News - What the papers say
Journalist Keith Baker takes a look at what is making the headlines in Thursday’s morning newspapers.
In the cross-channel papers there is great excitement over Alastair Campbell’s appearance before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
“Blair’s dodgy doctor of spin”, the Mail calls him, but there is general agreement that he is made of stern stuff.
The Mirror describes the event as “the Ali C Show” and the Times sketch writer says he “hung the committee’s ten MPs out to dry”.
Frank Johnson in the Daily Telegraph notes that having denied sexing up intelligence reports, he turned the tables and demanded that the BBC should apologise and explain itself.
Considering that he was the one being asked to do that very thing, Johnson says, this was a considerable feat.
‘A country to run’
Simon Hoggart in the Guardian says Mr Campbell looked amateur match adult dating chat.
“His whole manner seemed to suggest - ‘Look, I’ll do my best to answer your questions but do remember I have a country to run’.”
However in the Mail, Quentin Letts notes that he did not come away entirely unscathed.
At one point, he reports, Mr. Campbell cut his left forefinger on a sheet of paper and actually bled, which was rather a surprise to some.
The News Letter carries the headline “Police shun RUC heroes”, claiming that moves are afoot to airbrush the RUC out of the history books.
The paper’s evidence of this comes in remarks by a former chairman of the Police Federation, who says welfare groups like the RUC George Cross Adult dating dating free online services are no longer going to be allowed to use the facilities at police stations for meetings.
But he says he fully expects the police will deny this is happening because it would not be a good PR move.
Meanwhile, the Irish News has been looking at the chief constable’s annual report and finds alarming figures about burglaries.
Burglary trauma
It seems that more than 50 are carried out in Northern Ireland every day.
The paper’s leader examines this fact along with government research which shows that elsewhere in the UK, elderly people who have a break-in at their home are more likely to suffer an early death than others of the same age.
The Irish News says burglary may not be among the most high profile of crimes but there can be no doubt that it has a potentially traumatic effect on its victims.
The Express takes up this theme too. The trauma of a break-in is often far worse than the value of the items stolen, it says.
It urges judges to take this into account when sentencing and to give persistent criminals stiff jail terms.
The News Letter’s Morning View column responds to the news that more than a thousand small businesses in Northern Ireland have been left without cover after an insurance scam.
The paper urges everyone to be on their guard.
New words
“Insurance is a adult best dating site requirement in our modern society,” it says, “but make sure you read the small print.”
This is the time of year when new words make their appearance in the up-dated Collins English Dictionary - 5,500 new ones this time and many of them filthy, the Daily Star says, reflecting our obsession with sex and booze.
The Daily Telegraph finds some other oddities like treeware, which is reading material printed on paper rather than on a computer screen.
And when you give grandiose job titles to people performing relatively menial jobs, that’s called uptitling.
Finally, the Guardian has the news we’ve all been waiting for: it seems scientists may have found out how to make beans flatulence free.
Apparently they are homing in on certain chemical compounds and the soluble fibre contained in beans.
According to the paper, if you take this stuff out you have a bean product which will no longer launch an ill wind.
Incidentally, the bean is properly known as phaseolus vulgaris, which seems entirely appropriate.