´óÏó´«Ã½

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.

The King's Speech has won four Oscars - best film, best director (Tom Hooper), best actor (Colin Firth) and best original screenplay (David Seidler), %3Ca%20href="/news/entertainment-arts-12593241">´óÏó´«Ã½ News reports. Natalie Portman was named best actress and Christian Bale best supporting actor.

Colin Firth %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9409000/9409239.stm">talks about his Oscar win on Radio 4's Today programme, which he recently guest-edited.

A ban on product placement has been lifted, allowing advertisers to pay for their goods to be seen on British TV. The first product will be a Nescafe coffee machine on ITV1's This Morning, %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12593061">the ´óÏó´«Ã½ says.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361201/´óÏó´«Ã½-bound-Patten-I-ll-FIVE-jobs.html">Richard Kay in the Daily Mail says questions are being asked about Lord Patten's bid for the chairmanship of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust after he ­admitted he would combine the role with five corporate jobs paying hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

Lord Patten will launch a root-and-branch review of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s governance structure, %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8311497/Patten-to-review-´óÏó´«Ã½-governance-after-being-nominated-as-chairman.html">the Telegraph reported over the weekend, after he was confirmed as the Government's choice to take over as the corporation's chairman in May.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/28/jeremy-hunt-local-television">The Guardian's Maggie Brown says six bidders are lining up to express interest in running the local TV network proposed by the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Initial submissions - with a 10-page business plan - are due in tomorrow. She says "community purists" fear it could become just another national channel, while others are sceptical of the plan's commercial viability.

Arianna Huffington has been accused of making a personal fortune from the labour of thousands of bloggers who write for no pay. She's sold the Huffington Post to AOL for $315m. America's Newspaper Guild, the journalists' union, says the website's business model has done great damage by not paying contributors and Huffington should invest some of her profit in paid journalism, %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/27/arianna-huffington-post-aol-deal">the Guardian reports.

Speculation about a Libya without Colonel Gaddafi dominates several papers, %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12593789">shows the ´óÏó´«Ã½ newspapers review.

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I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

A %3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/09d0a648-4060-11e0-9140-00144feabdc0.html">front page report in the FT says News Corp is close to an agreement with the Office of Fair Trading over a remedy for concerns about its £13.2bn bid for satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting. Ben Fenton says Rupert Murdoch's media group is much nearer than previously reported to meeting objections that combining full ownership of BSkyB with its other assets would reduce the diversity of news provision.

The proliferation of legal actions generated by phone hacking complaints against the News of the World is in danger of congesting the courts, %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/24/celebrity-news-of-world-phone-hacking">says the Guardian. Official recognition of the scale of the problem came as lawyers for Paul Gascoigne, George Galloway and Mick McGuire, of the Professional Footballers' Association, were granted permission to see relevant sections of transcripts.

After watching the 3D cinema relay of English National Opera's Lucretia Borgia, the %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/8345647/Carmen-Lucrezia-Borgia-3D-review.html">Daily Telegraph's critic Rupert Christiansen is not impressed. "It costs more than twice as much to film and process 3D as standard HD, and, on the evidence so far, I don't think it's worth it....I endorse the growing body of opinion that believes 3D to be a gimmick that will go the way of Cinerama, Sensurround and Smell-o-Vision."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/8346023/Kate-Middleton-passes-first-Royal-test.html">Daily Telegraph says Kate Middleton passed the royal test with flying colours yesterday, as she joined Prince William for their first formal engagement in front of the public and the media.

The government's Libya rescue attempt was a fiasco, says the Daily Mail. A shambles, according to The Sun. The government has shown itself to be "inept" and "incompetent", says the Daily Mirror. It was less Dunkirk, more Carry On Follow That Camel, according to Richard Littlejohn in the Mail as %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12575383">highlighted in the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review.

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I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/24/bbc-breakfast-reluctance-manchester-move">The Guardian says that with five weeks left to make up their minds, fewer than half of those working on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Breakfast are expected to move 200 miles north to Salford. It says Sian Williams - its best known face - is among those still uncertain about whether to relocate, while only a handful of the 100 who work on the show have definitely decided to move.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/tv-radio/article2924208.ece">According to the Times, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is still secretly paying hundreds of thousands of pounds in bonuses to executives, despite a public pledge that it would scrap them. A ´óÏó´«Ã½ spokesman said the corporation was obliged to pay the bonuses: "No annual bonuses have been awarded to ´óÏó´«Ã½ staff since 2009 and pay is frozen for senior managers for the next three years. Bonuses have been paid where we are contractually committed to them."

A new website promises to shine a spotlight on "churnalism" by exposing the extent to which news articles have been directly copied from press releases. The website, churnalism.com, created by charity the %3Ca%20href="https://mediastandardstrust.org/">Media Standards Trust, allows readers to paste press releases into a "churn engine" and compare the text with a database of more than 3m articles. %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/23/churnalism-pr-media-trust">The Guardian says it shows that all media organisations at times republish, verbatim, material sent by marketing companies and campaign groups.

Events in Libya and their repercussions continue to take centre stage in Thursday's papers, as highlighted in the %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12563404">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review.

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I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 will be able to interrupt films with up to 12 minutes of adverts every hour, under new rules published by Ofcom. The increase comes into play on Monday and is being introduced for a year-long trial period. It could be made permanent if audiences do not object %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8341764/TV-films-to-be-interrupted-by-12-minutes-of-adverts.html">reports the Daily Telegraph.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/23/greg-dyke-channel-6">According to the Guardian the Local Television Network, headed by Greg Dyke, is to bid for the new national TV network planned by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to support local news services. Dyke's group, which is yet to be incorporated, agreed at a meeting on Monday to put in a formal expression of interest in running the channel. Hunt is asking for submissions by Tuesday 1 March.

Sir Michael Lyons, the outgoing chairman of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust, has laid out the corporation's new global strategy, and warned ´óÏó´«Ã½ Worldwide that commercial activity must not "jeopardise the good reputation of the ´óÏó´«Ã½". Speaking in Stockholm, Lyons stressed that Worldwide's commercial strategy and acquisitions must always protect the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s reputation and standing, %3Ca%20href="https://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/news/a305276/lyons-fires-warning-to-bbc-worldwide.html">says Digital Spy.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/22/anrew-marr-tom-bradby">The Guardian reports that ITV political editor, Tom Bradby, has questioned why ´óÏó´«Ã½ presenter Andrew Marr is reportedly being paid around £600,000. Via Twitter, Bradby wrote: "I like him a lot, think he works hard and is very smart, but £600,000? Seems a lot. No one in ITV News is paid anything like this, so where is the market for all these ´óÏó´«Ã½ figures being paid such vast sums?"

Several historic properties and museums enjoyed a rise in visitor numbers in 2010 as a result of film or broadcast projects, %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/architecture/as-seen-on-screen-the-uks-hottest-tourist-spots-2222817.html">says the Independent. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland helped Antony House in Cornwall to increase numbers from 25,000 to 100,000. The British Museum. which topped the list with 5.8 million visitors, enjoyed a 5% increase. It was heard in Radio 4's A History of the World in 100 Objects.

As Paul Reynolds steps down as world affairs correspondent for the %3Ca%20href="/news/world-middle-east-12536855">´óÏó´«Ã½ News website, he reflects on the shock he experienced when he left the "mainstream" ´óÏó´«Ã½ to join the then "orphan child" of News Online. "I found that I was in direct contact with the public. Horror... For several decades, I had been broadcasting from a studio or on location at home and abroad, but always insulated from the listeners...I suddenly felt like a government minister at parliamentary question time."

A cartoon in The Times sums up the papers' general view about what is happening in Libya. A row of dominos is collapsing on top of Colonel Gaddafi, who holds, in one hand, a machine gun and, in the other, an umbrella. %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12548508">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspapers review links to the front pages.

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This edition of Green Room asks whether spring has truly sprung, and how do we know anyway? It also looks at a scientific project to improve weather and climate models that will ask citizen scientists to stare at the sky or blow bubbles in the wind.

The late arrival of snowdrops upset some, but experts say it will have been worth the wait

So as the world stirs from its winter slumber, the more phenologically minded among us have had their eyes and ears open for the first shoots, bud bursts, or song thrush warbles of the new year.

After the coldest December for a century, it may just be that people were keen to herald the arrival of lighter evenings and warmer temperatures, but there was a collective grumbling in the media when it was decided that spring was a little behind schedule.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356684/The-thaw-comes-late-blooming-wonderful-Coldest-December-100-years-delays-spring-weeks-again.html">Daily Mail said spring was late for the second successive year, and events that signal a shift in seasons - such as hazel, willow or snowdrops flowering - were delayed by two weeks.

But the paper did add that the delay in flowering meant that it would trigger fantastic displays of snowdrops in bloom, as the early varieties flowered alongside the late risers.

The Daily Telegraph agreed that people had a to wait a little longer to see the first shoots emerge from the soil, but %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/8325874/Thundering-spring-a-little-later-than-usual-but-with-lots-of-colour.html">once it gathered pace then it would come "thundering through".

The Guardian quotes Dr Tim Sparks, one of the leading voices on phenology, who suggested the adverse weather in December probably put a temporary brake on early flowering species.

"%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/16/spring-signs-delayed-winter?INTCMP=SRCH">It was that cold month which has delayed flowering of things like celandines and snowdrops," he said.

"Things will come on in much of a rush because they've been held back.

"By the time we get to hawthorn and bluebells, later spring events, they're going to be the usual time or could even be earlier."

For those who would like to get a better understanding of the science and history of phenology, the %3Ca%20href="https://www.naturescalendar.org.uk/survey">Nature's Calendar website offers a good grounding.

Eye-spy

It is not just plants that signal a change in the weather, feathered and furry creatures are also getting in the mood.

A quick search on the web reveals a wealth of web-cams that offer a peep inside nest boxes, out-of-sight ledges or underground dens.

For example, the Wildlife Whisperer website (which lists broadcaster and cameraman Simon King as one of its co-founders) has a %3Ca%20href="https://www.wildlifewhisperer.tv/wild-bites/293/618">number of webcams to capture footage of visitors to its rural HQ.

Another wildlife film-maker, Andrew Cooper, has set up a series of cameras that offer %3Ca%20href="https://www.wildlink.org/badger.htm">a unique glimpse of life in a badger sett.

And Nottingham Trent University allows web users to get up close and personal with %3Ca%20href="https://www.ntu.ac.uk/ecoweb/ntu_doing/falcons/falcon_webcam/103387.cfm">peregrine falcons that have set up home on one of the more exposed ledges at the university.

Blowing in the wind

And you do not have to be in the great outdoors in order to hear short tweets of spring. There is a growing band of TV and academic naturalists sharing their views and musings via social media.

The National Trust's Matthew Oates, one of the UK's leading authorities on butterflies, has dipped his toes into the world of Twitter.

While the attention of many is focused on the arrival of spring, Mr Oates used one of his first tweets to dampen any talk of BBQ summers.

He wrote: "%3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Worried - a peacock as my 1st butt of the year usually heralds a wet summer."

Finally, a project that is set to begin in March is looking to recruit the help of citizen scientists.

The Met Office and Royal Meteorological Society will be %3Ca%20href="https://www.nbn.org.uk/News-and-Events/Biodiversity-news/OPAL-climate-survey.aspx">asking people to either look to the skies or blow bubbles in the wind - all in the name of improving the performance of weather and climate models.

Those of you who would like an information pack (and live in England) can %3Ca%20href="https://www.opalexplorenature.org/climatesurvey">submit your details on the Opal climate survey website. Everyone else will be able to download the information once the survey gets underway.

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/8339577/Jacqui-Smith-I-knew-my-husband-liked-porn-even-two-films-a-week.html">Jacqui Smith is pictured on the Daily Telegraph front page (and in other papers), posing outside a sex shop, to promote her Radio 5 Live documentary about the porn industry. The former home secretary told Radio Times she decided to make the programme because she could not escape the subject, after claiming expenses for two adult films watched by her husband. "It's always associated with my name," she said.

Journalists from newspapers and broadcasters across the world, including ITV News and the New York Times, are descending on the Libyan border as anti-government protests intensify against Muammar Gaddafi's regime, %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/21/libya-journalists-muammar-gaddafi">reports the Guardian.

%3Ca%20href="/news/entertainment-arts-12524770">The ´óÏó´«Ã½ says that ITV has won the rights to broadcast the Royal Variety Performance for the next 10 years. Previously, production of the event has been shared between the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and ITV, with their main channels broadcasting the event in alternate years since 1986.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/elisabeth-murdoch-earns-seat-on-news-corp-board-after-tv-deal-2221697.html">According to the Independent Rupert Murdoch has bought his daughter Elisabeth's TV production company Shine - makers of MasterChef and Merlin - for £415m, paving the way for her to take a place on the board of his News Corp media empire. The deal will enable Ms Murdoch to expand the company internationally.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/feb/21/phone-hacking-newsoftheworld">In the Guardian journalism professor Roy Greenslade takes issue with Donald Trelford over the significance of the legal actions against the News of the World.

As more public figures take legal advice over phone-hacking at the News of the World, the former Observer editor Donald Trelford %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/opinion/donald-trelford-for-now-this-scandal-is-still-light-on-evidence-2220685.html">says in the Independent that "saga begins to look obsessive, hysterical and opportunistic... the fact that a celebrity thinks his or her phone may have been hacked isn't evidence."

Events in Libya and pictures of a grim-faced Colonel Gaddafi - before his appearance on state television late on Monday - dominate many front pages. The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12533528">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspapers review links to the front pages.

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I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is investigating allegations that actors were hired to pose as members of the public featured in reality TV show The Real Hustle, %3Ca%20href="/news/entertainment-arts-12516966">reports ´óÏó´«Ã½ News. Objective Productions makes the show for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and said it "categorically" denied claims in the Mail on Sunday that the "victims" were briefed.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358681/´óÏó´«Ã½s-The-Real-Hustle-deceived-viewers-Actors-hired-members-public.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">The Mail on Sunday said it could reveal that many of the "victims" in ´óÏó´«Ã½ Three's reality show The Real Hustle were actors and extras - and some had even been paid to take part by the independent production company that makes the show.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2011/feb/21/chris-patten-bbc-trust-chairman">Steve Hewlett in the Guardian says that if Lord Patten is confirmed as the new chairman of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ this week, the reaction at Television Centre will be one of relief. You can hear %3Ca%20href="/iplayer/console/b00yjz47/5_live_Drive_18_02_2011">my analysis on Radio 5 Live Drive from last Friday - 1hr 21mins in.

Advertising campaigns to raise awareness of the 2011 national censuses are being launched today. But is a census necessary when so much data about us already exists? %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9403000/9403266.stm">Discussion on Radio 4's Today programme between Census director Glenn Watson and Daniel Hamilton of Big Brother Watch.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Worldwide's hunt for a buyer for its magazine division is down to two companies, with German publisher Bauer considered the favourite to become the new owner of titles including Top Gear and Radio Times. It is understood that ´óÏó´«Ã½ Magazines expects "firm but non-binding" offers to be tabled possibly by the end of the month, %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/21/bbc-magazines-sale-bauer">reports the Guardian.

If you think your mobile phone is one place where you can get away from advertising, think again, %3Ca%20href="/news/business-12509571">says the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Rory Cellan-Jones. "2010 was the breakthrough year for mobile advertising," according to Kerstin Trikalitis, chief executive officer of Out There Mobile Media. She was speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where advertising on phones was a big theme.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358509/Andrew-Marr-600-000-year-payslip-slip-revealed.html">The Daily Mail says Andrew Marr's payslip was left in the wrong pigeonhole and opened by a nosy colleague - revealing he is paid nearly £600,000 a year.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12521052">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review, looks at the ongoing troubles in Libya. In it, the Daily Mail describes events as the "bloodbath that shames Britain". The paper says the United Nations has expressed concern about the UK's trade links with Libya. The Daily Telegraph says Washington has been critical of the UK's dealings with Colonel Gaddafi, saying they served only to "legitimise" him.

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I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/17/bbc-trust-chris-patten">The Guardian says the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has interviewed candidates for the job of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust chair. He is understood to have submitted the name of his preferred candidate to the prime minister, as rightwing Conservative backbenchers mount a rearguard action to stop Lord Patten from getting the job.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 has announced it will broadcast "live" concerts again after a four-year hiatus - every weekday evening for 46 weeks of the year. It's applauded by the concert pianist Stephen Hough, %3Ca%20href="https://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/stephenhough/100051580/bbc-radio-3s-decision-to-broadcast-live-concerts-is-music-to-my-ears/">writing in the Daily Telegraph:

"This is an outrageous, audacious, astonishing move by Roger Wright."

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is to allow viewers to access programmes broadcast on rival television channels via its successful iPlayer website, %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/media/article2918202.ece">the Times reports. The corporation began listing shows from rivals including ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 on the iPlayer yesterday, claiming that the move was evidence of a new policy to try to support other channels' attempts to make money online.

UK advertisers and broadcasters including BSkyB, Discovery and MTV have railed against proposals by a Lords committee to cut back on TV advertising. %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/17/bskyb-mtv-lords-advertising">The Guardian says the group is arguing that programme investment will come under threat as a result of a drop in ad revenue levels.

The Economist's circulation topped 200,000 in the UK for the first time in the title's 167-year history, according to the ABC magazine figures for the six months to December 2010. But sales of Richard Desmond's OK! fell by 23% to 450,946, %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/17/economist-magazine-abcs">the Guardian reports.

The government's plans to reform welfare to "make work pay" are pored over in most of the papers. The Daily Express said it welcomed the sanctions against those who turned down jobs, the benefits cap and tax breaks. But the Guardian thinks the "new poor law" should step back from the blueprint for a universal credit. The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12501657">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review links to the front pages.

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A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

Proving popular on the Daily Mail's website is an article asking if we could be seeing the %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357932/The-end-charity-mugger-City-slaps-ban-street-fundraisers-complaints-harassment.html">end of the so-called charity mugger. This follows the news that street fundraisers have been banned from Manchester city centre after complaints of "harassment".

The paper reports a "chugger's charter" which sets out restrictions to fundraising companies.
The code of conduct - brought in after complaints about aggressive charity fundraising - will restrict collectors to four designated zones, only three days a week. Only five collectors will be allowed in each zone at one time.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/16/colin-powell-cia-curveball">Colin Powell is demanding answers over "Curveball's" WMD lies according to one of the Guardian's most read stories. The paper says the former US secretary of state asks why the CIA failed to warn him over an Iraqi defector who has admitted fabricating evidence about weapons of mass destruction. Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, nicknamed Curveball by the German secret service was an Iraqi defector whose evidence was used to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Times readers are finding out about the recent %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/music/article2915593.ece">popularity of folk music. The paper reports the trend following Mumford & Sons triumph at Brits.

