Papers bash BBC over prank calls

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Jonathan Ross may be "off the hook" as the Daily Mirror puts it, but the BBC is dangling by a thread, according to some.

The Daily Mail, among others, seizes on the revelation that the executive who could have blocked the broadcast found calls to Andrew Sachs "very funny".

The Sun says the findings of the BBC Trust shed light on the "slapdash" way the obscenities came to be broadcast.

It says it reveals a BBC culture of no accountability or responsibility.

Honest appraisal

Now is the time, says the Telegraph, for Chancellor Alistair Darling to step out from Gordon Brown's shadow by giving an honest pre-Budget report.

Before he adds to the debt burden, which is merely deferred taxation, he must address government spending, says the paper.

The Independent calculates the odds on Monday's likely announcements.

Leading the field is raising the pensioners' fuel allowance, at 1-10, while an income tax cut is 10-1 and forcing the banks to lend is 200-1.

Christmas parties

In the City, the corporate belt-tightening continues, according to the Times.

As the Christmas party season approaches, banks have been falling over themselves to show restraint.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital have all cancelled Christmas events, while others are keeping a lid on party budgets.

RBS has apparently imposed a strict spending limit of £10 for each staff member, adds the Times.

Panto villains

Finally, if cost-cutting at Christmas parties was not hard enough to take, the Financial Times says bankers are the new Christmas panto villains.

This year writers are turning away from wicked stepmothers, ugly sisters and witches to cast financiers as baddies.

In one production of Dick Whittington, it reports, King Rat is a banker.

He is intent on bringing down the economy by making loans to small businesses and then calling them in.