Papers mull 'Poppy Day massacre'
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/6142398.stm Version 0 of 1. Photographs of Remembrance Day services, with their vivid red poppies, fill the front pages of the Guardian and the Financial Times. The Independent uses a black-bordered image of a grim-faced Tony Blair laying a wreath at the Cenotaph. As the prime minister did so, four more UK soldiers - killed in southern Iraq - laid down their lives in what the paper calls a "wretched, futile war". It was a "Poppy Day massacre", says the main headline in the Daily Mirror. Basra bombing The improvised bomb that killed UK soldiers patrolling a Basra river is a "frightening new development" in the conflict in Iraq, the Mirror says. For the Daily Mail, it was the single worst tragedy to hit British troops in the country in more than six months. The Sun says the ferocity of the attack - on the day the nation remembered its war dead - shocked commanders. It will intensify pressure on ministers to set a clear timetable for UK forces to withdraw, the Guardian says. 'Cold turkey' There is widespread coverage of reports the Home Office is preparing to settle a test case involving prisoners. The Daily Express says inmates put on "cold turkey" drug withdrawal programmes could receive "tens of thousands of pounds" in compensation. Shadow home secretary David Davis tells the Telegraph John Reid has suffered a "massive failure of political nerve". And former Tory prisons minister Ann Widdecombe tells the Mail the home secretary's decision is an "insult". Drink duty Several papers comment on a European Court of Justice ruling due this month on whether EU goods can be sent to British homes, free of UK duty. The Daily Mirror predicts huge savings on online alcohol and cigarette orders. "Hic, hic, hooray!" says the Sun. But the Daily Express takes a more sober view, pointing out the Treasury earns £16bn a year from the duty. Before you crack open a bottle, Gordon Brown will be lining up other revenue sources to fill the gap, it says. |