Sun readers prefer to catch up on the %3Ca%20href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3416406/Jordans-meltdown-br-Katie-Price-accuses-ex-Alex-Reid-of-fling-on-Brits-night.html">latest spat between glamour model Katie Price and her estranged husband, the cage fighter Alex Reid. The paper reports she has accused him of having an affair.

Ìý

After MPs finally managed to get their bill through Parliament, a referendum on alternative voting (AV) has been confirmed for 5 May.

Commentators discuss which way they will be voting and predict the outcome.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/8326717/AV-is-a-recipe-for-coalitions-reason-enough-to-vote-No.html">Simon Heffer says in the Telegraph that AV will lead to more coalition governments being voted in. This, for him, is enough reason to vote against it:

"[I]t will be easier for parties that are not Labour or the Conservatives to win seats at Westminster. There would not just be Lib Dems, but also Scottish and Welsh separatists, Greens, possibly even one from Nick Griffin and his chums. It would become far less likely that a single party would be able to form a government.
Ìý
"Therefore we would have more highly successful, productive and happiness-inducing coalitions like the one with which we are currently saddled. It would also be increasingly rare that these would be dominated by a Right-of-centre party (not that one any longer feels the Conservatives are a Right-of-centre party, and not that they appear to be having much success in giving a Right-of-centre flavour to the existing Government). AV would then be the thin end of the wedge: soon, full-scale multi-member constituency PR would be introduced."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-the-coming-yes-vote-will-be-explosive-2217191.html">Steve Richards predicts in the Independent that people will vote for alternative voting and says the outcome will be explosive:

"For what it is worth, I have changed my mind and would place quite a lot of money on a majority supporting change, having worked on the assumption for months that the "Yes" campaign was doomed.
Ìý
"I might even go and place a bet."

The Labour leader %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/16/alternative-vote-disconnect-politicians-people">Ed Miliband says in the Guardian that he is supporting AV:

"AV is a first step to end the disconnect between politicians and people. Next comes the House of Lords...
Ìý
"AV offers an opportunity for political reform, ensuring the voice of the public is heard louder than it has been in the past. And given the standing of politics that is an opportunity we should take. It is a system that combines the direct representation of first-past-the-post with one that will make the votes of more people count.
Ìý
"We should be in no doubt. If Britain votes yes in May's referendum it will be a vote to challenge the status quo."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/davidaaronovitch/article2916494.ece">In the Times David Aaronovitch says the "unbelievable" horror stories against the alternative vote are comparable to calling it a "headless pirate witch":

"Here is an example: 'Under AV we would have permanent coalitions and institutionalised breaking of election promises.' And now the Scooby-Doo version: 'Like, there's a snow green witch in an abandoned marina!'
Ìý
"With the alternative vote, voters in constituencies rank their preferences in numerical order (that's 1, 2, 3 etc, for non-Trollope readers), and if no candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the votes, then the bottom candidates are eliminated and their votes transferred, until someone does.
Ìý
"It is not a vastly more proportionate system than our current first-past-the- post, and consequently not very much more likely to create coalitions."

%3Ca%20href="https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2011/02/17/was-it-labour-peers-who-blinked-first/">In the blog Political Betting Mike Smithson says following the referendum result, all eyes should be on the Liberal Democrats' reaction:

"If there is a YES vote then AV will not come into force until late 2013 when the boundaries will be finalised.
Ìý
"So we have a double lock which binds the coalition partners together until, effectively, 2014. The Tories don't want the next general election until the constituency measures are in place - the Lib Dems won't want one until, assuming the referendum goes their way, AV will operate.
Ìý
"The big question is how the yellows will react if the referendum outcome is a NO."

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/8326717/AV-is-a-recipe-for-coalitions-reason-enough-to-vote-No.html">Simon Heffer | Telegraph | The coming 'Yes' vote will be explosive
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-the-coming-yes-vote-will-be-explosive-2217191.html">Steve Richards | Independent | The coming 'Yes' vote will be explosive
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/16/alternative-vote-disconnect-politicians-people">Ed Miliband | Guardian | Why the alternative vote gets my vote
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/davidaaronovitch/article2916494.ece">David Aaronovitch | Times | Alternative vote: it's a headless pirate witch!
• %3Ca%20href="https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2011/02/17/was-it-labour-peers-who-blinked-first/">Mike Smithson | Political Betting | Was it Labour peers who blinked first?

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/17/tv-ads-lords-report">The Guardian reports that a House of Lords committee has called for a cut in the number of advertisements shown on TV, saying the current system is not in the best interests of viewers. ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel Five can sell up to eight minutes of advertising an hour, averaging seven minutes across the day. Other channels can sell up to 12 minutes an hour. The peers say the rules should be harmonised at seven minutes when digital switchover is completed next year. Advertisers say the Government should treat the report "with the utmost caution".

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has raised concerns about the effect of cuts to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service in a question to Government Ministers in the House of Lords, %3Ca%20href="https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=17672">says the Independent Catholic News.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.thisislondon.co.uk/markets/article-23923790-this-mad-move-spells-disaster-for-bbc.do">In the Evening Standard, Roy Greenslade says the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s move from London to Salford "is madness".

Google has launched its online charging service for newspapers and magazines, a day after Apple unveiled a rival internet payment offering for publishers, %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/16/google-one-pass-launch">reports the Guardian. Google One Pass opens the door for publishers to charge for content on websites, as well as smartphones and tablet computers. Publishers will keep 90% of revenue from One Pass sales - compared to 70% offered by Apple's service.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/feb/16/the-archers-camilla-radio-4">The Guardian also prints the transcript of the Duchess of Cornwall's appearance on the Archers. You can %3Ca%20href="/news/entertainment-arts-12488022">hear it on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website.

News that ministers are to axe plans to sell-off England's state-owned forests triggers much debate in the papers. The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12490746">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review picks up on the debate.

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinD">my updates on Twitter

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media stories on Delicious

A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

Proving popular with Times' readers is a report on the %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/article2913526.ece">backlash against My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Headlined My Big Fat Gypsy Shredding, the article questions the stereotype of gypsies and travellers portrayed in the show. The paper uses the example of Damian Le Bas. He went to boarding school, read theology at Oxford and lives in Stockwell, south London. He also happens to be a Romany Gypsy.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357216/Missing-mother-Marie-Stewart-stabbed-death-home-garage.html">body of a young mother has been found in a suitcase in the village where The Last of the Summer Wine is filmed. That's according to a report on the Daily Mail's most read list. Music teacher Marie Stewart is believed to have been dead for weeks and neighbours had recently noticed a foul smell coming from the house. A post-mortem examination revealed she had died after a series of heavy blows and multiple stab wounds. Ms Stewart was renting a modern townhouse with her partner in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire.

The Guardian's most read story says %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/15/defector-admits-wmd-lies-iraq-war">the person who originally claimed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has admitted he invented the story. The paper says Colin Powell's urgency in attacking Iraq relied heavily on information Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi told the German secret service. The Guardian now says Mr Janabi admits he lied about Iraq having secret biological weapons, then "watched in shock as it was used to justify the war".

Sun readers prefer to catch up on %3Ca%20href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/brits/3414414/Cheryl-Coles-crush-on-Rihanna-at-the-Brits.html">flirting between singers Cheryl Cole and Rihanna. The paper reports Ms Cole said Rihanna was her "girl crush" at the Brit Awards. This follows Rihanna saying the same thing last October.

Slate's most popular story reports an %3Ca%20href="https://www.slate.com/id/2285083/">update in the tale of the author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The magazine explains Stieg Larsson has become famous for writing three mystery novels in two years then and dying "from too much coffee and fast food" before the books became international best sellers. The magazine focuses on his partner who has been shut out of his legacy when his father and brother claim his estate. Now Eva Gabrielsson is now seeking revenge.

Commentators react to the %3Ca%20href="https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/care-and-compassion/home">health service ombudsman's report which showed neglect of even the "most basic" human needs in elderly care and a failure in treating elderly patients in England with care, dignity and respect.

After being impressed with the care given during her stay at the Christie cancer hospital in Manchester, Jenni Murray has become a non-executive director there. %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1357422/NHS-elderly-report-We-forgotten-duty-old.html">She gives her recommendation in the Daily Mail for what to focus on with elderly care:

"Good care works not from the bottom up, but from the top down. When we look at hospitals that have been conspicuous failures, it's been management's inability to cope with the organisation and monitoring needed to meet waiting list targets or spend money wisely that's put patients at risk."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/commentcentral/?blogId=Blog62169e5d-5bc8-45fb-bd14-2ead3d26b0bcPost44793644-5dfb-488d-b2ce-4a2dd6b8939f">In the Times Daniel Finkelstein blames the standard of average nurses:

"My fear is that the standard is nowhere near as high as our 'angel' stereotype leads us to believe.
Ìý
"I think that offhand nurses, brisk rudeness to patients, lack of grip as one shift moves to another, a feeling of contempt for visitors who get in the way, patronising language and leaving people for hours without follow up, treatment or explanation is totally standard."

The deacon of the Diocese of Lancaster Rev %3Ca%20href="https://protectthepope.com/?p=2492">Nick Donnelly expresses concern in his blog Protect the Pope about the level of care:

"Of course not all doctors and nurses involved in care of the elderly are callous and ageist, many are professional and caring. However, the cuts in funding to the NHS and the reduction in nurses will put the elderly more at risk. Will the staff ensure that their elderly patients drink enough or will more die of dehydration in hospital? Will the staff make sure that dozing patients wake up in time to eat their meals, or will their food be whipped away without the patients knowing they've missed another meal?"

Former government "Voice of Older People" %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/8326720/Who-cares-for-the-elderly.html">Joan Bakewell says in the Telegraph that the findings come as no surprise. She says we need to radically rethink they way we care for older people:

"What, in many cases, made things far worse was the second of our modern evils: isolation. This compounds the effects of the other four giants, because it means there is no one to share your story, to relieve your misery, to call in doctors, carers or neighbours when things get bad."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/jeremy-laurance-a-service-that-cant-care-has-sown-the-seeds-of-its-own-destruction-2215048.html">Jeremy Laurance argues in the Independent that the root of the problem is that The NHS is overly focused on the interests of the staff:

"Despite the efforts of the last government to modernise the NHS and the injection of billions of pounds of extra resources, the problem persists. It is hardly surprising then that demands for further reform are heard.
Ìý
"An NHS that cannot feed and wash and relieve the pain of the patients it cares for is not worthy of the name.
Ìý
"Thirty years after Sir Roy Griffiths was drafted in from Sainsbury's to reform the NHS, it remains an institution overly focused on the interests of the providers - the staff. In a million ways - from making an appointment to see a GP to getting help with eating on a hospital ward - its lack of focus on the patient is evident."

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ should have acted much earlier to cut the pay of its top executives, a member of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust has told MPs. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8325846/Top-´óÏó´«Ã½-pay-should-have-been-cut-much-sooner...-says-´óÏó´«Ã½-chief.html">Telegraph reports the Corporation announced a year ago it was cutting its senior management salary bill by 25%. Anthony Fry expressed regret in the evidence he gave yesterday to the Public Accounts Committee:

"At the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust, we have encouraged the director-general in his efforts. If you're asking me, do I wish that those announcements had been made 24 months ago, I certainly do."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/15/channel-6-channel-5">Guardian says Channel 6, the company bidding to run the proposed national TV network that underpins Jeremy Hunt's plan to deliver local news, claims it will have a bigger programming budget than Channel 5. Run by former Trinity Mirror chief executive Richard Horwood, Channel 6 is the only confirmed bidder to run the Freeview channel ahead of Hunt's deadline for expressions of interest on 1 March.

Lawyers for News International yesterday insisted there was "no evidence" that a detective employed by the News of the World hacked into the voicemails of two public figures about whom he held extensive information, including their passwords. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/news-of-the-world-insists-there-is-no-evidence-in-phonehacking-case-2216176.html">Independent reports Steve Coogan and Andy Gray are suing the NotW for breach of privacy and confidence by allegedly accessing their voicemail messages.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12477486">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper reviews says the papers carry a mixed bag on Wednesday with none of the front pages leading on the same story. But with inflation now standing at 4%, several papers contemplate the Bank of England's next move on interest rates.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8325846/Top-´óÏó´«Ã½-pay-should-have-been-cut-much-sooner...-says-´óÏó´«Ã½-chief.html">Telegraph | Top ´óÏó´«Ã½ pay should have been cut much sooner... says ´óÏó´«Ã½ chief
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/15/channel-6-channel-5">Guardian | National TV bidder Channel 6 pledges bigger budget than Channel 5
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/news-of-the-world-insists-there-is-no-evidence-in-phonehacking-case-2216176.html">Independent | 'News of the World' insists there is no evidence in phone-hacking case
• %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12477486">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinD">my updates on Twitter

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media stories on Delicious

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2011/02/media_brief_163.html">Tuesday's Media Brief

Commentators continue to mull over what exactly is meant by the term Big Society.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/02/society-help-cameron-today">New Statesman has collected its favourite definitions of Big Society published on Twitter.

Starting off with an %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/MarkDowe2011/status/37159148042846208">earnest definition is Mark Dowe:

"Shrinking state, self-responsibility and duty"

%3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/nicktheowl/status/37162260832980992">
Nick Drew suggests it involves blind optimism:

"Citizen activity expands to fill gap left by shrinking state; we're still not sure quite how. Maybe if we wish hard enough"

%3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/StevConnor/status/37159449911107584">Steve Connor is more cynical:

"The less well off help each other and the super rich help themselves".

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/75088,news-comment,news-politics,confusedcom-woman-speaks-for-nation-on-camerons-big-society?DCMP=NLC-daily">First Post says the confusion over the definition of Big Society is a PR nightmare:

"Dave's slow-motion car crash this morning was painful to behold. It was encapsulated by a woman voluntary organiser in offender rehabilitation who, standing up to challenge the PM about his Big Society, described herself as 'Confused.com'.
Ìý
"In doing so, she spoke for the nation and for most Conservatives who are confused not only about the Big Society, but also why Dave is so determined to inflict such damage on himself."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/rachelsylvester/article2913683.ece">Rachel Sylvester says in the Times that the Big Society is "determinedly uncynical". That is why no-one in Westminster understands it:

"Just as Facebook seems pointless, or incomprehensible, to people brought up to communicate by letter or telephone, so the Big Society is hard to understand when viewed through the conventional political prism. There is an apparent internal contradiction within a central Downing Street initiative that is meant to devolve power down to local communities. There is a tension between the desire to present this as a new approach to government and the sense that it is a continuation of what has gone before, a reinterpretation of Burke's little platoons.
Ìý
"Perhaps, more importantly, there seems to be a mismatch between the fundamentally optimistic philosophy on which the Big Society is based and the pessimistic times in which we live. It's not really a cover for cuts, it's about people taking responsibility for themselves."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/article2481811.ece">Times Cartoon reflects Rachel Sylvester's view that Big Society is misunderstood. It pictures David Cameron with a "DAFTA" award, underneath which is written "Best director in completely incomprehensible language, The Big Society".

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1357058/David-Camerons-Big-Society-A-noble-idea-danger-big-flop.html">
In the Daily Mail Melanie Phillips defends the idea of Big Society but says it's in danger of becoming a "big flop":

"The Number Ten website tells us that the Big Society means a 'massive transfer of power from Whitehall' through 'existing public service reforms and encouraging people to get involved in their communities'.

"But getting involved by doing what, precisely? Well, taking responsibility. See what I mean? It's an explanation that seems to chase its own tail. Because it's all so vague, people think the Big Society is just spin to cover up the cuts in public spending.
Ìý
"That particular charge, though, can't be right: Mr Cameron alighted upon this Big Society idea when he was still in opposition. But the reason he did so hardly offers much reassurance that his 'mission' rests on a solid base of thinking."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/02/five-reasons-why-you-cant-trust-cameron-with-the-big-society/">
In Left Foot Forward Will Straw cites the %3Ca%20href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2011/02/britains_forests">Economist's Bagehot's Notebook in his five reasons not to trust the Big Society idea:

"[T]he public is mistrustful of any vision for Britain that blends altruism with the profit motive. And that is a big problem for the Big Society, which just does not add up if it does not include a dose of private enterprise."

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/14/mosque-schools-arrest-channel-4">Guardian says police have arrested a man concerning alleged assaults on children at a mosque after viewing a Channel 4 documentary screened on Monday. Dispatches secretly filmed a man apparently hitting and kicking children during Koran lessons at a school in Keighley, West Yorkshire. An Islamic school in Birmingham said it would close early for half-term, amid fears pupils could be the target of far-right groups. Channel 4 denied accusations that it "unfairly targeted" the Birmingham school.

The comedian Steve Coogan kept a "treasure trove" of information on a mobile phone which he alleges was targeted by a private investigator working for Rupert Murdoch's News International, a court heard yesterday. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/phone-hackers-targeted-treasure-trove-of-information-says-coogan-2215050.html">Independent reports the 45-year-old actor is suing the paper and Glenn Mulcaire for alleged breach of confidence and privacy by listening to messages left on his phone. The News of the World and Mr Mulcaire say there is no evidence that hacking of Coogan's messages took place.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8324159/The-week-in-radio.html">In the Telegraph Gillian Reynolds reviews Andy Gray and Richard Keys' return to broadcasting on TalkSport and discussions about Radio 4's future on the Today show and Feedback.

The "spoiler" is not a new problem - remember the classic Likely Lads episode when they spent all day avoiding the football scores? But, %3Ca%20href="/journalism/blog/2011/02/look-away-now---baftas-spoiler.shtml">as I explain in my blog for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ College of Journalism, new media such as Twitter have given it a new dimension. This year's Baftas are a prime example.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12461578">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review says a damning report on the state of NHS care for the elderly is the lead story in several of the newspapers. The health service ombudsman found patients were left hungry, unwashed and with inadequate pain relief.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/14/mosque-schools-arrest-channel-4">Guardian | Mosque school arrest following Channel 4 documentary
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/phone-hackers-targeted-treasure-trove-of-information-says-coogan-2215050.html">Independent | Phone hackers targeted treasure trove of information, says Coogan
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8324159/The-week-in-radio.html">Telegraph | The week in radio
• %3Ca%20href="/journalism/blog/2011/02/look-away-now---baftas-spoiler.shtml">´óÏó´«Ã½ | College of Journalism 'Look away now' - BAFTAs, spoilers and Twitter
• %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12461578">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinD">my updates on Twitter

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media stories on Delicious

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2011/02/media_brief_162.html">Monday's Media Brief

A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

The Telegraph's most read story warns %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8318367/Australians-hit-by-Cyclone-Yasi-warned-to-stay-away-from-deadly-giant-birds.html">Australians hit by Cyclone Yasi to stay away from deadly giant birds called cassowaries. Residents of Mission Beach are being advised that huge flightless birds are on the hunt for food after the northern Australian rainforest was destroyed by the storm. The story explains the birds were named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most dangerous birds in the world. They are famous for their dagger-like middle claws which measure 12cm long and powerful legs. The emu-like birds are said to be able to disembowel humans, dogs and horses with just one kick.

