity culture that encourages children to believe they can become rich and successful without working hard at school, teachers warn today.
Pupils who dream of becoming pop stars and footballers are neglecting their studies and emulating the worst excesses of their idols' language, behaviour and raunchy clothing, they claim.
A survey of more than 300 teachers found that Posh and Becks are the celebrities most widely admired by schoolchildren, although more than 20 others were also named as role models.


The Express reports on the

ASBO FOR THE ‘BOB THE BUILDER’ YOB AGED EIGHT

A boy of eight dubbed “Damien” after the devil’s child in the movie The Omen has been given an Asbo – to stop him chasing terrified neighbours with DIY tools.
The Bob The Builder fan is now banned from possessing a hammer, saw, screwdriver, nails, chisel, knife, scissors or secateurs in a public place.


Finally The Guardian tells us that

French change rules to exploit the huge bucks to be made from fizz

last night, France moved to redraw the boundaries of the fragmented area designated as champagne land in the biggest shake-up of the industry for 80 years, in an effort to cope with surging world demand, particularly from China and Russia, but also Britain and the US.
The changes promised booming business for the areas around 40 villages - not to mention soaring property prices. For the lucky villages that suddenly find themselves chosen for champagne-growing, in some cases the value of land could suddenly be 200 times what it was.

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