The Mail launches a crusade for small business

They're the lifeblood of Britain's economy yet small businesses are going bust daily because of extortionate bank charges, crippling taxes and stifling red tape. Today the Daily Mail launches a fightback on their behalf, with a charter for change, in our campaign to demand a fair deal for small businesses.

Elsewhere many of the papers reflect on the coming downturn

The Guardian reports that confidence is at a record low

The grim state of the economy is underlined today with research showing business confidence has slumped to a record low as a result of the global credit crisis, while official figures due later this week are expected to to confirm that the UK has tipped into recession. With data published today also expected to show a widening budget deficit, experts warn that the government's plans to boost spending in the face of the recession will cause the deficit to balloon to record levels.

The Telegraph leads with the news that

Consumer spending, which has been one of the main drivers of the Gordon Brown's decade of boom, will collapse by the end of the year and not return to fully-positive territory until 2011, according to the Ernst & Young Item Club.

Meanwhile the Independent reports that,Mandelson halts flexitime reforms

Plans to allow 4.5 million parents to work flexibly are to be delayed by the Government as it searches for ways to help businesses survive the economic downturn.
Lord Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Business, has ordered his officials to review all policies in the pipeline to ease the burden on firms so they are less likely to shed jobs, cut investment or go bust. The plan to extend the right to flexitime from parents of children under six to all those with children up to 16 was trumpeted by Gordon Brown and approved by Labour's annual conference last month. It looks likely, however, to be kicked into the long grass.

The Times leads with another policy review

Family courts are to be opened up to public scrutiny in response to mounting criticism from parents whose children are taken into care that they are victims of “secret justice”.
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, plans to announce the change next month to create more transparency in the family justice system while seeking to protect the welfare of the child, The Times has learnt.

The Telegraph reports that

Lord Mandelson has set the ground for a battle with Labour colleagues by disclosing that he is in favour of partially privatising Royal Mail.The Business Secretary said that he had wanted to allow Royal Mail "to be progressively private, even if if initially part of the company stayed in the Government's hands" since his first spell in government under Tony Blair.

Home Office in revolt at Smith's plan for 'Big Brother' database reports the Independent

The doubts among Home Office advisers put them at odds with the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) eavesdropping centre in Cheltenham, which is pressing for records of all telephone calls, emails and internet visits to be retained to help combat terrorism

The Times looks across the Atlantic,I can live with defeat, says John McCain

Mr McCain, speaking moments after his old friend Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, had endorsed Mr Obama, said that a loss would not devastate him. He said that he had thought about it, “but I don't dwell on it”.
The Republican nominee continued: “I've had a wonderful life. I have to go back to Arizona and live ... with a wonderful family, and daughters and sons that I'm so proud of. I'm the luckiest guy you have ever interviewed and will ever interview. I'm the most fortunate man on Earth, and I thank God for it every single day

Obama's perfect weekend: Ahead in polls, record fundraising - and Colin Powell too says the Guardian

Colin Powell, George Bush's former secretary of state, yesterday dealt his own party a major blow when he threw his weight behind Barack Obama's bid to become the next president of the United States.
The retired four-star general spurned his good friend, the Republican John McCain, to heap praise on the "transformational figure" of Obama, the Democratic party candidate, saying America needed a "generational change".

The Telegraph describes how

Barack Obama has said he is "beyond honoured and deeply humbled" to have been endorsed by Colin Powell for the White House.

The same paper reports that

Most British troops could be out of Iraq by early next year, John Hutton has hinted on his first visit to the region since becoming Defence Secretary

Meanwhile the Independent has

an alarming dispatch from Afghanistan, the Conservative MP,David Davis reveals the rampant corruption that has infected public life and threatens to destroy Nato's hopes of bringing peace to this traumatised country

The tabloids are still concerned with Madonna

Madonna's Guy's a gold digger says the Sun

MADONNA’S friends have nicknamed her husband Material Guy because of his alleged cash demands ahead of their divorce.
The Sun told last week how British film director GUY RITCHIE informed lawyers that he wanted “not one penny” from his mega-rich missus as their eight-year marriage ends.
But furious Madge — who had an Eighties hit with Material Girl — insists that in reality he is determined to take her to the cleaners.

The Mirror meanwhile says that

Madonna has promised not to flee Britain for good - despite the collapse of her marriage to Guy Ritchie.
The singer, 50, had been expected to move to New York with their children full-time once the divorce was finalised.
But film director Ritchie, 40, belives the kids Lourdes, 12, Rocco, seven, and two-year-old David should remain in the UK.

The Express reveals the key to longer life

EATING a diet based on 20 superfoods could slow down the ageing process and help to beat cancer and heart disease, health experts said last night.
The list of wonder foods even includes tea, coffee and chocolate, as they are all rich in polyphenols – naturally-occurring antioxidants.

pilot arrested on suspicion of being drunk says the Telegraph

The 44-year-old man was led off the plane by police following a breath test at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 1 on Sunday morning.
The Boeing 777 United Airlines flight was had been scheduled to fly to San Francisco.
It is thought the police moved after being tipped off by a member of the airport's ground staff, who suspected the pilot had been drinking before the 5,300-mile flight.

father arrested after her skeleton is discovered in woods reports the Times

The father of a teenage girl whose skeletal remains were found in woodland was being questioned by detectives last night.
Victoria Couchman had not been reported missing by her family before her remains were discovered in East Sussex last week.

According to the Mail

One million children are addicted to gambling under New Labour's lenient gaming laws, say experts

A study by the Gambling Commission also found that two million under-18s - some as young as ten - are at risk of becoming hooked on betting.
It said liberal parents must take some of the blame for the crisis

The Independent reports that

A top public relations firm has been hired to give a good name to one of Britain's most notorious housing estates. The 7,500 residents of the Aylesbury Estate in south London are well aware that their home has become a byword for all that is worst about the concrete jungles built in haste during the 1960s housing boom.

Finally the Guardian reports that

Scouts will for the first time will be given sexual health advice and may be issued with condoms to prevent unprotected sex, under guidelines to be issued today by the Scout Association.
In a new interpretation of the scout motto Be Prepared, visits to sexual health clinics will also be included.
The visits are suggested for explorer scouts aged 14-18 "to break illusions of what these services are and improve the uptake of advice".