In the Guardian's most read story %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/14/daily-star-crude-propaganda">Charlie Brooker looks at the Daily Star's content. He says the paper is either irresponsible in its "sloppy reporting", or engaging in overt anti-Muslim propaganda. He carries on to say the paper patronises its readers by "repeatedly publishing lies".

"Sometimes they're daft lies" says Mr Brooker. "Take the lie about the company behind Grand Theft Auto planning a game called Grand Theft Rothbury, inspired by the Raoul Moat saga. 'We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication... We apologise for publishing a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member,' read part of the paper's subsequent grovelling apology."

The Daily Star's most popular story claims %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailystar.co.uk/posts/view/176761/Cheryl-and-Ashely-Cole-back-together">Ashley and Cheryl Cole are getting back together. It says they are planning a trip to Dubai. The article goes on to say a spokesman for Cheryl said she had "no plans" to join Ashley abroad.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356696/155k-illegal-workers-claiming-benefits-Law-loophole-costs-British-taxpayers-millions.html">A loophole in the law allows thousands of illegal workers to claim benefits according to the Daily Mail's most read story. Ministers claim most of those illegally claiming sickness and maternity pay came to work in Britain for a limited period and overstayed their visa. The article cites a Whitehall source, ahead of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's expected announcement on changes to the benefit system.

The Times' most read article says the %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/music/article2912357.ece">Grammys ceremony was full of surprises. Justin Bieber lost out to Lady Gaga for best pop album, and to a relative unknown, Esperanza Spalding, the jazz bassist and chanteuse, for best pop newcomer.

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The King's Speech ruled at the Baftas last night, winning seven awards included best film and best actor for Colin Firth. The %3Ca%20href="/news/entertainment-arts-12432378">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports the film also won outstanding British film, best original screenplay, supporting acting honours for Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush, and best score. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/baftas/8322357/Baftas-2011-The-Kings-Speech-sweeps-the-board-at-the-Baftas.html">Telegraph says the low-budget British film has taken the world by storm.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/kings-speech-rules-the-baftas-with-historic-seven-awards-2213857.html">Independent says that for one-time stutterer David Seidler, the screenwriter of The King's Speech, it was the night he finally found his voice. His royal drama, telling the story of how King George VI overcame his stammer, picked up an extraordinary seven Baftas last night.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/14/iplayer-ipad-android-mobile-bbc">Guardian reports the iPlayer's arrival on iPad and smartphones has seen a boom in mobile use of the service, according to the latest ´óÏó´«Ã½ figures.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ has been accused of lowering its standards to enable it to put more people from ethnic minority backgrounds on air. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8321675/´óÏó´«Ã½-accused-of-lowering-standards-to-encourage-more-ethnic-minorities.html">Telegraph reports the comment came from Samir Shah, an Indian-born former head of current affairs and former member of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s executive board, in the wake of a ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust report which said too many of Radio 4's listeners were white, middle class and elderly.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Arts/article547488.ece">Mr Shah told the Sunday Times "It is done with the best of intentions - but for someone like me, from an ethnic minority, my heart sinks. It is just embarrassing."

But the %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8320249/Archers-and-Today-should-have-more-ethnic-voices-says-former-Radio-4-controller.html">Telegraph reports the former controller of Radio 4 Mark Damazer urged ´óÏó´«Ã½ executives to make the station more representative of Britain's population, and expressed regret at not achieving a greater level of diversity while he was there. He said the Today programme and The Archers should have more voices from black and ethnic backgrounds.

Ofcom, the media regulator, today unveils its on-screen warning signal designed to alert viewers to the presence of product placement in television programmes. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/p-is-for-product-placement-as-tv-shows-sell-out-to-advertisers-2213863.html">Independent says the monochrome double P logo will be seen from 28 February, following the Government's decision to permit advertisers to pay broadcasters for the inclusion of branded goods and services in their programmes.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12445426">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review says as David Cameron prepares to relaunch his Big Society initiative, the papers explain how they see the concept. For the Daily Mirror, it is an ideological smokescreen to obscure the wilful destruction of public services.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="/news/entertainment-arts-12432378">´óÏó´«Ã½ | King's Speech reigns over Bafta awards
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/baftas/8322357/Baftas-2011-The-Kings-Speech-sweeps-the-board-at-the-Baftas.html">Telegraph | Baftas 2011: The King's Speech sweeps the board at the Baftas
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/kings-speech-rules-the-baftas-with-historic-seven-awards-2213857.html">Independent | King's Speech rules the Baftas with historic seven awards
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/14/iplayer-ipad-android-mobile-bbc">Guardian | The iPlayer's future is mobile, says ´óÏó´«Ã½
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8321675/´óÏó´«Ã½-accused-of-lowering-standards-to-encourage-more-ethnic-minorities.html">Telegraph | ´óÏó´«Ã½ accused of lowering standards 'to encourage more ethnic minorities'
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Arts/article547488.ece">Sunday Times | Radio 4 'lowers standards for racial reasons'
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8320249/Archers-and-Today-should-have-more-ethnic-voices-says-former-Radio-4-controller.html">Telegraph | Archers and Today should have more ethnic voices, says former Radio 4 controller
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/p-is-for-product-placement-as-tv-shows-sell-out-to-advertisers-2213863.html">Independent | P is for product placement as TV shows sell out to advertisers
• %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12445426">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper Review

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinD">my updates on Twitter

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media stories on Delicious

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2011/02/media_brief_161.html">Friday's Media Brief

Ìý

Commentators give their verdicts on David Cameron's relaunch of the Big Society concept.

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/12/david-cameron-big-society-good">Mr Cameron's explanation of Big Society in the Guardian

Conservative MP %3Ca%20href="https://roberthalfon.blogspot.com/2011/02/three-short-ways-of-defining-big.html">Robert Halfon defines Big Society in his blog:

"The Big Society says social capital - the glue that strengthens community - and binds communities together - is as important as economic capital. You can't have one without the other. Capitalism works best with strong communities."

Labour MP %3Ca%20href="https://paulflynnmp.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/02/big-society-implodes.html">Paul Flynn says in his blog that the new Tory dream has "sunk into a nightmare":

"Savagely cut charities are told to persuade those sacked by the Government to work for nothing. Heroes of compassionate work will by redesigned as Cameron's foot solders. He seeks the crown as the inspirer of all voluntary work. The dream is unattainable."

Conservative MP %3Ca%20href="https://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2011/02/14/strategy-and-tactics/">John Redwood argues in his blog that the Big Society concept will only take off if David Cameron manages to persuade the public it could work:

"If the Big Society arrives to delegate power to local groups and to front line public service employees, it could help deliver better value public service and be part of public service reform.
Ìý
"The latest challenge to the approach is for opponents to claim that public service reform and the development of localism and the Big Society all require substantial injections of Whitehall cash. The government has to reject this convincingly and show it is not true. Otherwise public service reform and Big Society growth get in the way of deficit reduction."

Conversely the %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/13/big-society-destruction-david-cameron">Guardian's Jackie Ashley says David Cameron should give up on trying to resuscitate Big Society as it "cannot emerge from the 'creative destruction' of the state":

"The big society is out there, a vague but powerful notion, related to our deep desire to help our neighbours and be part of something greater than our own payslips - but it is an idea that properly belongs to the centre-left, not to the right. For now, the best advice to David Cameron would be to stop the endless relaunches and listen to those inside the coalition government who are telling him that by cutting too far and too fast he is endangering any sense of a bigger society."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1356690/Big-Society-Its-just-spin-nobs-on.html">Daily Mail's Peter McKay thinks the Big Society is just "spin with nobs on":

"Cameron would like us to think the Big Society characterises his modern Conservative Party - a new, kinder world in which we all pull together for the common good, without always looking for personal reward.
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"But the true Tory character was revealed at its Black and White Party last week, in which five 'internships' at City banks were auctioned to wealthy Conservative-supporting parents for their children, with the £14,000 raised going to Tory funds."

Links in full
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/12/david-cameron-big-society-good">David Cameron | Guardian | Have no doubt, the big society is on its way
• %3Ca%20href="https://roberthalfon.blogspot.com/2011/02/three-short-ways-of-defining-big.html">Robert Halfon's blog | Three short ways of Defining The Big Society
• %3Ca%20href="https://paulflynnmp.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/02/big-society-implodes.html">Paul Flynn's blog | Big society implodes
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2011/02/14/strategy-and-tactics/">John Redwood's blog | Strategy and tactics
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/13/big-society-destruction-david-cameron">Jackie Ashley | Guardian | A big society cannot emerge from the destruction of the state
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1356690/Big-Society-Its-just-spin-nobs-on.html">Peter McKay | Daily Mail | Big Society? It's just spin with nobs on

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/breaking-news-uncivil-war-breaks-out-at-channel-4-2211235.html">Independent says Channel 4 News was in turmoil last night after a leaked letter revealed that the programme's staff were furious at "incredibly erosive" plans to turn some correspondents into star "brands" while relegating others to obscurity.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8317022/Channel-4-News-staff-complain-of-them-and-us-culture.html">Daily Telegraph says the letter to Channel 4 News chiefs complained of divisions in the newsroom and staff shortages. More than 20 staff including presenters Alex Thomson, Samira Ahmed, Faisal Islam and Cathy Newman signed the letter.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/10/twitter-talks-buyers-facebook-google">Guardian reports Twitter has been holding talks with potential suitors, including Facebook and Google, which could value the micro-blogging site at $10bn (£6.2bn).

´óÏó´«Ã½ One controller Danny Cohen is interviewed by Andrew Billen of The Times. He tells him "firefighting is part of the job but not the bit you relish" and the stars are much more important than him in terms of the audience.

Australian comedian Barry Humphries has been named Oldie of the Year by the satirical magazine. The %3Ca%20href="/news/entertainment-arts-12415463">´óÏó´«Ã½ says Prince Philip was named Consort of the Year "for lifetime achievement", while Anne Widdecombe was crowned Hoofer of the Year "for her life-enhancing performance on Strictly Come Dancing". Other winners included newsreader Julia Somerville, named 'Autocutie of the Year' for "her defiance of ageism at the ´óÏó´«Ã½'' and June Spencer - Peggy in Radio 4's The Archers.

%3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12427483">The ´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review says there is much fear in the papers about what will happen next in Egypt. The Guardian believes President Mubarak has "laid a powder trail that could explode today" if the truce between the people and the military breaks down. "This is a deeply dangerous moment for Egypt," agrees the Times, branding the president "a calculating despot".

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/breaking-news-uncivil-war-breaks-out-at-channel-4-2211235.html">Independent | Breaking news: uncivil war breaks out at Channel 4
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8317022/Channel-4-News-staff-complain-of-them-and-us-culture.html">Telegraph | Channel 4 News staff complain of 'them and us' culture
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/10/twitter-talks-buyers-facebook-google">Guardian | Twitter 'in early talks with potential buyers Facebook and Google'
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/tv-radio/article2907418.ece">Times | Danny Cohen, ´óÏó´«Ã½ One's new controller and busy firefighter
• %3Ca%20href="/news/entertainment-arts-12415463">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Barry Humphries named Oldie of the Year
• %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12427483">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinD">my updates on Twitter

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media stories on Delicious

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2011/02/media_brief_160.html">Thursday's Media Brief

Ìý

Commentators discuss Parliament's rejection of the proposal to give prisoners the right to vote.

%3Ca%20href="https://politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2011/02/11/what-are-the-implications-of-votes-for-prisoners/">In the blog Political Betting David Herdson predicts the vote's result will be popular with the electorate:

"In the short term, asserting parliamentary rights against a foreign, unelected and unaccountable body will be a popular move, especially on an issue such as votes for prisoners. It's as close to sticking two fingers up at them as it tends to get. However, it's unlikely to be the last move in the saga."

But he goes on to warn it could lead to lots of court cases:

"The ECHR ruled back in 2005 that it is for the national legislature to determine whether franchise restrictions should apply to prisoners and if so, to what extent, that it couldn't find any evidence that it had considered the question (despite it being a clause in the 1983 RPA), but that it was unlawful to deny the vote to all imprisoned criminals as a blanket application. The Straw-Davis motion obviously addresses the point about parliament not having debated the matter but the main substance of the judgement still stands, presenting the government with a problem.
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"If it now proposes legislation to comply with the ruling, there's a good chance it will fail given the vote yesterday. Alternatively, if it doesn't act, there's a strong probability that compensation cases will be brought on the basis of the ECHR ruling and be upheld by the Court."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1355783/Prisoners-vote-debate-A-gaseous-smile-plenty-legal-gibberish.html">In the Daily Mail Quentin Letts notes the absence of a lot of MPs:

"The House was not full. Labour, being pro-European, stayed away. During the debate its benches seldom held more than 15 bodies. The Lib Dems huddled like girls at a disco...
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"Mr Grieve, whose sentences had more phrases than a tourist's language guide, argued that it would be 'tyrannical' if our Government broke its treaty obligations and thus ignored the rule of law.
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"Would there not be a different sort of tyranny if a foreign court ignored the wish of our elected House of Parliament?"

Also in the %3Ca%20href="https://synonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/02/votes-for-prisoners-how-david-cameron-is-hiding-the-truth-about-european-power-over-human-rights.html">Daily Mail Mary Ellen Synon, who writes the column Euro Septic, asks politicians to be consistent about Europe:

"All I can say to the Commons over this votes for prisoners dispute is: just shut up and pull the trigger and get out of the Council of Europe. Or admit you are too timid to pull the trigger, so shut up anyway and submit in the manner that suits men who are cowards."

%3Ca%20href="https://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100075580/parliament-has-spoken-now-david-cameron-must-act/">Benedict Brogan says in the Telegraph Parliament has spoken so now David Cameron must act:

"The 234-22 vote is thumping, but also tells us that that roughly half the House - mainly Labour - abstained, which can hardly be presented as the Commons speaking with one voice. But it has spoken, and now it is over to Mr Cameron. Dominic Grieve spoke as a lawyer rather than a politician, and if it were up to him this vote would be ignored. But Mr Cameron has titillated his Euro-sceptic troops by urging them to rise up. As I said earlier today, he can hardly now sit back and do nothing. Labour are calling on him to make a statement. He has tried to exploit this confrontation and must now accept the consequences: the Government must say what it will do to withdraw Britain from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, and soon."

The Conservative MP %3Ca%20href="https://www.stevebaker.info/2011/02/votes-for-prisoners-motion-carried/">Steve Baker's explains his reasons in his blog for voting against giving prisoners the right to vote:

"The debate was of a high standard and members who wish to give prisoners the vote were able to make a strong case. I did not agree: I believe that it is reasonable for a person to lose the right to vote along with their liberty on conviction. The motion was carried convincingly.
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"I have repeatedly heard the argument that giving prisoners the vote should be part of a package of penal reform. I am all for penal reform, but I am not persuaded that it is necessary to give prisoners the vote in order to achieve a high quality of reform: there is much else to do if offenders are to be helped to make a positive contribution to society."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/sun_says/244723/The-Sun-Says.html">Sun is also jubilant but says this is not the end of the issue:

"Thursday, February 10, 2011 was the day Britain's Parliament finally stood up to Europe over human rights madness...
Ìý
"The vote settles nothing. There will be months of wrangling over what happens next, with threats of heavy fines if we do not cave in. "But Westminster has sent a clear signal to Europe's unelected dictators."

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1355783/Prisoners-vote-debate-A-gaseous-smile-plenty-legal-gibberish.html?ITO=1490">Quentin Letts | Daily Mail | A gaseous smile and plenty of legal gibberish
• %3Ca%20href="https://synonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/02/votes-for-prisoners-how-david-cameron-is-hiding-the-truth-about-european-power-over-human-rights.html">Mary Ellen Synon | Daily Mail | Votes for prisoners: how David Cameron is hiding the truth about European power over 'human rights'
• %3Ca%20href="https://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100075580/parliament-has-spoken-now-david-cameron-must-act/">Benedict Brogan | Telegraph | Parliament has spoken. Now David Cameron must act
• %3Ca%20href="https://politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2011/02/11/what-are-the-implications-of-votes-for-prisoners/">David Herdson | Political Betting | What are the implications of "votes for prisoners"?
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.stevebaker.info/2011/02/votes-for-prisoners-motion-carried/">Steve Baker's blog | Votes for prisoners - motion carried
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/sun_says/244723/The-Sun-Says.html">Sun | Do Us Rights

Ìý

Ìý

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12413097">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports Lord Prescott says police have told him they have "significant new evidence" relating to his claim that he was a victim of phone hacking at the News of the World. The former deputy prime minister said the development showed that earlier investigations into his case and others had been "completely inadequate".

Detectives investigating phone hacking by the News of the World are to contact thousands of people to tell them that their voicemail messages may have been intercepted, %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8314907/Phone-hacking-targets-run-into-thousands.html">according to the Telegraph.

