Spotlight falls on speaker's role

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The issue of MPs' expenses is the dominant theme in Monday's papers.

The <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5340293/MPs-expenses-Officials-colluded-over-mortgage-claims.html">Daily Telegraph, whose coverage has led the way,</a> has a front page headline which reads: "Speaker's staff and the secret mortgage payouts for MPs."

And many papers speculate about the future of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin.

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6308137.ece">The Times says he will use "last-minute reforms" </a> in a bid to save his job, while the Daily Mail calls it "Mr Speaker's Last Stand".

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/sun_says/article244723.ece">The Sun calls on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to ask the Queen to dissolve parliament</a> and hold a general election.

Resignation

Meanwhile, most of the papers cover the resignation of Sir Victor Blank as chairman of Lloyds Banking group.

With the ink not yet dry on his letter to the board, the <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0a47aef4-42cf-11de-b793-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1">Financial Times reports that speculation about his successor has begun.</a>

Two of the leading contenders are ex-Citigroup chairman Sir Win Bischoff and trade minister Lord Davies.

Street celebrations in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo are captured in a <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6305401.ece">photo on the Times' front-page.</a>

They were held to mark the government's declaration that 26 years of war with the Tamil Tigers are over.

The <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-bitter-end-tamils-lay-down-arms-1686767.html">Independent reserves its front page for flag-waving Sri Lankan soldiers</a> and reports the apparent suicide of the Tigers' leader.

It says the legacy is one of hate, caused by the tide of refugees driven into internment by the conflict.

Gallery abuzz

The horrifying scene inside a French art gallery <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1183894/Tourist-stung-500-times-bees-invade-French-art-gallery.html">when a swarm of bees attacked a group of British tourists is described in the Daily Mail.</a>

In what the paper likens to a scene from a Hitchcock film, the screaming group fled covered in stings.

And the Daily Telegraph reports that bee breeders advocate the return of the traditional British honeybee.

Bees which pollinate crops are believed to be worth an estimated £850m to British agriculture, the paper says.