Papers on the attack over car tax

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Several papers lead with the Treasury's admission that more than 9m people face car tax increases of up to Â£245.

The Daily Telegraph says nearly half of drivers will be hit, while fewer than one in five will benefit.

Struggling families will be hammered, warns the Sun, while the Daily Express says ministers have lost the plot.

"Even in the annals of Labour incompetence, it is difficult to think of a more perverse and disastrous set of measures," it argues.

Wuthering looks

The papers give a withering response to an interview in which the prime minister accepted being likened to Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights.

"Gordon Brown is intense," remarks the Independent, "and he can brood to Olympic levels - but we must hope comparisons with Heathcliff end there."

And the Sun agrees Heathcliff was a tragic character, haunted by lost love.

"The PM's readiness to compare himself to such an awkward figure will have psychiatrists fascinated," it adds.

Going ballistic

Iran's test firing of long-range missiles has added potential military conflict to a history of hostile words, says the Daily Mirror.

It says it agrees with the US that the move is provocative, but believes steely diplomacy is the way to defuse tension - not sabre rattling.

TheFinancial Times says Iran has lost the last western energy group which had considered investing in the country.

The French group, Total, has told the paper it believes it is now too risky.

Never mind the ballots

Minister Hazel Blears is considering encouraging people to vote in local elections by giving them prize draws tickets, the Daily Telegraph says.

Other ideas include giving people a right to summon council officers to public meetings, and making councils obliged to respond to petitions.

However, the paper is not impressed. "People want power, not pointless gestures," it says in an editorial.

The Daily Mail is even less enamoured of the plans. It asks: "Is Hazel nuts?"