YouView, the ´óÏó´«Ã½-backed venture to bring video-on-demand services to Freeview, has confirmed it will not launch until 2012, a delay of more than six months. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/09/youview-launch-delayed-2012">Guardian says the company is also backed by BT, TalkTalk, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Arqiva. It is understood the project has been delayed due to technical issues.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is considering moving more staff to its new headquarters in Salford, which is already due to house about 2,300 employees. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/09/bbc-salford-caroline-thomson">Guardian reports ´óÏó´«Ã½ chief operating officer Caroline Thomson said there is still space in the new northern site in MediaCity: UK. Speaking on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's The Media Show, Thomson said: "We have to think about what else we can move in there."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/09/jeremy-hunt-interview-bbc-trust">Guardian says the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is keen to interview the candidates to be the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust chair before making his recommendation for a replacement for Sir Michael Lyons. The favoured candidates are believed to be Lord Patten, the former Conservative party chairman, and Sir Richard Lambert, the outgoing director general of the CBI. The Commons culture select committee, chaired by Tory MP John Whittingdale, will interview the candidate put forward by Mr Hunt on 10 March. The Guardian says Whittingdale has openly said that of the two favourites he prefers Lambert, and he will give Patten, for whom he once worked, a "hard time" if he appears before the committee.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/murdoch-family-fortunes-shine-on-elisabeth-in-163400m-deal-2209930.html">Independent says Elisabeth Murdoch is on the verge of re-entering the fold of her father Rupert's News Corporation media empire, which is close to acquiring her television company Shine Productions in a deal worth up to £400m. Ms Murdoch founded Shine, which produces shows such as The Tudors and Masterchef, almost ten years ago and has built it into a powerhouse in the British independent television sector and a transatlantic business.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12413579">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review says the Daily Mail wants the government to defy Europe on the issue of voting rights for prisoners, calling this a day of "great significance in the history of this sovereign nation". The Daily Telegraph says it is a "watershed moment" and MPs must make a stand or have their impotency confirmed.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12413097">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Lord Prescott told of new phone-hacking evidence
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8314907/Phone-hacking-targets-run-into-thousands.html">Telegraph | Phone hacking targets run into thousands
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/09/youview-launch-delayed-2012">Guardian | YouView launch delayed until 2012
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/09/bbc-salford-caroline-thomson">Guardian | ´óÏó´«Ã½ considers moving more staff to Salford
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/09/jeremy-hunt-interview-bbc-trust">Guardian | Jeremy Hunt to interview ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust chair candidates
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/murdoch-family-fortunes-shine-on-elisabeth-in-163400m-deal-2209930.html">Independent | Murdoch family fortunes shine on Elisabeth in £400m deal
• %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12413579">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinD">my updates on Twitter

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media stories on Delicious

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2011/02/media_brief_159.html">Wednesday's Media Brief

Ìý

Commentators give their verdicts on Project Merlin - the lending targets the Treasury has set for banks.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/8314649/Stop-bashing-the-banks.html">Telegraph's editorial says the deal that has been reached will probably satisfy no-one:

"[I]t would be naive not to see the political context: the City's role in the financial crisis, the massive bail-out by the taxpayer and the large bonuses that are about to be paid have all conspired to make this a toxic issue for ministers.
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"On that score, the deal that has been reached will probably satisfy no one. Labour - as Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, made clear yesterday - will continue with its irresponsible rhetoric because it thinks it wins votes. While more lending to small businesses is certainly needed, the banks fear that official pressure will force them to lend money to unsound ventures that might default. And although a commitment to greater transparency is welcome, executives will resent having to declare their earnings when their counterparts overseas do not."

%3Ca%20href="https://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/02/09/project-merlin/">In the Independent Sean O'Grady confesses disappointment about the £200bn lending target:

"Moreover, it is really now too late to save many companies that were suffering so badly during the recession, simply because those most in need of support have gone bust and are in no position to borrow form anyone.
Ìý
"Overall, then, not quite as robust a package as I had hoped for."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andreas-whittam-smith/andreas-whittam-smith-we-need-closure-not-compromise-over-banks-2209672.html">Also in the Independent Andreas Whittam Smith says the deal isn't enough to provide the closure necessary to be able to forgive the banks:

"The national interest requires a fully competitive banking industry that no longer relies upon a guarantee of solvency provided by taxpayers. Nothing in the statement speaks to that. The banks need an act of closure that would mean that their "time for remorse and apology" was truly over. That has not happened. The banks will go on being the whipping boys of public opinion...
Ìý
"As to conceiving how Mr Osborne should have dealt with the banks, we must first answer some questions.
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"If the economy is in such a dire state, how is it that British banks are contemplating paying out billions of pounds in bonuses to their senior executives? There is no remorse here. The immediate answer - because they are still making large profits - begs more questions than it answers. Why are banks so profitable in these straitened times? One reason is the nature of banking. Bankers have exceptionally accurate and detailed knowledge of economic and market trends. This comes from their privileged position as party to every transaction that requires money to change hands - which is pretty much everything. Don't let bankers persuade you how hard their job is - with such good information, who wouldn't prosper?"

While %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/10/politicians-bankers-struggle-for-power">Vince Cable insists in the Guardian that the lending targets will help small businesses, the %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/09/merlin-bonus-british-business-banks?">Guardian's editorial says Gordon Brown and David Cameron have both failed to stand up to the City:

"The way it was trumpeted by the chancellor, it took an effort to remember that the so-called Project Merlin settlement was actually the brainchild of bankers, not politicians. Or that it was brokered by the former boss of Barclays bank, John Varley. But this is an agreement that has been shaped by bankers and, whether on bonuses or lending, is agreeable to bankers.
Ìý
"The first objection to this settlement is a fundamental one: there is no logical reason for ministers to have any give-and-take with bankers."

Finally, Conservative MP %3Ca%20href="https://www.talkcarswell.com/show.aspx?id=1798">Douglas Carswell observes in his blog that Project Merlin could be a case of reality copying fiction:

"Anyone who has read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged might be forgiven for thinking they've heard of today's Merlin agreement before...
Ìý
"In the novel, I seem to remember a bank owner, Midas Mulligan, was similarly ordered to extend credit. Lending was made on the basis of perceived need, rather than the willingness of those with savings to risk their wealth in return for possible reward."

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/8314649/Stop-bashing-the-banks.html">Telegraph | Stop bashing the banks
• %3Ca%20href="https://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/02/09/project-merlin/">Sean O'Grady | Independent | Project Merlin
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andreas-whittam-smith/andreas-whittam-smith-we-need-closure-not-compromise-over-banks-2209672.html">Andreas Whittam Smith | Independent | We need closure, not compromise over banks
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/david-prosser-a-pyrrhic-victory-in-the-chancellors-battle-with-the-banks-2208574.html">David Prosser | Independent | A pyrrhic victory in the Chancellor's battle with the banks
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/10/politicians-bankers-struggle-for-power">Guardian | Politicians and bankers: The struggle for power
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/09/merlin-bonus-british-business-banks?">Guardian | Merlin: our bonus for British business
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.talkcarswell.com/show.aspx?id=1798">Douglas Carswell's blog | Have we heard of Merlin before?

Ìý

Commentators look at the momentous events in Cairo.

The Arab press is in no doubt that the uprising has been re-energised.

"Huge Protests Hasten Fall of Egyptian Regime," is the %3Ca%20href="https://www.alquds.co.uk/index.asp?fname=today\08z500.htm&arc=data\2011\02\02-08\08z500.htm">headline in Al Quds Al Arabi, reporting Tuesday's turn-out in Tahrir Square.

"Egyptian Revolution Shakes Pillars of Mubarak's Rule," %3Ca%20href="https://www.alarabonline.org/">says Al-Arab al-Alamiyah.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.jordantimes.com/?news=34325">Jordan Times says it all with a picture of a lone soldier standing on his tank, marooned in a great sea of demonstrators. The protesters had been galvanised by a speech in the square by the young activist, Wael Ghonim who was released from detention just a day earlier. Afterwards he tweeted the message, "Dear Egyptians, Failure is not an option."

The spirit of Tahrir is captured in the words of a 50-year-old engineer called Hosam Khalaf, who'd brought his wife and daughters along. Talking %3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/opinion/09friedman.html?ref=opinion">to New York Times correspondent Thomas Friedman Mr Khalaf referred to the Tunisian revolution:

"We got a message from Tunis... and the message was; 'burn the fear that is inside you. That is what is happening here. This was a society in fear, and the fear has been burned. When we meet God, we will at least be able to say: 'We tried to do something.'"

Thomas Friedman concludes in the New York Times that in 40 years of writing about the Middle East, he has never seen anything like what is happening in Tahrir Square:

"In a region where the truth and truth-tellers have so long been smothered under the crushing weight of oil, autocracy and religious obscurantism, suddenly the Arab world has a truly free space - and the truth is now gushing out like a torrent. I know the 'realist' experts believe this will all be shut down soon. Maybe it will. But for one brief shining moment, forget the experts and just listen. You have not heard this before. It is the sound of a people so long kept voiceless, finally finding, and celebrating their own voices."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-week-3-day-16-and-with-every-passing-hour-the-regime-digs-in-deeper-2208625.html">Robert Fisk of the London-based Independent says it took him hours to wade into what was the biggest demonstration so far:

"Many said they had come because they were frightened; because they feared the world was losing interest in their struggle, because Mubarak had not yet left his palace, because the crowds had grown smaller in recent days, because some of the camera crews had left for other tragedies and other dictatorships, because the smell of betrayal was in the air... But yesterday proved that the revolution is alive."

President Mubarak's determination to have a long goodbye by staying on until elections in September %3Ca%20href="https://blogs.cfr.org/cook/2011/02/08/why-he-must-go-now/">incenses an Egyptian called Hassan Elsawaf quoted on a blog hosted by the US-based Council on Foreign Relation:

"It is painfully obvious that the 'deferred departure' scenario is no more than a ploy to stay on. It is bizarre to talk of the need to worry about a 'dignified exit' for Mubarak at the expense of the dignity of eighty five million suffering Egyptians. The people of Egypt have spoken."

And Mr Elsawaf has a message for the outside world:

"Some foreign western governments have made shockingly derogatory statements inferring that Egypt needs time to move towards democracy. Their hesitation to offer unequivocal demands for Mubarak to go only gives traction to his determination to hang on."

And %3Ca%20href="https://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/editorials/index.html">a New York Times editorial agrees that the West is playing its hand very poorly:

"The United States and the European Union may not have been able to wheedle or push President Hosni Mubarak from power. Still, they badly miscalculated when they endorsed Egypt's vice president, Omar Suleiman, to lead the transition to democracy. He appears far more interested in maintaining as much of the old repressive order as he can get away with. That is unacceptable to Egypt's people, and it should be unacceptable to Egypt's Western supporters."

A critic of political Islam %3Ca%20href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ayaan-hirsi-ali/get-ready-to-compete-with_b_820375.html">Ayaan Hirsi Ali says in the Huffington Post that the Obama administration should help Egypt's secular democratic groups to organise themselves so they can challenge the Muslim Brotherhood in a post-Mubarak struggle for power at the ballot box:

"[The Democrats] must waste no time in persuading the Egyptian electorate why a Sharia-based government would be bad for them. Unlike the Iranians in 1979, the Egyptians have before them the example of a people who opted for Sharia -- the Iranians of 1979 -- and who have lived to regret it."

Ms Ali's thoughts get a deluge of responses from her readers. One unnamed commenter disapproves:

"You know what would be great? Letting a country decide for itself what it's going to do, without outside sources trying to pressure them in to whatever direction they feel more comfortable with."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.algerie-focus.com/2011/02/08/egypte-en-tunisie-et-en-algerie-%E2%80%9Cles-dictateurs-ne-dictent-pas-ils-obeissent-aux-ordres%E2%80%9D/">On Algeria-based blog Algerie Focus Michael Chossudovsky attacks what he sees as America meddling in Egypt:

"Dictators are invariably political puppets. President Hosni Mubarak was a faithful servant of Western economic interests."

He says the US is intent on hijacking the revolution:

"From Washington's standpoint, regime replacement no longer requires the installation of an authoritarian military regime as in the heyday of US imperialism. It can be implemented by co-opting political parties, including the Left, civil society groups, infiltrating the protest movement and manipulating elections."

But there's very much more to Egypt's extraordinary story than just what's going on in and around Tahrir Square. And some of the papers step back and explore the wider mood. The %3Ca%20href="https://arabnews.com/opinion/columns/article253728.ece">Arab News carries a report from Linda Heard in her adopted city of Alexandria where she talks of recent, crazy days of lawlessness:

"I still feel like pinching myself when I watch my husband pick up his weapon - his late mother's walking stick - to join the vigilantes, who are protecting our neighbourhood against marauding thugs and recently-escaped prisoners who are often armed with guns stolen from torched police stations. Each night our guys sit around a fire, smoke cigarettes and drink sweet tea until someone yells 'Thieves!' - when they grab their knives, homemade swords and petrol bombs and run in search of infiltrators."

On the edge of Cairo, at Giza, in the shadow of the Pyramids, the %3Ca%20href="https://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/934322--star-in-egypt-the-story-behind-the-camels-in-tahrir-square">Toronto Star tracks down several of the men who rode horses and camels into Tahrir Square in the mad charge by pro-Mubarak supporters at the height of last week's violence. Some say they were offered money to launch the attack, but others deny this - saying that they chose to protest. They're tired of the instability that's wrecked their livelihood.

"Everybody is waiting for the tourists," says one man. "Where are the dollars? Where are the euros? What are we all going to live on, the dung of the horses!"

But that's certainly not on the menu across the Nile at the Katameya Heights golf club, described as a gated citadel of Cairo luxury.

Reporter %3Ca%20href="https://www.dawn.com/2011/02/09/life-normal-in-new-cairo.html">Jack Shenker looks around the place in a report published on the Pakistani newspaper Dawn:

"There is just one tactful nod to the turmoil that has shaken Egypt to its foundations in the past fortnight: a short letter to members, pinned to a noticeboard by the fountain. 'Welcome back - we hope you and your families are all safe,' it reads. 'The 18-hole operating hours are as follows...'"

Shenker goes on to reflect on how little has changed:

"Barack Obama claims this country 'is not going back to what it was', but in New Cairo - a satellite city to the east of the capital, home to dozens of high-walled residential compounds - life, on the surface at least, seems to have barely changed at all."

Also much the same as ever is the Egyptian sense of humour - and it's on display back in Tahrir Square. As you might imagine, the jokes are aimed at getting President Mubarak to pack his bags. A young girl was seen wearing a badge urging him to do it quickly. "Make it short," the badge said. "This is history, and we'll have to memorise it all at school!" And in the land of the Pyramids, I guess there's already way too much history for kids to learn.

A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

The Telegraph's most read article asks %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/4731313/Google-Ocean-Has-Atlantis-been-found-off-Africa.html">if Atlantis has been found off Africa. The paper reports a "grid of streets" on the seabed at one of the proposed locations of the lost city of Atlantis has been spotted on Google Ocean. It goes on to say the perfect rectangle - which is around the size of Wales - was noticed on the search giant's underwater exploration tool by an aeronautical engineer who claims it looks like an "aerial map" of a city. The Telegraph explains that the legend of the lost kingdom of Atlantis has excited the public imagination for centuries.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1354888/Mother-leaves-486k-animal-charities-row-daughter.html">A mother has left all her £486,000 fortune to animal charities after a row with her daughter about the name of her grandchild according to the Daily Mail's most read story. A court heard Melita Jackson decided to write her daughter out of her £486,000 will after she called her fifth child Ellen - the name of a sister-in-law Mrs Jackson did not like.

The Guardian's most read article says %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/08/saudi-oil-reserves-overstated-wikileaks">Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices. It's the latest story from the diplomatic cables leaked to the WikiLeaks website. The cables suggest a US diplomat was convinced by Saudi expert that reserves of world's biggest oil exporter have been overstated by nearly 40%

The Times' most read article reports on President %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article2903015.ece">Obama's appearance on Fox News's Bill O'Reilly show. It was a rare appearance in person on the channel he once derided. The US president said on the show that the worst thing about being president is living "in the bubble".
"It's very hard to escape," President Obama said "Over time, what happens is you feel like that you're not able to just have a spontaneous conversation with folks".

The Economist's most commented on piece looks at the %3Ca%20href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2011/02/eus_foreign_policy">how the EU is reacting to tensions in Egypt. The job falls under Baroness Ashton's remit but the paper says she is "strangely allergic to the media". It also says "she is averse to showing leadership to her fellow foreign ministers".

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

Radio 4 needs to expand its appeal beyond white middle-class people in London and the South East, while Radio 3 tends to be "slightly heavy and inaccessible", according to %3Ca%20href="%3Ca%20href="/bbctrust/our_work/service_reviews/service_licences/reviews_radio_347.shtml">">a report by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8279381/´óÏó´«Ã½-Radio-4-too-middle-class-and-London-centric.html">Telegraph says the report, put together by ´óÏó´«Ã½ trustee David Liddiment, acknowledges that both stations have "passionate and loyal audiences", but says both need to widen their appeal.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1355017/Radio-4-Dont-let-´óÏó´«Ã½-trust-ruin-bastion-civilised-broadcasting.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">In the Daily Mail Quentin Letts comments on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust report:

"No, no, no! Let the dumb-down­brigade smash and level and grottify other parts of the Beeb. Let them despoil Radio 1, do their worst to ´óÏó´«Ã½ Online and have their wicked way with the Radio Times. But please, please leave Radio 4 alone."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/08/bbc-cuts-childrens-radio-shows">Guardian says the ´óÏó´«Ã½ will axe more than 1,000 hours of children's radio programmes on digital station Radio 7, after it emerged that the average age of their listeners is 48. They will be replaced by more "family-friendly" content aimed at older children and their parents, and a daily 20-minute CBeebies radio show online. Radio 7 is being rebranded as a ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 spin-off station, Radio 4 Extra.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/technology-12393893">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports material published on Twitter should be considered public and can be published, the Press Complaints Commission has ruled. It follows a complaint by a Department of Transport official that the use of her tweets by newspapers constituted an invasion of privacy. The messages included remarks about being hung-over at work. She complained that this information was private and was only meant to be seen by her 700 followers. The PCC said Twitter was publicly accessible; the complainant had not taken steps to restrict access to her messages; and she was not publishing material anonymously.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/08/richard-keys-andy-gray-talksport">Guardian says disgraced former Sky Sports presenters Richard Keys and Andy Gray have been signed up by the talk radio station TalkSport. The pair will present a three-hour weekday show between 10am and 1pm, beginning next Monday. It is understood they have been hired on six-figure salaries.

Buckingham Palace has dashed Sky's hopes that it might broadcast the royal wedding in 3D, despite it filming a mock wedding, and a 3D demonstration at the Guards Chapel in Windsor. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/08/royal-wedding-3d-sky">Guardian says the royals have not ruled out future royal events being filmed in 3D.

The first still from the film The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, is on the front pages of the %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/08/meryl-streep-margaret-thatcher">Guardian and the %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/8311793/Meryl-Streeps-sensational-Margaret-Thatcher.html">Daily Telegraph. The Guardian says the film, directed by Phyllida Lloyd who made Mamma Mia, will deal with the 17 days before the Falklands war at a time when Thatcher was deeply unpopular.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/business-12379623">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports US internet firm AOL has agreed to buy the Huffington Post online newspaper. The $315m (£196m) deal will create an internet media group with 270 million users, including 117 million in the US. Ms Huffington - currently editor of her namesake news service - will head the combined firm's content division.

