Monday, September 29, 2008

One story dominates most of the front pages and it is the Bradford and Bingley.

Taxpayers must risk billions for Bradford & Bingley says the Times

An unprecedented Sunday of frantic negotiations in Britain, Europe and America resulted in two bank bailouts and a tentative agreement to prop up the world’s financial institutions.
Santander, the Spanish banking giant that owns the Abbey is to take over the running of Bradford & Bingley’s £20 billion savings business and its 200 branches. The bank’s £50 billion mortgages and loans business is to be taken into public ownership.


The Telegraph says that

British taxpayers will be liable for more than £150 billion of potentially toxic mortgage debt following the nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley, one of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders


A theme of the Mail too which says that taxpayers


face a multi-billion pound bill with the forced nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley this morning.
The country's biggest buy-to-let lender will follow Northern Rock into public ownership after becoming the latest casualty of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.


And the Sun sums up the situation

Monte Carlo or bust as it reports that

DOZENS of wealthy Barclays bankers enjoyed a lavish jaunt to the French Riviera – as millions struggle in the grip of the credit crunch.
News of the trip, including a party in Monte Carlo, came BEFORE lawmakers yesterday finally backed a £400billion plan to save America’s financial system and avert global economic disaster. And last night it emerged that troubled mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley was set for nationalisation


The Guardian reports that

Congress agrees deal on $700bn banking bail-out

President George Bush is due to address the American people this morning to build support in Congress and the public for a deal authorising the government to purchase $700bn troubled debt.
Congressional leaders said the 106-page bill, reached yesterday after several days of intense bargaining, could be put to a vote in the House of Representatives as early as today. The Senate is expected to schedule a vote on Wednesday.


A draft bill on the biggest bailout in US history was agreed yesterday by Congressional leaders, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the White House, after marathon negotiations that introduced greater congressional oversight, caps on pay for executives and extra protections for tax-payers.
says the Telegraph

Meanwhile the Tory party conference is under way,the Independent reports that

David Cameron has made a tactical retreat over his claim that Britain had a "broken society", saying instead that "parts of Britain" are broken.
The Tory leader, who has repeatedly pledged to repair Britain's "broken society", refined his statement after it came under sustained attack at last week's Labour conference. He also wanted to bridge an embarrassing divide with Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who last month described such a claim as "piffle


The Times reports some more of his comments

Gordon Brown's had his boom, now he's bust

Faced with polls showing that Labour has eaten slightly into the Tory lead, Mr Cameron opened his party's conference by ridiculing Mr Brown's ten-year stewardship of the economy. He told delegates in Birmingham that Mr Brown had had his boom, but that his reputation was now bust


The Guardian meanwhile reports that

Tories plan £20bn 180mph rail link instead of Heathrow third runway

In one of David Cameron's boldest moves on the environment, the party will today unveil plans to cut 66,000 flights a year from Heathrow by tempting passengers on to the first new rail line north of London in more than a century.
Theresa Villiers, the shadow transport secretary, told the Guardian last night: "This is a seriously green decision. A few years ago it would have been inconceivable for the leader of the Conservative party to say no to a third runway and putting the brakes on Heathrow expansion


The Independent is the only quality to deviate from the financial crisis on its front page where it reports that

Drinking water supplies are to be tested for the presence of prescription drugs amid fears that rivers are being contaminated by the growing quantity of pharmaceuticals flushed unwittingly down the drain.
The Government has commissioned scientists to test river water at intake points where it is abstracted for human consumption, The Independent can reveal. They will also test drinking water after it has been through the water-treatment cycle.


The Times reveals that

Britain is to spend £500 million on hundreds of heavily armoured vehicles to protect troops in Afghanistan.
The decision to acquire 600 vehicles that can withstand landmines and roadside bombs comes after criticism of the Ministry of Defence from the families of servicemen killed while on patrol in lightly armoured “Snatch” Land Rovers


The Express leads with the news that

CLASSROOM yobs will be brought to heel by former soldiers trained as teachers, the Conservatives pledged last night.
Former service personnel will get a £9,000 grant to move to the classroom and stamp out the scourge of anti-social behaviour in our schools.
The plan is based on a hugely successful programme in the US. Last night former services chief Lord Guthrie said it could provide an answer to the problems of “youth knife crime, drugs and violence in our inner cities”.


and an army theme on the front of the Mirror how Ant and Dec attacked by the Taliban in Afghanistan

The petrified stars, in the war zone to present a Mirror Pride of Britain Award, had to dive for cover when the Taliban shelled Kandahar airport.
Ant, 32, said: “It was pretty hairy – not something I’d like to experience again.
“All the guys around us were pulling on body armour.


The Times reports that New era dawns at home of the internet

The dawn of a new internet age has begun. A network of supercomputers, known as the Grid, is to revolutionise the speed at which information is downloaded to personal computers.
The power of the Grid is such that downloading films should take only seconds, not hours, and processing music albums just a single second. Video-phone calls should also cost no more than a local call. More importantly, it should help to narrow the search for cures for diseases.


Another internet revolution is reported in many of the papers,the Guardian reports that

MI6 is using the social networking site Facebook to recruit the next generation of spies. The Secret Intelligence Service, which has traditionally scoured the country's elite universities for recruits, launched a series of online adverts this month as part of its attempts to attract people from a variety of backgrounds.


Paul Newman should be remembered for charity work not films, says daughter reports the Telegraph

Melissa 'Lissy' Newman said her father's charity work mattered to him more than anything else, and that fans wishing to pay tribute should "reach out" to help others.
The actress, 47, one of five daughters of the Hollywood legend, said: "He was really all about philanthropy, and people caring, and people voting, and that's really who he was.


The Sun continues a theme of the last few days

THE pole-dancing daughter of hate cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed is an “animal” in bed, her former lover revealed last night.
The 20-year-old told The Sun he was left SHAKEN by Yasmin Fostok’s insatiable demands — and DISTURBED by raunchy photographs of herself she eagerly sent him.


Many of the papers report that

Police are holding three suspected terrorists after a weekend arson attack at the London home of the publisher of a novel about the Prophet Mohamed's child bride.
The Independent adds

Two men were arrested by armed police outside the house in Islington, north London, and a third was detained outside a nearby Underground station. The fire was quickly put out after the fire brigade smashed the front door. The publisher, Martin Rynja, 44, was unhurt.


Prince Charles to have two birthday parties reports the Telegraph

The Prince of Wales will celebrate his 60th birthday with two birthday parties, Clarence House has confirmed.He will have a formal dinner at Buckingham Palace followed by a family party at Highgrove two days later.
The Duchess of Cornwall is understood to have asked Michael Fawcett, who is renowned for his lavish parties, to help organise the dinner the day before the Prince's birthday.


Finally the Mail reports that

a flu virus more deadly than any seen in two decades is threatening Britain.
The strain originates in Australia where it has claimed hundreds of lives, including those of children.
Called Brisbane H3N2, it is so virulent that health chiefs have had to change the make-up of flu vaccines to deal with it.

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