PRIVATE TUITION, PUBLIC INTEREST?
The news, first revealed in the Spectator magazine, that Tony Blair has employed private tutors to help his teenage sons with their exams appals the Mail: "If the prime minister can't have faith in the British educational system, who can?" But the rest of the papers struggle to work up very much indignation. "Blair must have known he'd get murdered for hiring those tutors," says the Sun. "He decided to take it on the chin in the interests of his children. Many people will quite like that."
"As a parent, you can't blame Tony Blair," agrees the Mirror. But it is unhappy that Robin Cook, who was standing in for Mr Blair at prime minister's questions last week, attacked Iain Duncan Smith for sending his children to private schools.
The Telegraph takes a similar line. It refuses to condemn Mr Blair. Yet the fact that his decision is at odds with the "policies of his government" is a "matter of great and legitimate public interest," the paper says. It is also relieved that the government has decided not to complain to the press complaints commission that the Spectator's article was a breach of the Blairs' privacy. (They share the same owner).
The Times is more worried about the "bonanza" that the government has provided for private tutors by introducing AS-levels - "many more exams, often of dubious scholarly merit, crammed into the same period" as A-levels.
* Blair's children 'tutored privately'
* Sun: Going private
* Times: Order in class
GUNMAN KILLS THREE AT LA AIRPORT
Israel described yesterday's shooting at Los Angeles airport as a "terrorist attack", although US federal officials preferred to regard it as an "isolated incident", the FT reports. A gunman opened fire at the El Al ticket desk, killing three people, before he was shot dead by one of the airline's security guards. El Al is the Israeli national airline and operates a tight security regime.
The attack took place as a nervous America celebrated the first Independence Day since September 11.
* El Al guards kill US airport gunman
POTTERS BAR POINTS WERE FAULTY
Claims by the rail contractor Jarvis that the Potters Bar crash could have been caused by sabotage appear to have been scotched. The interim report by the Health and Safety Executive said the train derailed because nuts were missing from parts of the points. It added that a fifth of the points in the same area were not fully tightened.
Jarvis said it "welcomed the clear focus on a broad range of potential causes and remedial action." Relatives of the seven people killed in the accident called for a public inquiry.
The FT estimates that replacing points of a similar design - of which there are 1,700 around the country - would cost GBP340m.
* Damning failures that led to deaths
* FT: UK rail safety fears over poor maintenance
SPECIAL POLICING FOR NUCLEAR SITES
According to the Times, a 600-strong civil nuclear constabulary will be set up in Britain to guard nuclear power stations and radioactive material. Nuclear installations are poorly defended, a recent government report concluded, and vulnerable to airborne attack.
* Times: Nuclear sites get armed police
GBP1BN MORE FOR DEFENCE
The defence secretary has been asking Gordon Brown for an extra GBP1bn, reports the Guardian - and it looks as though he will get it. Geoff Hoon has received a tip-off from the chancellor about the contents of the forthcoming comprehensive spending review, the paper says. The increase would amount to a 4% rise in defence spending.
* GBP1bn rise in defence spending
VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS 'USELESS'
Vitamin pills, a shocked Mail reports, "are useless". A group of Oxford University scientists concluded that vitamin C, E and beta-carotene supplements had no health benefits whatsoever. The study compared the health of 20,000 people - half on supplements, the other half taking dummy pills - and found that while they did not appear to cause harm, the rates of heart disease and cancer were the same.
The health supplements information service criticised the scope of the study, which used volunteers between 40 and 80 who were already deemed to be at high risk of a heart attack or stroke.
* Researchers doubt value of vitamin pills
HEWITT PROPOSES AUDITING OVERHAUL
The trade and industry is about to suggest that executive directors should no longer be allowed to appoint their own auditors. Patricia Hewitt's announcement is part of a "cocktail of post-Enron measures", says the FT. She will push for global accounting standards and claim that the US can learn from Britain's handling of the Robert Maxwell and BCCI financial scandals.
* Hewitt plans audit shake-up
* FT: Directors may lose power to appoint auditors
TIM SQUARES UP
"We must prepare ourselves for the long dark teatime of the soul," warns the Times. Tim Henman takes on the number one seed, Lleyton Hewitt, at Wimbledon today. Rain permitting, of course. Most of the papers point out that Hewitt has always beaten Henman in previous encounters.
"Do it for us Tim, hammer Hewitt and be a legend," says the Mirror's back page, rather desperately. Unfortunately, the sports desk doesn't seem to be talking to the news pages. The man some call Tiger Tim has a weak fist, the paper complains. "The nearest he has shown to any passion or fire is a feeble punch in the air that has become his lacklustre trademark... Make a decent fist of it!"
* Henman ready for turf war
* Mirror: Come on Hengland
COW SUFFERS MISHAP
A cow fell into a swimming pool yesterday, much to the amusement of the Star. (Well, you probably had to be there). "It's ruddy Friesian in here," puns the paper, showing Maisie suffering the indignity of being pulled out of the Cardiff pool after straying into a garden. She was reportedly "udderly ashamed".
