Thursday's papers

The lemming strike has begun proclaims the Mail

The Communication Workers Union has told its 120,000 members in the Royal Mail to walk out over the next two days.
Last night union chiefs suggested the 'dark hand' of Lord Mandelson was manipulating the dispute and blocking a settlement.

adding that

The action - which has been likened to lemmings diving off a cliff - has divided the Labour party, with 120 MPs calling for a negotiated settlement and some Cabinet ministers angry at Lord Mandelson's repeated attacks on the union.

The Guardian has a poll which shows that

most voters believe the government should get directly involved in the dispute and force management and unions to go to the conciliation service Acas.

It leads with the BBC chief Mark Thompson who

robustly defends the corporation's decision to invite the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, on to Question Time, and challenges the government to change the law if it wants to censor the far-right group.

Writing in the paper

Thompson says ministers would have to impose a broadcasting ban on the party – as Margaret Thatcher did with Sinn Féin in the 1980s – before the BBC would consider breaching its "central principle of impartiality".

The Times also leads with the story.It says that in an interview with the paper

Nick Griffin has thanked the BBC and praised the “hysterical” reaction of the political elite for giving his far-right British National Party unprecedented publicity.

The Telegraph reports that

Plans to introduce secret inquiries into controversial deaths from which the public and bereaved families could be banned are to be pushed through the House of Commons by the Government.is the lead

in the Independent adding that

ministers suffered a humiliating defeat for the proposals in the House of Lords, but insisted that they were "clear" that "harmful material" must not be made public, and would reintroduce the measures in the Commons.

According to the Times

British doctors have moved a step closer to carrying out what they hope will be the world’s first successful human womb transplant, giving hope to thousands of women who are unable to have children for medical reasons.

The Express tells us that we are all living longer.Figures released yesterday show

the number of us who will live beyond 85 is to soar from 1.3 million to 3.3 million in the next 24 years, while those aged over 90 will more than triple.

Under the headline Zimmer Frame Britain the Independent paints the following picture

Imagine Britain in 2083. A place where everyone seems old. So old, in fact that around 700,000 of our current twenty-somethings will survive to that distant time and receive their centenary birthday card from their close contemporary, King William V, who will be celebrating his 101st birthday that year. Perhaps the Royal Mail will still be around to deliver it. Our streets will be redesigned to ease "Zimmer-rage". Teenagers, prized by their employers, will wonder what is happening. Premier League footballers will earn more than ever. Children will be outnumbered by the over-75s. A grey place indeed.

Finally for the third day running the Sun features Britain's fattest man who

once lost a third of his weight in a year - while doing porridge.The monster muncher was jailed for stealing cash from letters when he was a postman.