The papers - 31 January, 2011

Egypt had to be the dominant news story in all the papers today. Indy splashed with great pix of burning of image of the country’s president Mubarak with a report from Robert Fisk; the same pix was used in the Times splash. Guardian reported that change was coming and, finally, the US using the language of orderly transition to indicate an acceptance of that change. FT splashed with the story as did City:am telling us the impact on the markets.

The red tops kept the story mostly inside and mostly about the impact on Brits, with acres of coverage of “first-hand accounts of terror by returning Brits” (Mail); Brits trying to get home (Express); Brits told to leave country and game over Mubarak (Mirror) “Tyranny in the sky” (Sun) referring to the show of force of F16s to try to frighten the popular uprising. The Sun, however, despite splashing with an anarchist threat to the Royal Wedding, also reported on the front page “30,000 Brits in riot hell). And, linking the two together, repeated the Charles and Camilla in riot hell pix from the recent protests against the rise in tution fees.

Predictably the tabloids, kept their splashes distinctive with the Express crusading against EU laws that would threaten the value of pensions (as opposed to public sector pensions which the Express wants to threaten). The Mail has a “dignity for the elderly” campaign splashing with the news that 600 elderly had died of thirst in the past five years. This story was repeated inside the Express in its “crusade for respect for the elderly” campaign.

The Mirror leads with the sad story of three teenagers who died on a joy-ride with “Waste of Life”, but the Daily Star continues with its serialization of the trials and tribulations of Jordan, not the country.

But the Morning Star leads with reports from around Britain of protests against our own Government, including @UKuncut targeting high street stores for not paying their taxes. And the Telegraph with a story about cuts to teacher training.

Most papers also reported that a whole load of people would be brought into the higher tax band, including teachers, nurses and train drivers. And most ran a pic of Ed Miliband in protective vest on his visit to troops plus the news that Nick Clegg doesn’t want paperwork to do after 3pm, showing that, to him, politics is a game.

ends