Cabinet expenses claims laid bare

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The Daily Telegraph sets Friday's news agenda with its revelations about expenses claims made by members of the Cabinet.

The <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/5292741/A-scandal-at-the-heart-of-our-democracy.html">paper calls it "a scandal at the heart of our democracy,"</a> saying it goes "far beyond the now familiar tales of barbecues, bath plugs or adult movies".

In fact, it amounts to "an officially sanctioned and sustained abuse of public funds perpetrated against their own constituents".

The <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/99747/How-the-Cabinet-milked-expenses">Daily Express picks up the story with equal venom,</a> criticising "the feather-bedded lifestyles of our political elite".

Poverty grows

Several papers report that the gap between rich and poor in Britain is now the widest it has been since the 1960s.

The <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labours-record-on-poverty-in-tatters-1681047.html">Independent says it is proof</a> that Labour's much-vaunted record on poverty is "in tatters".

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/08/editorial-poverty-welfare">Gordon Brown does have "sincere egalitarian impulses," believes the Guardian,</a> but he must "shudder" at the current state of affairs.

It is so bad that nearly a million children cannot afford to have a friend around for tea now and again, <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5290903/Nearly-3-million-children-in-poverty-in-Britain.html">according to the Daily Telegraph.</a>

'Absolutely farcical'

The Gurkhas' saga continues to occupy column inches on Friday.

Ann Treneman, in the <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6244925.ece">Times, calls it "the new Westminster soap opera,"</a> complete with "our heroine, plucky, gorgeous, pouting Joanna Lumley".

The <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/07/gurkhas-justice-campaign-rejected-cases-to-be-re-examined-115875-21340326/">Daily Mirror's leader says "right is on her side"</a> and "those who are good enough to fight for our country are good enough to live here".

For the <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1178484/MAIL-COMMENT-One-formidable-lady-patsy-minister.html">Daily Mail it is simply a question of "natural justice".</a> It calls the whole affair "absolutely farcical".

DD-Day

Big-busted ladies can celebrate today as Marks and Spencer dropped its policy of charging more for larger bras.

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/article2418288.ece">The end of the "£2 boob tax" delights the Sun,</a> which thinks it is "brilliant for a big firm to show it listens to its customers".

Today shall henceforth be known as "DD-Day", the paper adds, as the victory came exactly 64 years after VE Day.

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1178499/BRA-VO-Victory-women-Mail-M-S-axes-big-bust-surcharge.html">"Bra-vo!" cries the Daily Mail.</a> The "well-endowed women of Britain" have triumphed in their battle.