Papers ramp up fuel price fears
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7170982.stm Version 0 of 1. The threat of rising energy bills prompts doom and gloom predictions in the newspapers. The Daily Telegraph says the average household energy bill "will approach a record £1,000 a year" after supplier Npower said it was to increase charges. "Power bills soar by 15%", says the Sun, warning that the hike in gas and electricity bills could be "crippling" for householders. Six million people could be affected, but the "brutal increases" will hit pensioners hardest, writes The Times. 'Life-saver diet' Health stories also feature prominently in Friday's papers. The Daily Mail claims "a hospital hygiene breakdown" may have led to the deaths of two mothers on one day in the same Winchester maternity ward. The Times reports that the medical "Holy Grail" of a flu vaccine could be a step closer thanks to new research. Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror sings the praises of the "life-saver diet", a healthy eating plan the government says could save 69,400 lives a year. Pants on fire Breaking the mould as ever, the Independent has a lead article entitled, "The true cost of cheap chicken." It points out that the space devoted to the story on its front page is roughly the size of the area that a battery chicken has to live in. The Daily Express carries on its front page claims made in court that a businessman burned his wife's £4,000 lingerie collection as an act of revenge. She had sold his Ferrari's personalised number plate. 'Greatest rotter' With the death of popular author George MacDonald Fraser, his caddish Victorian anti-hero Sir Harry Flashman is remembered. The Guardian says Flashman travelled the battlefields of the British Empire "quaking with fear but still drinking and chasing women". He was "one of the greatest rotters of English literature", says the Daily Mail, designed "to cock a glorious snook at the politically correct, milksop nation we've become". But the Daily Telegraph insists Flashman's "decent, honourable" creator was definitely nothing like him. |