Apple is being warned against trying to squeeze cash out of the newspaper industry by controlling subscriptions for iPads and iPhones. The %3Ca%20href="/news/technology-12391899">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports the European Newspaper Publishers' Association (ENPA) says it is concerned by the company's plans to direct online sales through iTunes. The technology giant insists it wants to give customers choice. But several papers claim Apple has banned them from offering free electronic editions to their print customers.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12401092">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review says the Financial Times' verdict on the government's increased banking levy is that "nothing good will come from ministers instructing private companies how to run their business". The Times also thinks the levy "may be good politics, but it is poor policy". But the Sun feels George Osborne "would have been entitled to give [bankers] an even bigger kick in the pants".

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="/bbctrust/our_work/service_reviews/service_licences/reviews_radio_347.shtml">´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust | Review of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 7
%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8279381/´óÏó´«Ã½-Radio-4-too-middle-class-and-London-centric.html">Telegraph | ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 'too middle class and London-centric'
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1355017/Radio-4-Dont-let-´óÏó´«Ã½-trust-ruin-bastion-civilised-broadcasting.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">Daily Mail | Oh no! Don't let the dumb-down brigade ruin Radio 4. It's the last bastion of civilised, aspirational broadcasting
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/08/bbc-cuts-childrens-radio-shows">Guardian | ´óÏó´«Ã½ to axe more than 1,000 hours of kids' radio shows
%3Ca%20href="/news/technology-12393893">´óÏó´«Ã½ | 'Twitter messages not private' rules PCC
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/08/bbc-cuts-childrens-radio-shows">Guardian | 3D royal wedding ruled out by Palace
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/8311793/Meryl-Streeps-sensational-Margaret-Thatcher.html">Telegraph | Meryl Streep's 'sensational' Margaret Thatcher
• %3Ca%20href="/news/technology-12391899">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper publishers warn Apple over iTunes sales
• %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12401092">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinD">my updates on Twitter

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media stories on Delicious

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2011/02/media_brief_158.html">Friday's Media Brief

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Following an increase in the bank levy, commentators talk about the relationship between the government and banks.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/sean-ogrady-osbornes-city-friends-may-be-in-for-a-shock-2208673.html">Sean O'Grady speculates in the Independent about the motivations of George Osborne in bringing forward the increase in the bank levy:

"George Osborne is not a stupid man, though often underestimated. He and Vince Cable know that nothing would be more damaging to the Coalition parties than a public perception, lovingly nourished by Ed Balls, that they are 'The Bankers' Friends'. For Cable it would represent the ultimate betrayal of a career built on attacks on the City's bonus culture and 'casino banks'. For Osborne, it would be seen as a reversion to type for a millionaire Tory Chancellor to cuddle up to his banker mates... His critics dismissed it as windy rhetoric and the bankers thought it a bluff; they may all have underestimated him."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/8312094/George-Osbornes-bank-levy-should-be-put-to-good-use.html">Telegraph's editorial also cites politicking as the real reason for increasing the bank levy:

"It is unusual, to say the least, for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to announce a tax change on the Today programme, rather than to Parliament in a Budget. The timing of yesterday's early-morning revelation by George Osborne that he was increasing the levy on banks seems to have been entirely political. It took everyone, including the banks themselves, by surprise.
Ìý
"Mr Osborne, it would seem, needed ammunition to take to the Commons later in the day for his first confrontation with his feisty new shadow, Ed Balls."

The article goes on to suggest the government should put their increases revenues to "good use":

"We have a suggestion: since Mr Osborne has £800 million more than he expected, he should use the money to cut taxes for small businesses, either directly or through extended National Insurance contribution holidays. This would give them an incentive to expand - and be more than just a political gesture."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/08/banks-800m-levy-government">Deborah Hargreaves says in the Guardian that the bank levy is not enough:

"These tokens have been wrung out of the banks by ministers fearful of public opinion. And in particular, Osborne is frightened of attack-dog Balls, even though their encounter this afternoon was less than enlightening.
Ìý
"But there are plenty of other issues that the government should address in the banking sector and these are being brushed aside. Ministers will now presumably stand back and allow senior bankers to pay themselves multimillion pound bonuses while we are all still feeling the effects of the financial meltdown."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/banking/article2904323.ece">In The Times David Wighton says that the banks can deal with an increase in tax but what really unsettles the banks is the uncertainty:

"What really unsettles the banks is the uncertainty. If Mr Osborne can announce an £800 million tax over breakfast, what is to stop him doing it again if he finds himself in another political hole?
Ìý
"The idea of Project Merlin was to put an end to the bank-bashing and allow everyone to move on. The banks are now even less sure that they can trust the Government to stick to its side of the bargain."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/35675bee-337c-11e0-a388-00144feabdc0.html">In the Financial Times Diane Coyle looks ahead to the publication of the Project Merlin report which she describes as the peace deal between the government and bankers:

"Merlin is unlikely to do enough to address the fundamental problem of an uncompetitive banking industry that is failing to allocate capital to productive investments. And even with these limited reforms Britain's banks will carry on allocating billions to bankers in bonus payments, until the structure of the industry is shaken up radically by the government."

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/sean-ogrady-osbornes-city-friends-may-be-in-for-a-shock-2208673.html">Sean O'Grady | Independent | Osborne's City 'friends' may be in for a shock
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/8312094/George-Osbornes-bank-levy-should-be-put-to-good-use.html">Telegraph | George Osborne's bank levy should be put to good use
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/08/banks-800m-levy-government">Deborah Hargreaves | Guardian | Don't let the banks hold us to ransom
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/banking/article2904323.ece">David Wighton | Times | The banks can live with more tax but Osborne risks losing their trust
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/35675bee-337c-11e0-a388-00144feabdc0.html">Diane Coyle | Financial Times | Merlin deal will not fix flawed banks

Commentators pour over the tensions in Egypt.

We start at the very core of the Egyptian revolt. Gulf-based %3Ca%20href="https://www.khaleejtimes.com/index00.asp">Khaleej Times's front page carries a photograph of a huge heart marked out on Tahrir Square. In it are written the words "Welcome to Freedom". Beside it the paper has another picture - one of an incredibly strained, anxious-looking President Hosni Mubarak. It's the face of a man whose world really has been turned upside down.

Ìý

Some protesters slept in the tracks of the army's armoured vehicles to prevent them being used to force the protest into a smaller space %3Ca%20href="https://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2011/February/middleeast_February236.xml&section=middleeast#">says a Reuters report reprinted in the Khaleej Times.

Across the media there's a fascination with what the rebels there are doing. What's happening in the middle of Cairo is %3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/opinion/08iht-edcohen08.html?_r=1&ref=opinion">saluted by the New York Times' columnist Roger Cohen:

"Its spontaneous development into a tolerant mini-republic is a riposte to President Hosni Mubarak's warnings of chaos."

And Cohen is contemptuous of Mr Mubarak's talk of sweeping reform:

"It's a preposterous idea, really, to imagine that this anti-democrat Mubarak, aided by his long time henchman Omar Suleiman, can now at 82 reverse his every instinct and deliver, within seven months, a free and fair election."

Commenting on Cohen's article, a reader, who describes himself as a being of Arab origin, expresses thanks:

"Thank you for ripping the veil off of the vision in the West that somehow, the Arabs, are different and could never fight for their human rights in such a non-violent fashion."

Every detail of life in the extraordinary bubble that is Tahrir Square is %3Ca%20href="https://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/02/07/egypt-tahrir-squares-mini-utopia/">laid out on the Global Voices website by a blogger called Eman Abdel Rahmann and he doesn't hold back:

"Life here has its own rhythm now and the spirit on display is of a mini Utopia."

He posts pictures of the activists praying, eating dates and drinking endless cups of tea.

The people of the Square were given a huge boost with the release from detention yesterday of a man named Wael Ghonim. He's the Google executive seen as having played a key role in using the internet to kick-start the uprising.

%3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/Ghonim/status/34673818375032832">Mr Ghonim's first tweet after leaving jail ricocheted around the Arab world:

"Freedom is a bless that deserves fighting for."

On his very widely read %3Ca%20href="https://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/2/8/wael-ghonim-relaunches-the-revolution.html">Arabist blog Issandr El Amrani says timing is important:

"This cathartic moment may be the spark that was needed to revive Egypt's revolutionary fervor... [T]he people in Tahrir may finally have a leader. After two weeks, the world's media is getting tired of this story and there needed to be a relaunch."

But it may well be too late %3Ca%20href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67351/joshua-stacher/egypts-democratic-mirage">says Joshua Stracher in the US-based Foreign Affairs blog in a piece headlined "Egypt's democratic mirage":

"Despite the tenacity, optimism, and blood of the protestors massed in Tahrir Square, Egypt's democratic window has probably closed. The Egyptian state has not experienced a regime breakdown. The protests have certainly rocked the system and have put Mubarak on his heels, but at no time has the uprising seriously threatened Egypt's regime."

Ìý

Mr Stracher says the protesters have been successfully contained.

When the uprising began in Egypt, many linked the events in Tunis and Cairo and declared that 2011 might be the Arab world's 1989. Instead, some argue, 2011 is showing just how durable and adaptable the authoritarian regimes of the Arab world truly are.

However, anti-Mubarak blogger Issandr El Amrani still holds out for a revolution on the Arabist blog:

"I'm not as pessimistic. I think the window IS closing but there is still time to make major gains - the only thing is that the opposition must move quickly and coherently."

Meanwhile Egypt's largest circulation, pro-government daily, %3Ca%20href="https://www.ahram.org.eg/">Al Ahram says that all the answers lie in the less dramatic business of simply talking and listening.

A commentary by Marsi Atallah in %3Ca%20href="https://www.ahram.org.eg/">Al Ahram says discussions are needed:

"The most important issue that the demonstrations have shown is that Egypt has a youth with the ability to express themselves... However the issue that they are missing is the art of dialogue."

The American magazine %3Ca%20href="https://www.newsweek.com/2011/02/06/demise-of-the-dictators.html">Newsweek makes room for the reflections of Fuoad Ajami, one of the Arab world's big thinkers:

"A question had tugged at and tormented the Arabs: were they marked by a special propensity for tyranny, a fatal brand that rendered them unable to find a world beyond the prison walls of the despotism?"

He asks why they hadn't unleashed what he calls the avalanche of anger that we've seen in Tunisia and Egypt:

"An answer, one that makes the blood go cold, is Hama"

He is referring to the city on the plains of Syria where a rebellion was brutally crushed nearly 30 years ago.

"Much of the inner city was demolished, and perhaps 20,000 people perished in that cruel fight. Hama became a code word for the terror that awaited those who dared challenge the men in power. It sent forth a message in Syria, and to other Arab lands."

But now that the fearful spell has been broken, many wonder if the Syrian leadership be challenged in the way Egypt's has. On%3Ca%20href="https://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=24070"> the pages of Ash Sharq Alawsat we hear from Bouthaina Shaaban who is an advisor to President Assad:

"Everyone is glued to TV sets watching with love what is happening in Egypt. Everything happening there indicates that a new phase of development is ushered for all Arabs."

But she makes no reference to exactly what this might mean for her own country - the word Syria isn't mentioned. Some territory remains too sensitive, it seems.

If there is an Arab spring in the air, Dr Shabaan argues it's yet to bloom in Damascus:

"It is not difficult to trace back the critical moments which accumulated rage in the Arab conscience, particularly the feelings of humiliation, insult and impotence that millions of young people felt as a result of their governments' impotence and silence regarding the tragedies which befell Iraq and Palestine."

And many Arabs would echo that sentiment.

On the other hand, in the interviews you hear from Tahrir Square you don't get a sense of the protesters falling over themselves to talk about the troubles of the Palestinians.

Writing in the Israeli daily %3Ca%20href="https://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/when-it-comes-to-arabs-israel-knows-only-what-it-wants-to-1.341247">Haaretz an Israeli-Arab journalist Sayed Kashua says the protests don't impact on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians:

"I have the strong impression, contrary to what many Israelis think, that the demonstrations in Egypt are not against Israel, and that whether or not the revolution succeeds, it is not aimed at toppling the government in Israel but rather the one in Cairo."

And a rather unlikely figure, a %3Ca%20href="https://arabnews.com/opinion/article253715.ece?comments=all">retired Saudi Navy Commodore writes in the Arab News that what is happening at the moment is very much Arab business and argues against what he calls "an Israeli conspiracy that never existed":

"To this day, I see Arabs blaming Israelis for young Arab drug addicts, their poor education, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, bad roads, corruption, lack of democracy, the upheaval in Tunisia and the unrest in Egypt... Israel did not open a European bank account for the Tunisian leader Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. He did."

Amid all the super-charged politics in the Middle East right now, there's still room it seems for a little romance. Many of the region's papers, %3Ca%20href="https://gulfnews.com/news/region/egypt/chime-of-wedding-bells-eases-tension-at-tahrir-square-1.758097">including the Gulf News, are happy to report the marriage of Ahmad Zaafan, and his fiancée Oula Abdul Hamid. They got married in Tahrir Square not minding, it seems, having an Egyptian tank as the back drop to their wedding photos.

A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

The story of a %3Ca%20href="https://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/74764,people,news,homeless-billionaire-nicolas-berggruen-gets-london-investors-buzzing-for-justice">"homeless billionaire" hoping to raise £700m is popular on the First Post. The investor Nicolas Berggruen is given the moniker as he lives in hotels and "eschews material possessions". He wants to use the money to fund the acquisition of an unidentified company. The First Post reports the German-US dual national, worth an estimated $2.2bn, is offering shares in a 'cash shell' named Justice. It will be listed on the London Stock Exchange. The money raised will be used to fund a raid on an undervalued company worth between £1bn and £5bn.

The Sun's most read story is headlined %3Ca%20href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3394803/Dolphin-bloodbath-exposed.html">Dolphin Bloodbath Exposed. The article says that after a film called The Cove exposed Japanese methods of killing dolphins, fishermen now use tarpaulins to cover up their "horrific" methods.

In the film hunters are seen "driving a spike into dolphins' flesh before ramming a wooden plug in the wound to stop the blood turning the sea red".

Proving popular with Telegraph readers is news that a leading Italian photographer has alleged that %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8309375/Mafia-holds-compromising-Silvio-Berlusconi-photos.html">mafia gangsters claim to possess compromising photos of Silvio Berlusconi at bunga bunga sex parties. Fabrizio Corona, who runs a celebrity photography agency said on Italian TV that representatives from a gossip magazine went to Naples to buy photos of Berlusconi from the Camorra mafia.

The Wall Street Journal's most commented piece is Republican Senator Rand Paul's "%3Ca%20href="https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703956604576110431794539522.html?mod=rss_com_mostcommentart">modest $500bn proposal". He sets out spending cuts which he says would keep 85% of government funding. The biggest cuts he suggests are in US farming and transport government department. He suggests not touching Social Security or Medicare funding.

Popular with Daily Mail readers is news of an %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1354718/E-reader-price-war-Asda-takes-Amazon-52-device.html">e-readers price war. The paper says some are being sold for "just £52". The Daily Mail suggests that this is adding to fears about the demise of real books, bookshops and libraries.

The Mirror's most commented-on story reports %3Ca%20href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2011/02/06/horrified-peter-andre-consults-lawyers-after-katie-price-hands-back-their-daughter-with-burns-injury-to-back-115875-22902140/">Peter Andre has called in lawyers after Katie Price handed over their daughter with a burn on her back. The article says the three-inch burn on Princess's back was caused in a sauna. The Mirror quotes "a source" as saying Katie "was in a sauna with her mum and sister when Princess ran in and burnt her back on something. We're not sure what it was but suspect it could have been a hot pipe. Katie was devastated to see her little girl in pain."

The Independent's most read story says %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sect-scandal-scientologists-outraged-by-defectors-claims-2207428.html">leaders of the Church of Scientology are defending of their organisation and their treatment of the faith's adherents amid what they described as "sensationalist" claims they have been under investigation by an FBI task force on human trafficking. The article says the move came after Paul Haggis, an Oscar-winning screenwriter who renounced Scientology in 2009 after 34 years as a member, broke a long public silence to help the %3Ca%20href="https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_wright">New Yorker magazine compile a lengthy investigation into the church's affairs.

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Commentators discuss the prisoners' right to vote ahead of it being debated overturning the ban the House of Commons on Thursday.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/maryriddell/8309614/Deny-prisoners-the-vote-and-we-undermine-our-democracy.html">Daily Telegraph's Mary Riddell thinks that if we deny prisoners the vote, we undermine our democracy:

"[T]here is a strong moral case for lifting the ban. As Dr Peter Selby, former bishop to HM Prisons, has said, disfranchising prisoners makes them 'outlaws', while doing nothing to promote deterrence. Prison deprives inmates of their liberty, not their citizenship. Imposing a form of civic death on the marginalised will make them less fit to rejoin society. As the Canadian Supreme Court has stated, denying prisoners the vote undermines the legitimacy of government."

Conversely, %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1353118/Votes-prisoners-Shameless-lawyers-mock-democracy.html?ITO=1490">last week's editorial in the Daily Mail's says giving prisoners the right to vote would mock democracy:

"The great mass of the British people believe that criminals forfeit their right to vote - and thereby to influence the legislative process - as part of their punishment for breaking the law.

"This is why it's so vital that when MPs vote on the issue next week, they send out an unmistakable signal to the courts that the authority of Parliament must take precedence over unelected judges."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/227736/Prisoners-votes-row-shows-folly-of-Human-Rights-ActPrisoners-votes-row-shows-folly-of-Human-Rights-Act">In the Daily Express Ross Clark brings up David Cameron's promise in 2007 to abolish the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights:

"How ironic, then, that Mr Cameron should now be Prime Minister of a government which is proposing to capitulate to the European Court of Human Rights and - even though he says it makes him 'physically sick' to do so - give prisoners the right to vote."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article2902900.ece">In The Times Leonard Hoffmann, a former Law Lord, argues that with support from other European states, we can repatriate our law of human rights:

"Since the convention was incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998, the UK courts have loyally given effect to Strasbourg's rulings. The result has been that UK judges have reached decisions, sometimes with regret and sometimes with enthusiasm, that would have astonished those who agreed to our accession to the convention in 1950.

