Friday 11 September 2009

Friday's papers


Controversy continues over the decison to rescue the journalist Stephen Farrell,the Independent asks Why did you kill my son

the father of Sultan Munadi, the Afghan colleague of Mr Farrell who was killed in the raid, has demanded to know why ongoing negotiations, which he believes could have led to a peaceful outcome, were abandoned in favour of a military strike.


The family of Corporal John Harrison, the soldier killed during the rescue of a journalist kidnapped in Afghanistan, said they have been left "heartbroken" by his death. says the Telegraph

Meanwhile the Times says that the Government’s system for buying military equipment is a mess and tough choices must be made over what is really needed, a former Labour Defence Secretary said yesterday.

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen told The Times that many equipment programmes were not properly costed, specifications were constantly being changed and one of the most important — for armoured vehicles — was stuck “in limbo”.


The American car giant General Motors announced that it had chosen Magna International, a Canadian vehicle parts group, to buy a 55 per cent stake in Opel and Vauxhall.

Lord Mandelson warned Vauxhall’s 5,500 workers last night to brace themselves for job cuts but insisted that a new deal to take control of the carmaker had saved the group’s two British manufacturing plants.
reports the Times.

The 850-page report into the collapse of MG Rover will finally be published today, more than four years after the £16.3m investigation began. It is understood that the report will heavily criticise the Phoenix Four, the businessmen who owned the car manufacturer when it went bust with the loss of 6,500 jobs in April 2005.reports the Guardian

Lord Phillips, Britain's most senior judge, has said he feels "enormous sympathy" for terminally ill patients who want to end their own lives in assisted suicides. says the Telegraph

In an interview with the paper he says

he sympathised with people facing a "quite hideous termination of their life" as a result of "horrible diseases" who wanted to avoid a prolonged death and spare their relatives pain or distress.



Parents could face a £5,000 fine for driving their children's friends to a sports event or Cub Scout meeting.
They face punishment and a criminal record if they have not been vetted first by a massive new government agency.
is the lead in the Mail


Both parents in families living below the breadline will be urged to go to work to lift their children out of poverty reports the Guardian

A referendum to change Britain's first-past-the-post voting system could be held on the same day as the general election next spring, under proposals being discussed by ministers.
reports the Independent adding that

The idea is gaining support in the Cabinet, and Labour now looks certain to fight the next election on a firm commitment to scrap the current voting system.


The Guardian reports that

Gordon Brown will be warned by union leaders tomorrow at a rare private meeting in Chequers that he needs to throw caution to the wind or see Labour slide to an election defeat. The prime minister is due to meet as many as 15 union leaders ahead of next week's TUC conference and the imminent Labour party conference.


Gordon Brown suffered a humiliating rebuke from Barack Obama over the release of the Lockerbie bomber says the Mail

World cup fever continues to dominate as the Sun reports that

Fabio Capello has laid down the law to the WAGs as England plot their challenge for World Cup glory in South Africa next year.
He has insisted his stars will not go to the tournament for a "holiday" - and warned their wives and girlfriends: "If you don't like it, don't come."


Finally according to the Times

Two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Margaret Thatcher told President Gorbachev that neither Britain nor Western Europe wanted the reunification of Germany and made clear that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it.

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