Brown criticised for quango cost
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7100345.stm Version 0 of 1. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is heavily criticised in the People, which says he is creating nine new quangos at a cost of £2.4bn. The paper says that pushes the number of bureaucratic organisations interfering in people's lives to 528. This means a combined bill of £175bn, or £2,000 a year for every tax payer. The Observer claims Foreign Secretary, David Miliband is "not happy" after Mr Brown rewrote parts of his pro-European speech, which he delivered in Bruges. The Mail on Sunday, meanwhile, says politicians and churchmen are standing against what it calls the government's attempt to kill off the traditional family unit. Madeleine search The Sunday Mirror and Daily Star on Sunday both say that investigators working for Madeleine McCann's parents are convinced she is still alive. According to the Sunday Express, the McCanns have changed their minds about taking lie detector tests. The paper says they had previously offered to undergo such tests. The Sunday Telegraph's business section says taxpayers could prop up Northern Rock bank for months to come. Advisers to the Chancellor Alistair Darling are planning to allow all or part of the £25bn loan by the Bank of England to continue indefinitely. The Sunday Times reports on the kidnappers of five British hostages seized in Baghdad last May. According to the paper, they have said the hostages could be held for years unless an Iranian-backed militia leader is released. Blond ambition Scientists have apparently discovered that blondes make men act dumb, the Sunday Times says. Researchers in Paris found that men taking general knowledge tests got lower scores if they were first shown pictures of blondes. The Mail on Sunday reports how the words "husband", "wife" and "spouse" have been removed from many official forms. Instead they have been replaced with the word "partner" - officials say this word is a convenient catch-all term. |