"The tendency has been to say that there is nothing to be done. We are stuck with the Strasbourg court unless we are willing to cast ourselves as a pariah state and get expelled from the EU. But the situation is not so hopeless and there are means by which, with support from other European states, we can repatriate our law of human rights. It is worth a try."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ben-emmerson-the-european-court-of-human-rights-enhances-our-democracy-2207503.html">In the Independent Ben Emmerson, a QC who specialises in international human rights law, criticises Lord Hoffmann's stance against Strasbourg:

"[L]ike any effective advocate, Lord Hoffmann is selective in the points that he chooses to make.

"His quarrel with the Strasbourg court can be traced back to the days of the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe. In the late 1980s, Doreen Hill, the mother of Sutcliffe's last victim, Jacqueline Hill, brought a negligence claim against West Yorkshire Police, arguing that if they had done their job properly, Sutcliffe would have been caught before he killed her daughter. The House of Lords in 1989 decided that the police were effectively immune from civil claims for negligence in carrying out criminal investigations. The ruling remained the law for another 10 years, and it was gradually applied to more and more public bodies. So when a local authority failed to remove children from abusive parents, despite the most shocking evidence of a failure to perform their statutory childcare responsibilities, the House of Lords applied the Peter Sutcliffe principle. It didn't matter how much damage had been caused to the children, the English courts simply refused to entertain or examine the merits of the claim.

"When the odd and unjust rule was finally considered in Strasbourg, it was swept away. That was hardly surprising. Shortly afterwards the Court took the same approach to child victims of domestic abuse, holding that where a local authority is faced with overwhelming evidence of ill-treatment, it is under a duty to use its statutory powers to remove the children to a place of safety. Would anyone now seriously quarrel with those propositions?"Well, er, yes. Lord Hoffmann would."

Links in full
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/maryriddell/8309614/Deny-prisoners-the-vote-and-we-undermine-our-democracy.html">Mary Riddell | Telegraph | Deny prisoners the vote and we undermine our democracy
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1353118/Votes-prisoners-Shameless-lawyers-mock-democracy.html?ITO=1490">Daily Mail | Shameless lawyers who mock democracy
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/227736/Prisoners-votes-row-shows-folly-of-Human-Rights-Act">Ross Clark | Express | Prisoners' votes row shows folly of Human Rights Act
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article2902900.ece">Leonard Hoffmann | Times | Don't let this court trivialise our hard-won freedoms
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ben-emmerson-the-european-court-of-human-rights-enhances-our-democracy-2207503.html">Ben Emmerson | Independent | The European Court of Human Rights enhances our democracy

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Commentators reflect on the meaning of the crisis in Cairo.

"One of ours was killed," says a woman on the streets of Cairo. "A good man. Educated. The cut-throats killed him in the street," She tells her story on the %3Ca%20href="https://www.jordantimes.com/?news=34240">front page of the Jordan Times, which talks of the city as a bruised, battered place.

And the lingering fear in the air is captured %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-exhausted-scared-and-trapped-protesters-put-forward-plan-for-future-2205079.html">in a piece by Robert Fisk in the Independent , reprinted on the Znet website, where he quotes a demonstrator in Tahrir Square:

"We're safe as long as we have the square. If we lose the square Mubarak will arrest the opposition groups - and there will be police rule as never before... we're fighting for our lives."

But alongside those who are mourning or searching for missing relatives, papers across the Middle East reflect a degree of normality returning to the Egyptian capital. Traffic police are back on the beat and people are taking the chance to stock up with food again.

And the papers chew over the weekend's inconclusive negotiations between the regime and its opponents.

"Problems loom," %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=17&article_id=124627#axzz1DI3hvPtg">says an editorial in the Beirut Daily Star:

"But parties that have been so far apart for so long have at least begun talking. It is only through dialogue that such differences can be addressed and even the most arduous journeys of reconciliation begin with a single step. The people of Egypt have manifestly waited long enough. Through decades of poverty and neglect, the downtrodden masses have had their endurance shredded. But desired goals are now within reach. As hard as it is to take and as difficult as it has been to maintain, a little more patience may yield the greatest reward."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=124570#axzz1DI3hvPtg">Beruit Daily Star's veteran commentator Rami Ghouri suggests how he thinks the US and Europe should react:

"It is also time for American and European governments - for one moment, for just one brief, shining moment - to declare that they truly support the rights of Arabs to taste genuine liberty, and human and civil rights, rather than to engage in an embarrassing scramble to find the next Arab general to take over from the last Arab general."

Two weeks into the uprising you still find pieces of lyrical writing about the magnificence of the children of Egypt standing up. But %3Ca%20href="https://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/egypt-s-youth-uprising-has-been-hijacked-1.757488">a comment piece in the Gulf News strikes a very different note. The thoughts of a businessman, Khalaf al Habtoor are headlined "Egypt's youth uprising has been hijacked":

"There is a fine line between freedom and anarchy and, frankly, the images on our television screens point to the latter. Egypt has become a lawless land. Thugs are torching historic buildings, businesses and shopping centres. Thieves are on the prowl, forcing Egyptian families to barricade themselves in their homes. Foreigners are leaving in droves. The once peaceful Egyptians are beating one another to death. The economy is being decimated by the day. This is not the Egypt I know and love. Tragically, there may be much worse to come. There's a saying: 'Be careful what you wish for. It may just happen'."

With the Muslim Brotherhood at the centre of those weekend negotiations, the movement is dissected. Nowhere more so than in the Israeli papers.

"The (Muslim) Brotherhood is not stupid," %3Ca%20href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=207090">writes commentator Barry Rubin in the Jerusalem Post:

"While wealthy, secularized, urban Egyptians may look at it as a peasant rabble, this group has manoeuvred very skilfully in the past. Does it have different factions and tendencies? Certainly it does. Yet it's going to be more united than any other political factor. My concern, at least for the next three years, is not an Islamist Egypt but a radical Egypt. The idea of a `Turkish model' has been raised that is, an Islamist party in power that advances very slowly but steadily toward the goal. Such a government would show its militancy most clearly in foreign policy, which is what other countries are most concerned with, of course."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/all/6666343/aims-of-the-brotherhood.thtml">Writing in the London-based Spectator magazine, John Bradley is equally uneasy about the power of Egypt's Islamists as he considers the country's future:

"Of some things we can be sure: it will be more western, more Islamic and more fervently anti-Zionist... And what of the idea that the Muslim Brotherhood has mellowed of late? This perhaps has more to with its recruitment of media-savvy spokesmen (they are always men) who spout to gullible western 'experts' the virtues of its pro-democracy platform. The general western ignorance about Egypt presents the brotherhood with a tremendous opportunity for media manipulation. Scratch deeper, and you can find its detailed political platform which was published four years ago... It would be terrifyingly similar to Iran's Islamist state."

But by no means all the coverage in the Western media sees the Brotherhood as a looming menace. In the Spectator magazine's rival, the left-wing New Statesman, Tariq Ramadan says Egypt's Islamists have problems of their own to deal with:

"Today's Muslim Brotherhood draws diverse traditions together. But the leadership of the movement - those who belong to the founding generation are now very old - no longer fully represents the aspirations of the younger members, who are much more open to the world, anxious to bring about internal reform and fascinated by the Turkish example. Behind the unified, hierarchical facade, contradictory influences are at work. No one can say which way the movement will go."

The Palestinian Online website comes to the Brotherhood's defence. In an opinion piece it says that casting the movement as some sort of threat is what it describes as "an old trick". It says it's time for the world to get off the Brotherhood's back:

"We've seen its patriotism during the British occupation of Egypt, and their role in Nasser's July revolution. Now the Brotherhood are an integral part of the Egyptian people and its political map. Now they're showing political acumen in dealing with the regime. They've been drained and exhausted by the regime's repression. The minimum that they deserve from us is to defend their right as Egyptians to take part in the political life of their own country."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/06/AR2011020603398.html">Fareed Zakaria says in the Washington Post that it is a big mistake to see Egypt's future lying in an Islamist or even Turkish style direction. Instead he suggests you watch the army:

"Since the officers' coup of 1952, Egypt has been a dictatorship, by and for the military... Right now, the military is consolidating power... The businessmen have been turned into scapegoats, sacrificed so the generals can continue to rule. The three people running Egypt - the vice president, prime minister and defence chief - come from the army....the danger is that Egypt will become a sham democracy with real power held in back rooms by generals."

A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

Proving popular with Guardian readers is a story about %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/feb/05/steve-coogan-top-gear-jeremy-clarkson-mexicans">Steve Coogan's disgust at remarks on Top Gear about Mexicans. Richard Hammond said that "Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus". The comedian says the show's presenters are "three rich, middle-aged men laughing at poor Mexicans" whose attempts at humour are "more tragic than comic".

Telegraph readers are catching up on the latest news about the %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8306970/Einstein-was-right-honey-bee-collapse-threatens-global-food-security.html">decline of the honey bee. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard argues that as the UN's index of food prices hits an all time-high, it is becoming urgent to know whether the plight of the honey bee risks further exhausting our food security. He says almost a third of global farm output depends on animal pollination, largely by honey bees. Yet the bees are being killed - at a "disturbing" pace by "colony collapse disorder".

The Independent's most popular world story says the US's %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-envoys-business-link-to-egypt-2206329.html">Egypt convoy has business links to Egypt. Robert Fisk says President Obama "scrambled" to limit damage after Frank Wisner said President Mubarak should remain in place as Egypt's leader. The story reports Mr Wisner works for a New York and Washington law firm which works for the Egyptian government. The paper calls this a blatant conflict of interest, while the White House is reported as saying Mr Wisner was speaking in a "personal capacity".

One of the Daily Mail's most read stories reports 16-year-old %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1354213/Tug-love-girl-Molly-Campbell-England-Pakistan-holiday.html">Molly Campbell is back in the UK. The teenager famously became involved in a "tug-of-love" between her mother in Stornoway and her father in Pakistan. The article reports Molly's father, Sajad Ahmed Rana, claims his daughter is on holiday. By contrast, her mother, Louise Fairlie, "suggested the move was more permanent".

Sun readers prefer to look at a story headlined %3Ca%20href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3395748/Family-of-gypsies-get-12m-council-house.html">My Big Fat Gyspy Council House. The article says a family of gypsies are "making wealthy neighbours' lives a misery after being housed by a council in a £1.2million semi". It goes on to complain that the house is a "total wreck". The paper says it "inspected the house" to find "ceilings have collapsed, paint has been stripped off walls and electric sockets are hanging out".

%3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/04/books/04book.html">Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times criticises the tone the former defence secretary uses in his work.

Not only does Mr Rumsfeld frequently assume a smug, know-it-all tone - he says he warned President George W Bush to "tone down any triumphalist rhetoric" in his end-of-major combat-operations speech, made on May 1, 2003, in front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner - but he also displays a tendency, familiar to viewers of his news conferences, to make bold assertions with no pretense of substantiation.

Gary Anderson a retired Marine Corps colonel, who served under the US defence secretary, %3Ca%20href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/7/what-he-did-and-why/">writes in the Washington Times:

The first roughly 300 pages of "Known and Unknown" cover Donald Rumsfeld's story up to his second term as secretary of defence, and general readers without a dog in the fight will find this part to be the book's most enjoyable and entertaining.

Col Anderson says the book contains "some very interesting anecdotes about famous and infamous individuals", adding that "Mr Rumsfeld's personal remembrance of Kennedy is particularly touching".

%3Ca%20href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/03/rumsfeld-memoir-known-and-unknown_n_818446.html">Marcus Baram of the Huffington Post explains that although Mr Rumsfeld appears confident in his tone, the book leaves out events that plagued his career.

For the most part, Rumsfeld remains defiantly self-righteous about his tenure as Bush's Defense Secretary - defending his often-criticized decisions and blaming almost everyone else for mistakes that were made - in the 800-page book. Notably missing from the book is any mention of Pat Tillman, the football star turned soldier whose death by friendly fire was covered up by the Pentagon.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-04/rumsfeld-comes-out-jabbing-has-no-regrets-for-abu-ghraib-wmds-review.html">Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg says the cover of Mr Rumseld's book portrays the former defence secretary in an unusually casual manner.

Rumsfeld may be trying to present a friendlier image here - the book jacket features a photograph of him wearing a fleece vest and jeans - but this is the same guy once known as "Rumstud" who enthusiastically sold the Bush administration's wrong-headed story about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and set the tone that led to detainee abuses.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/04/AR2011020404659.html">Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reports that Mr Rumsfeld staunchly defends the decisions he made on the Iraq war.

This is the essential Rumsfeld: fighting to the dead end in the face of overwhelming fact.

There had been some question about whether Rumsfeld would use his memoir to apologize for what went wrong in Iraq, as Robert McNamara's memoir did for Vietnam. But after four years of reflection, Rumsfeld remains dismissive of those less brilliant than he is - which is pretty much everybody.

%3Ca%20href="https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704422204576130172848389628.html?mod=googlenews_wsj">In the Wall Street Journal, Kimberley Strassel says critics who dismiss Mr Rumsfeld's memoir as a "score-settling account" are missing its value as a historical record.

At the heart of Mr Rumsfeld's book is an important critique of the Bush administration that has been largely missing from the debate over Iraq. The dominant narrative to date has been that a cowboy president and his posse of neocons went to war without adequate preparation and ran roughshod over doubts by more sober bureaucratic and strategic minds.

What Mr Rumsfeld offers is a far more believable account of events, one that holds individuals responsible for failures of execution.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/03/donald-rumsfeld-known-unknown">Pratap Chatterjee of the UK newspaper the Guardian suggests that the former defence secretary should take more responsibility for the decisions he made while working under the Bush administration.

Rumsfeld shifts responsibility for the failures in Iraq on to President George Bush and Paul Bremer III, the diplomat who ran the Iraq for the first year, as well as on to former secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. There's plenty of reason to blame them for their failures, no doubt about it. But in reality, if there is one person who was in charge of the war, it was Donald Rumsfeld - and it is he who needs to apologise for the crimes of that war.

In an %3Ca%20href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-02/donald-rumfeld-still-defiant-in-new-book-known-and-unknown/4/">article on the Daily Beast website, Howard Kurtz simply sums up the book as an attempt at boosting Mr Rumsfeld's reputation.

It contains few surprises and, after so many years of divisive debate, is unlikely to change many minds. What is known is that he has in these 50 chapters marshaled his best defense; only history's final verdict remains unknown.

A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

The Times' most popular story, Celebrity Watch, reports %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/celebrity/article2898607.ece">Harps supermarket chain in Arkansas is selling the current issue of US Weekly - with Elton John, David Furnish and their new baby on the cover - but "protected" by a "Family Shield" to "Protect young Harps shoppers". Caitlin Moran isn't impressed:

"What young Harps shoppers are being protected from, of course, is the sight of two dads holding their son."

She wonders "how are you racking up the DVDs of Three Men & A Baby? There's THREE of them."

Top of Guardian music's most popular list is a suggestion that the %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/feb/03/imelda-may-rockabilly-revival">rockabilly style is going mainstream. The trend's poster girl, Imelda May dresses as "glamorous as a B-movie femme fatale, smouldering in leopard-print faux-fur, lips an immaculate foxy red". What May didn't have when she started was any interest from record companies. "They didn't get it. They'd say, 'It's not rock'n'roll, it's not country, it's not blues, it's not old, it's not new.' They couldn't put me into a box" she says in the paper. A chance meeting with Jools Holland and a subsequent spot on his show made the record companies change their minds.

The Telegraph's most read story reports on the latest from the Wikileaks diplomatic cables. The article says the %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8300950/WikiLeaks-cables-planned-US-missile-shield-blind-to-nuclear-weapons.html">leaks show US plans for a missile defence system on Czech soil ran into trouble when defence chiefs realised the proposed radar was blind to nuclear missiles. Eventually the plan was abandoned because the threat from Iran could be countered by shorter-range systems.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3389356/Furious-dad-of-Meredith-Kercher-says-vile-film-portrayal-of-her-sex-murder-is-horrific.html">father of Meredith Kercher "blasted a vile film portrayal of her sex murder" according to the Sun's most read article. The paper says the new movie's previews show Meredith screaming in terror as she is attacked by killers Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.economist.com/node/18008272">Why should anyone care about Belgium's language disputes, asks a popular article on the Economist. The answer, according to the article, is that the latest spat could lead to the country splitting up. Uncertainty over who would repay the country's debts if the split did go ahead means financial markets "stand ready to dump Belgian bonds".

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/8302315/Pub-landladys-European-case-threatens-to-scupper-Premier-Leagues-1.78-billion-TV-deal.html">Telegraph reports the Premier League faces a protracted legal battle to defend its lucrative television rights after a top lawyer in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) advised that the present arrangements are illegal.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ has apologised for remarks made on the television programme Top Gear which caused outrage in Mexico. Top Gear presenters characterised Mexicans as lazy and feckless %3Ca%20href="/news/world-latin-america-12361790">reports the ´óÏó´«Ã½. In a letter to Mexico's ambassador in London, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ said it was sorry if it had offended some people, but said jokes based on national stereotyping were part of British national humour.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1353230/Top-Gear-faces-legal-action-Mexican-woman-Richard-Hammonds-jibe.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">Daily Mail says a Mexican has instructed lawyers to bring a test case against Top Gear. Iris de la Torre, a jewellery design student in London, is bringing the claim under a new equality law. Her lawyers claim it could cost the ´óÏó´«Ã½ £1m in damages.

