Economic gloom gathers in papers

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After poring over the fine print of the Budget, the <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/24/budget-spending-cuts-alistair-darling">Guardian sums up the prevailing gloom</a> by declaring that the "party's over".

It highlights the warning from economic forecasters that ministers will have to make the most savage spending cuts since the 1970s.

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britains-new-age-of-austerity-1673395.html">"Britain's new age of austerity" is the Independent's headline</a> for concerns about the future of public services.

Three giant "Titan" prisons will be among the first casualties, it says.

Talent drain

The impact of the new 50 pence income tax rate for those earning over £150,000 a year is mulled over widely.

The <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/32a61320-3048-11de-88e3-00144feabdc0.html">Financial Times reports Chancellor Alistair Darling has been warned</a> it will drive talent from the City.

A leading firm of tax advisers says the message to high earners is that they are not welcome.

But both the <a class="inlineText" href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/budget/article6156872.ece">Times</a> and the Guardian highlight opinion polls suggesting the new top rate has gone down well with the voting public.

Job offer

The Daily Telegraph pictures small baby Loralie Hope Arnold to help bring home the "unprecedented burden of public debt built up by Gordon Brown".

As the paper puts it: "This baby will be 23 before we are out of this mess."

The <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6155259.ece">Times pictures Daniela Oliveros - aged 23 now - who quizzed the prime minister</a> on his post-Budget roadshow.

She rather speculatively asked Mr Brown for a work placement at Downing Street. "How can I refuse?" he replied. "You can write the next Budget!"

New tune

The front page of the <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article2393404.ece">Sun is dominated by news of a new look for Susan Boyle,</a> the singer who has proved such a hit on TV show Britain's Got Talent.

She is pictured emerging from a salon with a new hairstyle, her distinctive grey hair suddenly reddish-brown.

Meanwhile, research has found that sales of home hair-dye kits have shot up since the start of the recession.

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1172961/In-red-Sales-bright-hair-dye-soar-women-match-locks-state-British-economy.html">In the words of the Daily Mail:</a> "The credit crunch seems to have gone straight to our heads."