Newspaper review: Miliband to 'earn more than Obama'

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News of David Miliband's departure came too late for Wednesday's papers, so many of Thursday's editions offer considerable analysis of the story.

Mr Miliband, brother of Labour leader Ed, is to quit UK politics to become head of the International Rescue Committee charity in New York.

The Guardian laments the loss of a "genuine big beast in the diminished political jungle". .

But the past two years must have been hard, it says.

The former foreign secretary had become the Ferrari locked in Labour's garage, needing to be used - but in practice unusable.

'Destructive legacy'

Peter Oborne, writing in the Daily Telegraph, declines to join in what he calls the "convulsions of grief" gripping North London, the Guardian and, apparently, the BBC.

David Miliband, he says, "has left only one lasting legacy, and that was destructive".

It says he was the "standard-bearer" for an "anti-democratic, financially greedy and morally corrupt" new political class.

He will not be missed, writes Oborne.

"When he swaps South Shields for Manhattan," says the Daily Mail, "David Miliband will be earning more than President Obama."

The paper reckons he will command a salary of about £300,000 and be in charge of 12,000 staff on what the Mail calls "the aid gravy train".

'Biggest talents'

Steve Richards, writing in the Independent, sees it as a liberating decision for him, his brother and his party, after two years of a "sad, draining, complex and politically damaging family soap opera".

The Times talks of "the retreat of New Labour".

David Miliband's departure, it says, is a loss to the Labour Party because it marks the end of the brief period in which acolytes of Tony Blair were in the ascendancy.

The political editor of the Daily Express, Macer Hall, believes that his exit from Westminster robs the Labour Party of one of its biggest talents at a time when it is hardly blessed with a heard of big beasts.

"It's a heavy blow," says the Sun in an editorial, "but we'll have to bear it as best we can". .

No charges

The Daily Mail believes the owner of the dogs which mauled 14-year-old Jade Anderson to death will not face any charges.

It says the Dangerous Dogs Act - which it calls "discredited" - covers attacks on private property only if they involve illegal breeds.

The Daily Mirror demands the immediate overhaul of the act, new controls on private dog breeding and more powers for the police to confiscate out-of-control dogs.

Meanwhile, there is outrage from some quarters at the latest legal set-back to the government's attempts to deport radical cleric Abu Qatada to Jordan.

"As turbulent priests go," says the Times, "Abu Qatada takes some beating."

"A menace and a peril, Abu Qatada has no place in Britain," the paper says.

The refusal by the courts to allow his deportation "offends common sense", it adds.

'Brick wall'

"Six home secretaries have spent millions trying to expel him," says the Sun, "we need politicians who will confront this madness and restore sanity to our country."

"How many more home secretaries must bang their heads against the brick wall of the Human Rights Act," asks the Daily Mail, "before MPs stand up for the rights of the majority and tear the wall down?"

Finally a revelation in a BBC Three documentary - that a "lamb curry" bought in London contains in fact an unknown meat - is the lead in the Daily Mirror. .

"Forget horse meat, now it's dog or cat in our curry," the paper says, speculating on what the unidentified substance might be.