Journalists from the ´óÏó´«Ã½, al-Jazeera, and other Arab news organisations have faced fresh attacks from pro-government "thugs" in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/03/journalists-attacked-in-egypt-protests">The Guardian says reporters from a number of media organisations, including CNN's Anderson Cooper and the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Jerome Boehm, were targeted as supporters of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak continued their attacks against anti-government protesters.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353255/Digital-radio-switchover-Millions-refuse-trade-FM-ahead-big-switch.html">Daily Mail says the Government's plans for digital radio switchover "have been dealt another blow" after it was revealed that the share of listening through the new technology has not gone up in the last nine months. New listening results show only 15.8 % of all radio listening is through digital audio broadcasting, the main service meant to be driving the migration from FM and AM.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12362860">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review says the Times is furious about what it says is a campaign of intimidation and violence towards foreign journalists and human rights workers in Cairo. The Daily Mirror's reporter, Alun Palmer, describes how he was beaten up.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/8302315/Pub-landladys-European-case-threatens-to-scupper-Premier-Leagues-1.78-billion-TV-deal.html">Telegraph | Pub landlady's European case threatens to scupper Premier League's £1.78 billion TV deal
• %3Ca%20href="/news/world-latin-america-12361790">´óÏó´«Ã½ | ´óÏó´«Ã½ offers apology for Top Gear comments on Mexico
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1353230/Top-Gear-faces-legal-action-Mexican-woman-Richard-Hammonds-jibe.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">Daily Mail | Mexican takes legal action against Top Gear after Hammond calls her nation 'lazy, feckless and flatulent'
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/03/journalists-attacked-in-egypt-protests">Guardian | Egypt protests: ´óÏó´«Ã½, CNN and al-Jazeera journalists attacked
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353255/Digital-radio-switchover-Millions-refuse-trade-FM-ahead-big-switch.html">Daily Mail | The digital refuseniks: Millions refuse to trade in FM radios ahead of big switch
• %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12362860">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinD">my updates on Twitter

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media stories on Delicious

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2011/02/media_brief_157.html">Thursday's Media Brief

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Commentators discuss unmarried couples' rights. This follows top family judge %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/article2897671.ece">Sir Nicholas Wall's suggestion in the Times that unmarried partners should be given the right to each have an equitable share of assets and money should their relationship break down.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8302189/Living-together-is-not-the-same-thing-as-marriage.html">Telegraph's editorial says what looks like a benign move towards fairness is fraught with difficulties:

"Many couples cohabit precisely because they do not want to have a contractual obligation with each other or with the state. Since they have rejected the protection offered by marriage, why should they then rush to law when the relationship ends? As Baroness Deech, professor of law at Gresham College, London, once observed, 'a cohabitation law would be a windfall for lawyers but for no one else except the gold digger'. While there might be a case for amending the law to offer compensation where vulnerable children are involved, the idea of giving cohabitees the same rights as married couples should be resisted."

Also in the %3Ca%20href="https://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100074678/david-cameron-has-caved-in-to-those-waging-war-against-the-family/">Telegraph Peter Oborne says that one of the most attractive features of David Cameron as leader of the Opposition was his readiness to stand against "this kind of fashionable rubbish" until now:

"Now we come to something very troubling. In government, Cameron has been - there is no other word - useless. He has done nothing to remedy the bias against marriage in the tax system, while the strike against child benefit announced by George Osborne at last year's autumn conference will make life far more difficult for millions of married couples. Cameron has not even restored the official status of marriage, which was abolished by New Labour. Like Tony Blair, he has talked the language of family values; and, like Tony Blair, he has not lifted a finger to protect or promote them."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-dejevsky/mary-dejevsky-if-you-want-the-benefits-of-marriage-take-the-plunge-2203582.html">Mary Dejevsky argues in the Independent that those who want the benefits of marriage should just get married:

"Of more benefit than changing the law would be to strengthen the case for marriage - less for moral than for coolly practical reasons. One explanation for why the institution has declined so sharply in Britain is that the incentives - above all economic, but also social - have been deliberately shrunk by successive governments. Indeed, for those receiving benefits, any incentives are mostly the other way. Reverse that, and let's see what happens. Just refrain from making the argument as a sermon; sell it as self-interest instead."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/justice-and-civil-liberties/three-cheers-for-sir-nicholas-wall/">On the Adam Smith Institute blog Henry Oliver applauds Sir Nicholas Wall's suggestion:

"This is currently dealt with using the law of trusts, which can often be deeply unfair on the woman. Financial contributions at the beginning can be determinative of the woman's share later on - contributions such as childcare and domestic work are highly unlikely to gain the woman a greater share in the property. A married woman, on the other hand, will have statutory rights to a share of the money and property.
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"The courts have no power to order financial relief like they do in the case of a divorce, so these claims are crucial. However, they are complicated, uncertain, time consuming and expensive. All of this can be avoided by a simple "express declaration of trust" at the beginning of the cohabitation. But how many people even know what that is? The majority of people don't even have a will."

The Rabbi for Maidenhead Synagogue %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/letters/article2898679.ece">Jonathan Romain says in the Times that although he supports the institute of marriage, rights for cohabitees should also be created:

"One can uphold the structure of marriage yet also be appalled at the fiscal fate of women who have been in a long-term unmarried relationship, often with children, and then find themselves both without a partner and without any support.
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"Of course it would have been better for them to have been married in the first place, but we still throw lifebelts to those who get into deep waters through their own folly, and should do so now by amending the law on the rights of cohabiting couples. Equity is as much a religious value as matrimony."

Links in full

•%3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/article2897671.ece">Frances | Gibb | Times Top family judge's charter for unmarried couples
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8302189/Living-together-is-not-the-same-thing-as-marriage.html">Telegraph | Living together is not the same thing as marriage
• %3Ca%20href="https://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100074678/david-cameron-has-caved-in-to-those-waging-war-against-the-family/">Peter Oborne | Telegraph | David Cameron has caved in to those waging war against the family
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-dejevsky/mary-dejevsky-if-you-want-the-benefits-of-marriage-take-the-plunge-2203582.html">Mary Dejevsky | Independent | If you want the benefits of marriage, take the plunge
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/justice-and-civil-liberties/three-cheers-for-sir-nicholas-wall/">Henry Oliver | Adam Smith Institute blog | Three Cheers for Sir Nicholas Wall
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/letters/article2898679.ece">Jonathan Romain | Times | Marriage versus the unmarried couples' charter

A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

Proving popular with readers of the Independent is %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/in-pictures-the-shop-that-time-forgot-2202127.html">the shop that time forgot. Photographer Chris Frears says when he turned up to take pictures of the village hardware store in Dumfriesshire the assistant, Hugh, disappeared downstairs to brush his comb-over and put his blue jacket on. Some items are still labelled in pre-decimal prices. Mr Frears adds "if you go to this shop and Hugh turns around and tells you 'It canna be got,' which has become a local name for the place, then you really know it can't be.

The Daily Mail's most read story says %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353157/Ariana-Bardhaj-4-killed-fathers-sat-nav-caused-car-accident.html">a four-year-old girl died when her father's sat-nav wrongly told him to take a turn at an accident black spot. He turned right at a junction leading him to steer their Astra car into the path of a two-ton Audi A5, an inquest heard.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8293375/Top-10-uncracked-codes.html">top 10 uncracked codes are popular on the Telegraph. At the top of the list is the Phaistos Disk which is considered the most important example of hieroglyphic inscription from Crete. Discovered in 1903, both sides of the clay disc are covered with hieroglyphs arranged in a spiral zone.

Sun readers prefer to catch up on where singer Cheryl Cole has moved to. The paper jokes "%3Ca%20href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/x_factor/3387926/Cheryls-off-to-Hadley-Wood.html">Forget Hollywood, Cheryl's moved to...Hadley Wood". Her new abode is in a north London suburb.

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Food critics review celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal's new restaurant called Dinner.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/02/restaurant-review-dinner-heston-blumenthal">In the Guardian Matthew Fort gives the food a thumbs up:

"And what food. The menu provides a tour of this country's culinary past. Each dish is dated approximate to its origins. So there's meat fruit (c1500), savoury porridge (c1660), spiced pigeon (c1780), cod in cider (c1940) and taffety tart (1830). But they are not slavish, painstaking recreations of past glories. Using contemporary techniques and technology, each has been re-engineered for the 21st century. The result is nothing short of astonishing."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1353098/JAN-MOIR-His-new-restaurants-called-best-world-But-Heston-overcooked-hype.html">Jan Moir suggests in the Daily Mail that the hype was overcooked:

"The bad news is that for the main course, the 'Powdered Duck' legs seem to have been given some kind of turbo pamper and have been plucked, bathed, glazed and lacquered beyond recognition. It seems a lot of trouble for a muted taste experience."

Chef %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/hestons-new-restaurant-served-the-best-food-ive-had-in-two-years-2202600.html">Mark Hix says in the Independent that the restaurant served the best food he's had in two years:

"Then there is the food and, to start, a dish that was genuinely astonishing. It's described on the menu under starters as "meat fruit", which doesn't sound great.
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"On the outside it looks like a perfect mandarin with textured and brightly coloured peel, as well as a stalk and green leaves. But put your knife in and everything changes. The orange is full of chicken liver mousse with the most fantastic flavour and soft texture.
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"I'm not into gimmicky food but this is the only big trick on the menu and when it tastes that good it's difficult to complain."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/food/restaurants/article2896276.ece">Giles Coren says in the Times that the restaurant brightens up his dreary job as a food critic:

"And just when it was all starting to be a bit normal there was Tipsy Cake, from 1810, with spit-roast pineapple, a pudding like no other. A sort of brioche soaked in angel's spit and spiked with the sugar of unicorn's horn.
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"I am bored to hell with London's top-end restaurants. I wouldn't care if I never ate in another Michelin-starred ponce hole as long as I live.
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"But Dinner, despite its stupid name, changes all that."

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Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/02/restaurant-review-dinner-heston-blumenthal">Matthew Fort | Guardian | Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1353098/JAN-MOIR-His-new-restaurants-called-best-world-But-Heston-overcooked-hype.html">Jan Moir | Daily Mail | His new restaurant's been called the best in the world. But has Heston overcooked the hype?
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/hestons-new-restaurant-served-the-best-food-ive-had-in-two-years-2202600.html">Mark Hix | Independent | Heston's new restaurant served the best food I've had in two years
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/food/restaurants/article2896276.ece">Giles Coren | Times | Blumenthal's pure genius makes Dinner the world's best new restaurant

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I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 5 Live has attracted a record 7.1m listeners and the commercial station TalkSport a record 3.1m in the latest RAJAR audience figures. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/03/rajars-talk-radio">Guardian says "Talk radio has never had it so good after an unlikely combination of government cuts, England's cricket tour of Australia, snow and the ever-enduring popularity of Premier League football."

The prime minister has chosen a senior executive at ´óÏó´«Ã½ News to replace Andy Coulson as Director of Government Communications. Craig Oliver, controller of English at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Global News, and former editor of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News at Six and Ten, will take up the post shortly. The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-politics-12348159">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports his job will be to lead efforts to sell David Cameron, the Coalition and the Conservative Party to the country. His %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-politics-12346958">profile on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ says has worked in broadcasting for almost two decades. %3Ca%20href="/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/holding.html">´óÏó´«Ã½ political editor Nick Robinson says he is "shocked and yet not altogether surprised" with the appointment.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2011/feb/02/murdoch-unveils-ipad-daily">Guardian says Rupert Murdoch has sought to put a seal on his reputation as a visionary media tycoon by launching the Daily, a news operation created from scratch and designed specifically for the iPad.
"Much is riding on it, not just Murdoch's personal legacy in the twilight of his career, but, in his own description, the future of how people produce and consume journalism."

The Duchess of Cornwall is to appear in ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's long-running rural drama The Archers. In last night's episode, regular character Caroline Sterling revealed that the Duchess was to pay a visit to the Grey Gables hotel. The %3Ca%20href="/news/entertainment-arts-12345885">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports Camilla's brief appearance will be broadcast on 16 February. She will feature in her role as president of the National Osteoporosis Society.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12352470">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review says the violence in Egypt is reported on most front pages - and is the lead for the Guardian and the Independent. The Guardian says there was a co-ordinated bid by Hosni Mubarak's regime to wrest back control of the streets and reassert its authority over the country. For Robert Fisk in the Independent, this was as close to civil war as Egypt has come.

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Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation unveiled its long awaited iPad news application on Wednesday, called the Daily. Following the launch at New York's Guggenheim Museum, reviews from the tech community are pouring in.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/technology-12345686">´óÏó´«Ã½'s Rajini Vaidyanathan says if you had to characterise the Daily then it is definitely the kind of iPad app which wants to impress - and impress everybody:

"Sections include news - reports on Egypt and US snowstorms; gossip - an interview with Natalie Portman and piece on Rihanna; opinion and off-beat features, including a report on New York's doggy disco.

"There's so much content it's easy to spend your entire time flicking through pictures and navigating, rather than reading the text of the stories.

"The whizz-bang factor is definitely high, utilising much of the iPad's functionality. There are some excellent visual devices including 360-degree photo galleries, stylish videos embedded into pieces and a neat sudoku and crossword puzzle."

Joel Mathis, writing for Macworld, thinks the Daily is well-designed with a pleasurable, tactile experience, %3Ca%20href="https://www.macworld.com/article/157615/2011/02/thedaily_reinvention.html">but he isn't entirely sold on it:

There's just one problem with the hype: Rupert Murdoch's new iPad newspaper closely resembles other - often unsuccessful - attempts over the last decade to "reinvent" the news. The only difference, from a user perspective, is that a few semi-new digital flourishes have been thrown into the mix... As a piece of technology, then, The Daily is promising. As a journalistic endeavour, though, it's confusing.

On Valleywag, Ryan Tate has hopes for the Daily, but so far is %3Ca%20href="https://gawker.com/5749997/the-ipad-newspaper-is-here?skyline=true&s=i">not particularly impressed:

It's like an iPad magazine, except it comes out every day. If that sounds boring, well, it probably should given that's how the event itself seemed. The product didn't seem bad - it looked nice enough - so much as humdrum, given the possibilities opened up by the iPad. At one point in the presentation, Angelo was even touting The Daily by pointing out that a television review contained a link to IMDB. Later, someone bragged about a direct link to the Apple Store. Woah, slow down with the innovation there, guys!

Time magazine's James Poniewozik %3Ca%20href="https://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2011/02/02/hands-on-with-murdochs-ipad-newspaper-the-daily/">praised the Daily's aesthetics, but had a lukewarm view of its journalism:

I found little in the first issue that I really wanted to read beginning to end (besides Havrilesky's review). The story choice so far seems to assume little interest in longer reads; a few stories of two or three pages are rounded out by a collection of briefs and graphics. That said, the real test will be how compelling The Daily is when I pick it up first thing in the morning, rather than at noon when it's already behind the news cycle. (About which: Daily editors say they'll be able to update the app with breaking news, but I haven't seen much evidence of that yet.)

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At %3Ca%20href="https://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/the-daily-launch/">Wired Magazine, Sam Gustin believes the most revolutionary aspect of the Daily is its business model:

The launch of The Daily was accompanied by an announcement from Apple that The Daily would be the first publication to allow one-click subscriptions, of either $1 a week or $40 a year - a departure from the company's requirement that all subscriptions be funneled through the iTunes store.That key change may open the floodgates by publishers, who thus far have largely avoided any subscription model - and pricing - for their iPad editions in part because there was no agreement from Apple to share subscriber information.

John Biggs of Tech Crunch %3Ca%20href="https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/02/who-is-the-daily-for/">says that there isn't a clear audience for the Daily, but believes that high quality content along with the business model will probably lead to a bright future for the app:

News Corp knows how to sell news. Whether you agree with some of their channels and outlets or not, they deal out supremely popular content produced on a daily basis. While I'd say I'm worried about who they'll sell the Daily to, I believe that the subset of users who read the NY Times and other news sources in Safari on the iPad will welcome a move to a standalone app. Provided the content quality stays high and the news value is there, this could be the first iPad app to beat Angry Birds and, more important, truly bring journalism into the 21st century.

At CNet, Greg Sandoval thinks that the success of the the Daily will %3Ca%20href="https://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20030385-261.html?tag=topStories3">hinge on one thing:

The trick to The Daily's success will be in the quality of journalism it can provide, News Corp. execs have said. Clearly, a media company can't charge for an online publication if it's simply stuffing the pub with the same content readers can find online for free, or if it's just repackaging material from existing magazines, newspapers, broadcasts, and the like. Murdoch seems to understand that he needs to hand readers features they can't get offline (or elsewhere online).

Larry Magid, in the Huffington Post, %3Ca%20href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-magid/murdochs-the-daily-is-a-d_b_817737.html">worries that the Daily is already out-of-date in the current media environment:

Despite its fabulous appearance, I found The Daily to be disappointing mainly because the news was already out of date... I'm not saying there isn't a role for newspapers (I still write a column for both the dead-tree and online editions of the San Jose Mercury News) but I think many people have become accustomed to news that's updated very often throughout the day. There is still a role for analysis, opinion and long-form journalism which is why magazines still have their place but if you're going to create an electronic news source it had better be more than up-to-date. It has to be up-to-the-minute.

A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

Proving popular with Independent readers is the "astonishing" %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/the-astonishing-conversion-of-the-aitken-girls-2201459.html">conversion of Jonathan Aitken's daughter. One daughter, Alexandra, has recently got married in a turban to a committed Sikh in India and now goes by the moniker "Harvinder". Her twin sister, Victoria, is recovering from a failed attempt to become a rapper. The third, Soraya Khashoggi, whose mother is the ex-wife of the millionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, has been in rehab for "too much partying" and love addiction.

The Daily Mail's most read story reports a "bizarre" scene outside court. The article says a %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352200/Father-James-Maynard-children-killed-arrives-court-horror-clown-mask.html">father of children killed in a fire allegedly started by their mother arrived wearing a horror clown mask.

Amnesty International has asked the government to intervene on behalf of the %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/01/bradley-manning-uk-citizen">soldier suspected of having passed US secrets to WikiLeaks, reports one the Guardian's most read stories. Bradley Manning is being held in a military jail and charged with the unauthorised use and disclosure of classified information.

The Telegraph's most read story says the %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8296860/WikiLeaks-FBI-hunts-the-911-gang-that-got-away.html">FBI has launched a manhunt for a previously unknown team of men suspected to be part of the 9/11 attacks. The newspaper says secret documents reveal that the three Qatari men conducted surveillance on the targets.

Sun readers prefer to catch up on the %3Ca%20href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3385255/Jordan-to-file-for-divorce-from-Alex-Reid-on-their-first-anniversary.html">marriage split of glamour model Katie Price and cage fighter Alex Reid. The paper reports that she will serve divorce papers on their first wedding anniversary. That's because it's the earliest she is allowed to legally. Meanwhile she claimed she fell out of love while watching him lose a brutal cage fight.

Slate's most read article asks %3Ca%20href="https://www.slate.com/id/2282969/">why women are always cold. Some studies suggest that women have slightly higher core temperatures than men. But the article concludes that how cold you feel has less to do with your gender and more to do with if you are hungry or tired.

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ has been criticised for its handling of an IT project aimed at saving nearly £18m that ended up costing it more than £10m. The Digital Media Initiative was designed to allow staff to share content more easily and improve production efficiency. But the %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/01/bbc-it-audit-office">Guardian reports the cost soared after it was plagued by delays and technical issues. The National Audit Office, commissioned by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust to review the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s management of the DMI, said the early stages had failed to deliver value for money.

