Turesday's papers

According to the Times Britons are now more optimistic about the economy than at any time in the last 18 months.

That's the result of a Populus poll for The Times today.

Its findings come as the best October high street sales for seven years have fuelled hopes that a pre-Christmas surge in spending could confirm the country’s emergence from recession.

Both the Telegraph and the Independent home in on the big brother state.

According to the later

Plans to store information about every phone call, email and internet visit in the United Kingdom have in effect been abandoned by the Government.

adding that

The Home Office confirmed the "Big Brother" scheme had been delayed until after the election amid protests that it would be intrusive and open to abuse

.

However the Telegraph claims that

Despite widespread opposition over Britain's growing surveillance society, 653 public bodies will be given access to the confidential information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the Ambulance Service, fire authorities and even prison governors.

The Sun continues its attacks on Gordon Brown and Afghnanistan reporting that the Prime Minister

had an amazing late-night phone bust-up with a grieving Forces mum, The Prime Minister had outraged Jacqui Janes by mis-spelling her and her dead son's names in a note of condolence.

According to the paper

In it, heartbroken Jacqui - whose boy Jamie, 20, was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan - tells the Prime Minister: "Mr Brown, listen to me... I know every injury that my child sustained that day. I know that my son could have survived. But my son bled to death."

Meanwhile the Times reports that Britain is to help to train 10,000 extra Afghan soldiers to serve in Helmand to bring forward the date when British troops can be withdrawn from parts of the province and replaced by Afghanistan’s national army.

Under an Afghan-surge plan being discussed between Washington and London, British and American troops in Helmand would split the responsibility 50-50, taking part in an accelerated programme to boost the number of Afghan soldiers and police in the province to more than 17,000.

According to the Guardian,The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit,

The senior official at the International Energy Agency claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

Meanwhile the Telegraph reports on Britain's attempts to move away from oil as it is announced that 10 new nuclear power stations are to be built.

Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, announced the expansion of Britain’s nuclear power capability yesterday in the face of opposition from environmentalists and concern from consumer groups, who warned fuel bills could rise to pay for building programme.

The Times adds that

The announcement comes after a radical shake-up in planning laws. Under powers awarded to the Government last month, local authorities have been stripped of the right of veto over new nuclear plants and other key energy projects. Decisions will instead be taken by the Infrastructure Planning Commission, which was created to slash the period required to secure consent for energy projects from seven years to one year.

The Guardian reports that Barack Obama will travel to the climate summit in Copenhagen next month if the countries involved are on the verge of a deal and he thinks his presence will help to clinch agreement, he said in an interview last night.

Jackpot Valley strikes again!is the headline in the Mail.

A husband and wife will today be propelled into the ranks of the super-rich when they are named Britain's biggest-ever lottery winners.
The couple are to be handed a EuroMillions cheque for £45.5million at a press conference in a Cardiff hotel.
They are from Newport in 'Golden Gwent', which had already produced an astonishing six lottery millionaires in three years.

Whilst the Express leads with the other winners

A GROUP of call centre workers and a married couple were celebrating last night after jointly winning Britain’s largest ever lottery prize of £91million.
Amid emotional scenes, the seven or eight members of the syndicate only became aware of their massive £45.57million win after arriving for work yesterday morning.

Female doctors working in the NHS are paid thousands of pounds a year less than their male colleagues as a result of widespread discrimination and a "hostile culture" at work reports the Guardian adding

The research, to be published on Friday, is the first to investigate differences in doctors' salaries.

David Cameron will set out a blueprint to tackle poverty which is expected to include allowing benefit claimants to keep more of their state handouts when returning to work.says the Telegraph

The Conservative leader has asked Iain Duncan Smith to “review the benefits system, with a focus on marginal withdrawal rates and making work pay”. The former Tory leader has recently backed plans to give benefit claimants hundreds of pounds if they return to work.

Finally according to the Times,British households are pouring £470 million worth of wine down the plughole every year.

The figure has been collated for the Waste & Resource Action Programme (Wrap), advisers to the Government, which is urging people to freeze leftover wine and use it in cooking sauces and casseroles as part of the campaign to cut the nation’s carbon footprint.