'Violent Britain' worries papers

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"A Clockwork Orange Britain" is the striking phrase used by the Daily Express to sum up "senseless attacks on the innocent" by drink-fuelled youths.

Where the Express blames "moral collapse," the Daily Mirror sees a simpler cause - a "drinking epidemic that is gripping youngsters."

A photograph in the Daily Mail shows an array of cans and bottles on special offer in supermarkets.

The shops, it says, "pile it high and sell it cheap."

Defence cuts

The Daily Telegraph is worried about the state of the armed forces as revealed by some of the country's leading military figures.

Their report says the services are in a state of "chronic disrepair." The author of the document tells the Guardian, "we are in a hell of a mess."

The Telegraph blames the problem on successive governments cutting defence to save money.

It argues that more democracy, not new committees, would be the best remedy.

China attack

Cold war thinking is, The Independent says, the accusation levelled by China at critics of its foreign policy.

But the paper doesn't agree, renewing its attack on Chinese support for the Sudanese government.

"This is a perfect time to demand a change," it says.

Its cartoon shows China as a dragon playing ping-pong with a bat that displays the Olympic symbol and the ball is a human skull.Amid so much gloom about 2007, The Times thinks we should be celebrating the "national hero" of an earlier age.

'Loveable rascal'

Billy Bunter is 100 and the Times says his longevity results from a mix of the school story and the indiscreet charm of the fat but lovable rascal.

"It may take whiplash men with stiff upper lips and loose lower jaws to build an empire," the paper says.

"But in their knapsacks they carry the yarns of fat boys with huge appetites and crafty natures."