Mexico's ambassador in London has complained to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ over "offensive, xenophobic and humiliating" comments made about his country on Top Gear on Sunday. The %3Ca%20href="/news/entertainment-arts-12338053">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports Richard Hammond said vehicles reflected national characteristics so "Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep... ". The ´óÏó´«Ã½ said it would respond directly to the ambassador.

Radio duo Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie's evening show has been axed by Radio 2 after four years, angering fans, %3Ca%20href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2011/02/02/mark-radcliffe-and-stuart-maconie-dropped-on-radio-2-and-replaced-by-jo-whiley-115875-22892325/">says the Daily Mirror. The pair will make room for Jo Whiley, 45, who joins Radio 2 after spending 17 years at Radio 1. The two men will switch to a daytime slot on digital station 6 Music as part of a ´óÏó´«Ã½ shake-up in April.

A TV ad for an Yves Saint Laurent perfume has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority because it appears to show a woman simulating drug use. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352718/Yves-Saint-Laurent-perfume-advert-Belle-DOpium-banned-simulating-drug-use.html">Daily Mail says the commercial for Belle D'Opium perfume showed a woman dancing to a drum beat, pointing to her inner elbow and running her finger along the inside of her forearm. YSL said it did not intend to use drug imagery and had conducted research that showed consumers had not interpreted it in that way.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/01/bbc-world-service-hindi-radio">Sam Miller says in the Guardian the most unexpected casualty of last week's savage cuts to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service was Hindi-language radio, which from 1 April will no longer be broadcast to India.
"It has a very large audience, over 10 million regular weekly listeners - with many more unmeasured in the conflict-ridden tribal areas of central India. That has come down significantly over the last decade, but it's still, in the context of international radio broadcasting, a huge listenership."

Sky Atlantic launched last night as the "home of HBO" in the UK, with Martin Scorcese's opening episode of Boardwalk Empire. %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8296886/Boardwalk-Empire-Sky-Atlantic-review.html">Andrew Pettie says in the Telegraph that he is unable to review the show objectively because he now enjoys HBO programmes even before they have started. %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/feb/02/boardwalk-empire-scorsese-touch?INTCMP=SRCH">Peter Bradshaw says in the Guardian that Scorcesse's fans will be looking for violence, which doesn't come until 50 minutes into the show.

US banking giant Citigroup has taken over the ownership of EMI, the music company where it was the major creditor. The %3Ca%20href="/news/business-12339299">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports Guy Hands' private equity firm Terra Firma has been forced to hand EMI over to Citigroup after not being able to keep up interest payments on the loans.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12341715">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review looks at the press coverage of Egypt's uprising. "Mubarak's long goodbye" is how the Times headlines news that the Egyptian president will not be standing for re-election in September. The Guardian says he has bowed to the inevitable after the US withdrew support for its closest Arab ally.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/01/bbc-it-audit-office">Guardian | ´óÏó´«Ã½ IT project criticised by audit office
• %3Ca%20href="/news/entertainment-arts-12338053">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Top Gear sparks Mexico complaints
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2011/02/02/mark-radcliffe-and-stuart-maconie-dropped-on-radio-2-and-replaced-by-jo-whiley-115875-22892325/">Mirror | Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie dropped on Radio 2 and replaced by Jo Whiley
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352718/Yves-Saint-Laurent-perfume-advert-Belle-DOpium-banned-simulating-drug-use.html">Daily Mail | Yves Saint Laurent perfume advert banned for 'simulating drug use'
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/01/bbc-world-service-hindi-radio">Guardian | Why is the ´óÏó´«Ã½ cutting Hindi radio from the World Service?
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8296886/Boardwalk-Empire-Sky-Atlantic-review.html">Telegraph | Boardwalk Empire, Sky Atlantic, review
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/feb/02/boardwalk-empire-scorsese-touch?INTCMP=SRCH">Guardian | Boardwalk Empire: the Scorsese touch
• %3Ca%20href="/news/business-12339299">´óÏó´«Ã½ | EMI taken over by Citigroup in deal to write off debts
• %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12341715">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinD">my updates on Twitter

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media stories on Delicious

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2011/02/media_brief_155.html">Tuesday's Media Brief

Ìý

Commentators debate the merits of %3Ca%20href="https://www.police.uk/">local crime maps.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/leaders/article2896203.ece">Times editorial expresses concern about effects of making crime statistics so easily accessible:

"[O]ne argument above all is raised against the maps, and it is a familiar one -- that they will act in some way to politicise crime, and make it subject to populist outcry rather than expert deliberation. What is imagined is that a locality suddenly aware, for example, that it is suffering a few vehicle thefts will unreasonably demand that all police resources be devoted to that offence, ignoring other more operationally pressing needs. It is a version of the belief that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/02/police-crime-maps-editorial?">Guardian editorial points out that current inaccuracies on the maps could have dire consequences:

"[W]hat if house insurers were now to use such imprecise material to calculate their premiums? Or if homeowners discovered that house prices in their street have collapsed because of an undeserved reputation as a burglary or violent crime hotspot? There is a danger that crime-mapping will assist the advantaged to address their own neighbourhood problems while adding burdens to those who remain most in need."

But the article concludes that the government should be commended for "trusting the public":

"Crime-mapping is not a magic wand, but it helps to inform the public, to facilitate better local decision-making and to engage citizens in more rational strategies for dealing with important problems that can arouse strong emotions."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/02/02/crime-map-is-just-a-tool-for-middle-class-snobs-to-avoid-loutish-areas-115875-22892378/">In the Mirror Brian Reade also touches on the digital divide in the Mirror:

"They should re-brand it comparethescumbag.com. Because it is nothing more than a Hyacinth Bucket Guide for middle-class curtain-twitchers. And what will it do for the law-abiding majority who live in the worst streets? Will it lead to a crusade to solve social problems that are the root of crime? No."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/02/02/crime-map-is-just-a-tool-for-middle-class-snobs-to-avoid-loutish-areas-115875-22892378/">In the same Mirror article Fiona Phillips defends the maps:

"[M]aybe that's what this is about -pointing the finger, denting the pride of the local police, agitating the neighbourhood into taking action aimed at ¬eventually removing Glovers Court from the spotlight so residents can sleep peacefully at night.
Ìý
"As long as it acts as a call for these areas to receive help, rather than being used as a vehicle to condemn them, I'm hoping the website will be a step towards reducing crime."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/sun_says/244723/The-Sun-Says.html">Sun calls the crime maps a shambles:

"Crime-free streets were branded danger areas. Police call centres were listed as hotspots because so many crimes were reported there. Inevitably, the site collapsed as millions logged on. The map was an excellent idea let down by unreliable execution.
Ìý
"Without pinpoint accuracy, such an exercise loses much of its value. It spreads disinformation which can stigmatise decent neighbourhoods and blight property prices."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1352717/Police-crime-map-Home-Office-website-Hooray-website-really-DO-want.html?ITO=1490">In the Daily Mail Harriet Sergeant says "hooray for a website we really do want":

"Well, yes, it did crash on its first day of use. No one can deny that is a bit of a dampener.
Ìý
"But the fact that four million people tried to log on by mid morning just goes to prove that this is £300,000 well spent. This is a service the public most definitely wants. And which they are too aware they have not been getting."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-why-a-little-knowledge-can-be-dangerous-2201249.html">The Independent's editorial predicts the maps may increase fear of crime:

"The Government says it's 'about fighting crime together'. The intention is not that residents should erect roadblocks at the end of their streets vigilante-style; rather that we should all contact our local beat officer or attend a public meeting. In this way, we will "drive the priorities" of the elected police commissioners who will be the Government's next innovation.
Ìý
"Yet it is hard to see public meetings inspiring fear in the hearts of teenage hoodlums. And the Coalition's plan is likely to cause additional problems. Fear of crime could rise among the vulnerable or elderly; knowing the statistics for crime in the neighbourhood, without a proper understanding of the statistical context, might prove that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It is a potential recipe for impotence and fear."

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/leaders/article2896203.ece">Times | A-Z of Crime
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/02/police-crime-maps-editorial?">Guardian | Police: Crime maps have their place
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/02/02/crime-map-is-just-a-tool-for-middle-class-snobs-to-avoid-loutish-areas-115875-22892378/">Mirror | Crime map is 'just a tool for middle class snobs to avoid loutish areas'
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/sun_says/244723/The-Sun-Says.html">Sun | Clueless
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1352717/Police-crime-map-Home-Office-website-Hooray-website-really-DO-want.html?ITO=1490">Harriet Sergeant | Daily Mail | Hooray for a website we really DO want
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-why-a-little-knowledge-can-be-dangerous-2201249.html">Independent | Why a little knowledge can be dangerous

A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

The Telegraph's most read story says %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8293545/Carla-Bruni-Sarkozy-confession-I-no-longer-feel-left-wing.html">Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has confessed she no longer feels left wing. The article says the supermodel-turned-singer's reputation as a "luvvie Lefty" has been cited as a major handicap to Mr Sarkozy's re-election as the conservative president. It suggests her political change of heart is an attempt to boost support for her unpopular husband among his core right-wing electorate.

Proving popular among Guardian readers is Christopher Hitchens' article claiming that the film %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/31/the-kings-speech-gross-falsification">The King's Speech is a blatant rewriting of history. He argues that, contrary to the film's depiction, Winston Churchill was embarrassingly supportive of "pro-Nazi playboy" Edward VIII.

On the Daily Mail's most read list is a story about a %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352343/Salvation-Army-millionaire-William-Booth-makes-fortune-donated-clothes.html">rag trader making a fortune from the clothes donated to charity. It says the millionaire runs the Salvation Army's recycling banks. He sells on the donated garments to Eastern Europe, where the price has risen from less than £100 a ton to £350 over the last three years, thanks to the rise of second-hand shops.

Mirror readers prefer to catch up on %3Ca%20href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2011/02/01/demi-moore-and-teenage-daughter-tallulah-look-more-like-sisters-at-sao-paulo-fashion-week-pictures-115875-22889998/">Demi Moore's latest fashion show outing. The paper says a picture of 48-year-old Moore and her 16-year-old daughter makes them look like sisters despite a 32-year age difference.

In Prospect's most popular story the founder of online newspaper the Huffington Post says we should all spend less time online. %3Ca%20href="https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2011/01/arianna-huffington-wikileaks-media-transparency-afghanistan/">Arianna Huffington also argues objectivity is overrated.

Wired magazine's most popular story takes us %3Ca%20href="https://www.wired.com/rawfile/2011/01/inside-londons-secret-crisis-command-bunker/">inside London's secret crisis-command bunker. Photographer David Moore's series The Last Things documents a complex to which no other photographer has ever gained access. He is still not certain why he was granted entry.

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 2's Electric Proms have fallen victim to the corporation's latest-round of cost-cutting %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/31/bbc-radio-2-electric-proms">says the Guardian. Last year's event, featuring Robert Plant, Neil Diamond and Sir Elton John, is set to be its last. The Radio 2 controller, Bob Shennan, said the five-year-old spin-off from the classical music Proms was being axed because of efficiency savings.

Lionel Barber, the editor of the Financial Times, has warned that the Britain's newspapers are now at risk of facing political "retribution" in the form of statutory regulation in the wake of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/31/lionel-barber-cudlipp-lecture-phone-hacking">Guardian says he gave the %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/31/lionel-barber-hugh-cudlipp-lecture">Hugh Cudlipp memorial lecture.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/gillianreynolds/8293749/Are-the-World-Service-cuts-a-sign-of-things-to-come.html">Gillian Reynolds says in the Daily Telegraph she's not convinced by the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s strategy of "fewer things better", after listening to director general Mark Thompson interviewed by Steve Hewlett on Radio 4's Media Show.

Children in Britain sit in front of a TV or computer screen for four-and-a-half hours a day, %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1352361/Children-spend-time-TV-exercising.html">reports the Daily Mail. A report released by research firm ChildWise shows that youngsters now spend an average of one hour and 50 minutes online and two hours 40 minutes in front of the television every day.

Jeremy Paxman last night became the latest ´óÏó´«Ã½ presenter to use the c-word inadvertently on air. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/01/jeremy-paxman-newsnight-cuts-uk-uncut">Guardian says Paxman's error was the third such mistake on the corporation's output within the past two months. It says the news item related to "tongue-twisting UK Uncut", the direct action group that lobbies to ensure corporations pay their taxes.

The %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12331640">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review says events in the Middle East are again the focus for the papers. The Times and the Guardian talk of Egypt's President Mubarak being "on the brink" after the announcement by the army that it would not use force against protesters.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/31/bbc-radio-2-electric-proms">Guardian | ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 2 axes Electric Proms
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/31/lionel-barber-cudlipp-lecture-phone-hacking">Guardian | FT editor: press risks political retribution over phone-hacking scandal
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/31/lionel-barber-hugh-cudlipp-lecture">Guardian | Lionel Barber's Hugh Cudlipp lecture: the full text
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/gillianreynolds/8293749/Are-the-World-Service-cuts-a-sign-of-things-to-come.html">Telegraph | Are the World Service cuts a sign of things to come?
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1352361/Children-spend-time-TV-exercising.html">Daily Mail | Screen addicts: Children spend more time in front of a computer or television every day than they spend exercising every week
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/01/jeremy-paxman-newsnight-cuts-uk-uncut">Guardian | Jeremy Paxman follows Naughtie example with on-air 'cuts' blunder
• %3Ca%20href="/news/uk-12331640">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinD">my updates on Twitter

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media stories on Delicious

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2011/01/media_brief_154.html">Monday's Media Brief

Ìý

Commentators discuss the change in income tax thresholds meaning an estimated 750,000 more people will find themselves paying 40% income tax from April.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8053077-uk-tax-changes-the-winners-and-the-losers">In All Voices Ethel Smith looks at who will benefit from the change:

"The threshold for paying ordinary income tax is to be increased. This will mean that around 500,000 low paid workers will be taken out of paying income tax. It is said that the main winners will be lone parents who do not work and middle income families, particularly those with no children. This is because other changes such as those to Child Benefit and Tax Credits will affect many people negatively."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/rachelsylvester/article2894802.ece">Rachel Sylvester says in the Times Nick Clegg's pledge to raise the tax threshold to £10,000 will mean more taxes elsewhere:

"As the basic threshold is increased progressively towards £10,000, it is likely that the Treasury will fund the rise at least partly from adjusting other thresholds, so that by 2015 more middle-income earners could find themselves paying the 50p top rate. Many families who already find themselves squeezed by wage freezes will not only see their taxes increased but will find their child benefit axed too, even though they don't see themselves as high earners.
Ìý
"The Chancellor will be under pressure to find money from other sources too. Airline travel is likely to become more expensive under new green taxes. A debate is going on about whether the Government can really afford to cancel the planned 1p rise in fuel duty due to take effect in April - although Mr Osborne is said to be keen to head off the anger of motorists who have seen the cost of a tank of petrol soar because of high oil prices combined with the increase in VAT."

Conservative MP %3Ca%20href="https://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2011/01/31/the-private-sector-squeeze/">John Redwood argues in his blog that spending should be cut instead of taxes raised:

"The increases in Income Tax, CGT, National Insurance, VAT, and fuel duty always meant the private sector was going to take a big cut in spending power as its share of the deficit reduction. This has been made worse by the rapid rise in inflation, with big increases in fuel prices which in turn extracts more tax revenue and by the large increases in various public sector fees and charges like rail fares.
Ìý
"The public debate has spent too much time talking about the spending reductions, implying they hit the economy at the end of last year and caused the poor GDP figures, when they haven't begun, and ignored the squeeze on family incomes. The government needs to take action to cut the public sector's contribution to the squeeze."

%3Ca%20href="https://pimlicoplumbers.com/diary/?id=916">Charlie Mullins from Pimlico Plumbers says in his blog that the numbers in the deficit are just too huge to be covered by the tax rise:

"The shocking bit is that not only will this tax hike rake in £150,000,000, but that this represents only just over half of 1% of the banks' annual profit of £24,000,000,000. Worse still, if you compare this extra tax take against the UK's structural deficit of £160,000,000,000, the chancellor still needs to find an extra £159,850,000,000 to soak up the country's annual overspend!
Ìý
"Those are the real figures with all the noughts on. Don't know about other people but I find the reality of it all really terrifying, and maybe it's no wonder people use the words 'millions' and 'billions' next to quite modest numbers when talking about the economy. It also makes me wonder whether or not people would be quite so keen to stand up in public and continue to argue that the answer to our problems is to spend more if they weren't able to block out the sheer size of the problem."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/philipjohnston/8293533/The-Pay-As-You-Earn-system-is-a-scandal.html">Philip Johnston says in the Telegraph that the way income tax is administered is key to explaining how the government will be able to change the tax boundaries so smoothly:

"The way PAYE is administered is one of the great scandals of modern government. To begin with, it has facilitated "tax creep". Before the Second World War, the tax burden in Britain was around 22 per cent; today it is above 40 per cent, largely because of the expansion of the welfare state, the NHS and state education...
Ìý
"But stealth taxes are also so much easier to inflict if allowances can be subtly adjusted to draw hundreds of thousands of extra people into a higher tax band without their really noticing."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/31/taxation-squeezing-middle-britain">Guardian's editorial says politicians need the support of voters who have worked hard to "drag their families up into the middle class":

"[I]t will overturn a received axiom of wisdom since Mrs Thatcher's day, by putting a tax on what Mr Blair called "aspiration". Three-quarters of a million workers will be pushed into the 40% tax bracket, while tax credit withdrawal will leave 175,000 working parents exposed to effective marginal rates of over 70%. In the theoretical worst case, which will be rare but no doubt apply to someone, Middle Englanders could be exposed to the 83% rate that old Labour levied on the super-rich. Factor in the removal of child benefit from higher-rate payers in 2013, and there are a group of middling professionals who could soon find they are little better-off - or even worse off - after a promotion."

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8053077-uk-tax-changes-the-winners-and-the-losers">Ethel Smith | All Voices | UK tax changes: The winners and the losers
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/rachelsylvester/article2894802.ece">Rachel Sylvester | Times | After health and welfare, now a tax revolution
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2011/01/31/the-private-sector-squeeze/">John Redwood's Diary | The private sector squeeze
• %3Ca%20href="https://pimlicoplumbers.com/diary/?id=916">Charlie Mullins | Pimlico Plumbers | The problem of solving the defecit - the numbers are huge!
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/philipjohnston/8293533/The-Pay-As-You-Earn-system-is-a-scandal.html">Philip Johnston | Telegraph | The Pay As You Earn system is a scandal
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/31/taxation-squeezing-middle-britain?">Guardian | Squeezing middle Britain