Outrage over expenses 'blackout'

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The liberal use of black ink to heavily censor the database of MPs' expenses draws universal condemnation from Friday's papers.

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/18/mps-expenses-censorship-black-out">"It's a blackout,"</a> declares the Guardian front page. "This is openness in a V-sign," complains one columnist.

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5571756/MPs-expenses-this-censorship-shows-that-they-still-dont-get-it.html">"It seemed impossible to believe that Parliament could sink any further</a> in the public's esteem," yet with this, it has, says the Daily Telegraph.

"In every sense, <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/sun_says/244723/The-Sun-Says.html">it was Parliament's blackest day,"</a> writes the Sun.

Private parts

The newspapers' cartoonists manage to find some humour in the expenses story.

The Daily Express shows an angry voter confronting his MP - <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.express.co.uk/cartoon/view/2009-06-19">his speech bubble a long tirade of blacked out abuse. </a>

In the Independent, <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/the-daily-cartoon-760940.html">naked MPs are sprawled across the benches of the Commons,</a> their faces and private parts obscured by the censor's pen.

And in the Times, a boy hands his school report to his father, saying, <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/cartoon/">"Some details have been blacked out on privacy and security grounds."</a>

'Reckless gambler'

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8ef667e6-5c40-11de-aea3-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1">"A timely surrender"</a> is how the Financial Times describes former RBS boss Fred Goodwin's decision to give up some of his controversial pension.

The Daily Mail says <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1193917/Ex-RBS-chief-Sir-Fred-Goodwin-half-700-000-pension-come-Britain.html">he hopes the move will "dampen public outrage".</a>

But if the Daily Mirror is correct, "the reckless gambler will always be the greedy boss who broke the bank and left us to pick up the pieces".

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/06/18/shamed-former-rbs-boss-sir-fred-goodwin-to-return-half-of-pension-115875-21451187/">"Fred the Shred is living in la-la-land</a> if he thinks his reputation will be rehabilitated," its leader claims.

'Hell on earth'

Dire predictions of rising temperatures in Britain by 2080 draw much concern from the broadsheets.

The Guardian points out that the trouble with persuading people to take climate change seriously is that hotter summers actually sound quite attractive.

But the paper warns that while <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/jun/18/monbiot-climate-impacts">"we get balmy Mediterranean temperatures, other people get hell on Earth".</a>

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/michael-mccarthy-whats-so-depressing-is-the-inevitability-of-all-this-1708980.html">"What's so depressing is the inevitability</a> of all this," writes Michael McCarthy in the Independent.