from The Times
Mon June 1: Chancellor under pressure as PM prepares fightback - Alastair Darling is 'outed' by the Daily Telegraph with more revelations of MPs' expenses excess. Darling not only charged the taxpayer for his accountants' fees (shock horror), but also was a 'serial flipper' who designated four properties as his second home in four years.
Tue June 2: Shamed MEPs take share of £20m 'farewell' payout' - The European Parliament gravy train rolls on down the tracks with golden parachutes to public servants and generous pay-offs all round. Bringing us backt o more important matters, the Thunderer reminds us that 19.2m viewers , 'a third of the nation', tuned in to BGT last Saturday night. 'The European elections will have about the same turnout, but the messages will be less clear and it will be nowhere near as much fun.'
Wed June 3: Ministers walk away as Brown's authority wanes - Jacqui Smith 'quits to spend more time at her (second) home'. The 'early departures' put the expected Cabinet reshuffle 'in disarray'.
Thu June 4: The plot thickens - as Hazel Blears resigned from the Cabinet, being the fourth minister to jump ship in two days.
Fri June 5: Dear Gordon, I Quit - and James Purnell tells the Prime Minister to quit as well. At least he waited until just before the election polls closed.
from The Sun
Mon June 1: SuBo In Priory - Britain's Got Talent 'star-in-the-making' is exhausted and has an 'emotional breakdown' after finishing second in the reality TV talent show and heads off to the Priory clinic for a tonic or two. Or, as her neighbours put it, 'Susan your (sic) a super star in our eye's (sic) well done'. Methinks Susan will have the last laugh, as Simon Cowell realises he has to make even more potloads of money from a singer rather than from the winners, boy dance band Diversity.
Tue June 2: Susan's Collapse - SuBo is said to have collapsed after an emotional rant at BGT's chiefs. Perhaps more interesting was the pic of Chancellor Alistair Darling as a Thunderbird lookalike and the sub-headline Thunderbird to Go! We'll see whether he makes it to the end of the week... also promting a chuckle was the strap MPs are on the Take. We're on the Give. This paper costs just 20p. Surely a bargain for white van drivers everywhere?
Wed June 3: Blunderbird is Go! - Blundering Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, 'shamed in the expenses scandal' when it was discovered that 'taxpayers paid for her husband's porn', resigned from the Labour Government along with two other ministers. The Sun pictured Jacqui Smith as another Thunderbird puppet and thought it was a 'black day for Brown'.
Thu June 4: The Big E - Labour MPs' devastating email plot to give the PM the Spanish Archer (el bow - geddit?). Well, he's still there ... but the signs don't look good from today's European Parliament elections.
Fri June 5: I Quit, Now You Quit - Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell dropped a bombshell on Gordon Brown late on Thursday night when he resigned. Not quite the instant 'lethal blow' expected by The Sun, but ripples were starting to turn into waves around the Prime Minister's captaincy of a holed boat.
