You are here: Home » News Focus » The Wrap
Round-up of today's UK papers from 
The Wrap: Campbellgate
Ros Taylor
30 June 2003
Welcome to the Wrap, Guardian Unlimited's round-up of the best of the day's papers.
Also in today's Wrap: White paper proposes legal recognition for gay couples, Katherine Hepburn dies, and Glastonbury embourgeoisies
>>> ADVERTISEMENT
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Time is precious. Enjoy every minute with our ideas for spending it wisely. To find out more, click here http://observer.guardian.co.uk/microsite/time/
>>> FIGHT BETWEEN BBC AND DOWNING STREET RUMBLES ON
Here's the Star's verdict: "Campbellgate is a bore. We're fed up with the war of words between Number 10 and the BBC. Let's await the full findings of the foreign affairs select committee inquiry to see if anyone is going to be hung out to dry over the [word deleted for the benefit of readers' email filters] up of the weapons of mass destruction spy files. In the meantime, Alastair Campbell's doing a great job stopping the opposition from getting their teeth into his master."
When will the committee finally publish their findings? Next Monday, according to the Guardian, which predicts it will let Mr Campbell off but give Tony Blair a "severe dressing down" for "denying members access to intelligence officials and papers".
By now, however, the debacle is complex enough to merit a half-page table in the Guardian explaining why each charge matters, how each side is defending itself, and the likely outcome of the dispute. Even Lord Tebbit - not normally a fan of the BBC - weighs in on the Independent's front page.
"This may surprise many people," Lord Tebbit writes. "Of course it is institutionally Labourist and badly needs counselling and retraining to understand what political neutrality entails. But with rare exceptions (and this is not one) it does not invent an elaborate lie against the government - least of all one it did so much to help elect."
The Telegraph predicts that Greg Dyke, the BBC's director general, could resign if the committee clears Mr Campbell; the Times says he is planning to offer Number 10 independent arbitration. The correspondent responsible for the disputed story, Andrew Gilligan, has already threatened to sue. The BBC wants to avoid that.
* Blair under fire in dossier report
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,987820,00.html
* Independent: Tebbit defends the BBC
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=420272
* Times: BBC seeks go-between to sue for peace with Labour http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-729968,00.html
>>> LEGAL BOOST FOR GAY PARTNERS
The Guardian leads with the news that gay couples will soon be able to enjoy the same legal rights enjoyed by married, straight, couples. A white paper out today heralds a "social revolution" in Britain, says the paper.
The Telegraph notes that unmarried straight couples will be denied the property and pension rights being offered to their gay counterparts.
"This is a grave injustice," the gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell tells the paper, describing the proposals as "heterophobic".
* Legal boost for gay rights
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gayrights/story/0,12592,987841,00.html
* Telegraph: Anger at 'heterophobia'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/30/nrights30.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/06/30/ixnewstop.html
>>> WHITE PAPER WILL DEMAND FIRE STATION CLOSURES
Another white paper out today will "punish" firefighters for their long-drawn-out strike, reports the Times. It will call for "extensive job losses and fire station closures" - far more than were originally proposed in the Bain report.
"Whitehall sources said that there would be no compulsory redundancies and that where possible firefighters will be able to continue their current shift duties," the paper adds. The FBU has already hinted at further industrial action "at a local level".
* Times: Government takes revenge on the firefighters http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-730049,00.html
>>> THREE PALESTINIAN GROUPS DECLARE CEASEFIRE
Three Palestinian militant groups have agreed to suspend attacks on Israel for three months, reports the Telegraph. Israel subsequently pulled troops out of Beit Hanoun on the Gaza strip; they may withdraw from Bethlehem in the next few days if the peace holds.
* Hopes muted
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,987703,00.html
* Telegraph: Israel sticks to truce
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/30/wmid30.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/06/30/ixnewstop.html
>>> KATHARINE HEPBURN DIES AT 96
Katharine Hepburn died last night at the age of 96. The "strong willed" Hollywood actress, who won four Oscars, is feted in all the broadsheets.
"Hepburn excelled in playing the kind of haughty beauty who outwits the men in her life," says the Telegraph, recalling her roles in The Philadelphia Story and The African Queen. Some mention her 20-year affair with fellow actor Spencer Tracy, whom she described as "a rock and a protection" but who never left his wife for her.
"Her irreverence and feistiness won her many female admirers," says the Times. "She [once] walked around a film studio in her underwear in the 1930s when the costume department stole her trousers. Such eccentricities attracted plenty of press attention, much of which she did not welcome. At the height of her career she was nearly decapitated by an aircraft propeller which she had ducked behind to avoid journalists."
* Hepburn dies at 96
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,987883,00.html
>>> GLASTONBURY GOES MIDDLE CLASS
The Glastonbury festival drew to a close last night, and the broadsheet journalists all seem to have enjoyed themselves - though, ironically, it's the Telegraph which laments the "embourgeoisiement"
of the event, and the Guardian which tends to feel that, really, it was rather nice to have kept out the crime. "Glastonbury might be a bit more commercial than the old days," one 43-year-old festival-goer tells the paper, "but it's so much better organised."
The GBP105 ticket fee may have had something to do with the "overwhelmingly white and middle-class" audience, says the Telegraph.
Certainly, when Chelsea Clinton turns up with bodyguards in tow and two attractive young women dressed as fairies appear on the front page of the Telegraph, something's changed.
* Best ever Glastonbury, says Eavis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/glastonbury2003/story/0,12902,987498,00.html
* Telegraph: A jolly super Glastonbury
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/30/nglas130.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/06/30/ixhome.html
>>>'FRUGAL' CHARLES PUBLISHES HIS ACCOUNTS
If Prince Charles really did intend to sway public opinion with the release of a report on his income and expenditure, the press haven't fallen for it.
Dripping with sarcasm, the Mail splashes with the headline: "Charles"
I don't live in luxury." "A booklet portrays 54-year-old Charles as a frugal businessman and philanthropist, a man of modest tastes who owns only one ageing car and not a single house."
The Times notes that he has tried to offset his polo playing expenses against taxes, since they are for "charitable" causes.
* Prince Charles opens the books
http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,2763,987837,00.html
* Times: Prince hoped to swing polo costs against tax http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-729950,00.html
>>> A NATION EXPECTS (AGAIN)
Many Wrap readers will be aware that Tim Henman is due on court at Wimbledon again today. (If the rain clears, that is. The Times's forecast suggests it will.)
"Help Tim win," implores the Mirror. The paper has printed a green and purple "lucky tie" of the kind Henman's father favours when watching his son play - and a clenched fist, which can be attached to a stick or ruler. "Move back and forth in Henman-style victory punch,"
explain the instructions.
"The Tiger's on a roll," the tabloid assures readers. But the beast is reportedly worried that a combination of rain and late scheduling for the BBC's benefit could scupper his chances of beating David Nalbandian. "They are messing me about," the Daily Mail's headline runs. (Henman did not actually say this. His exact words were: "I would probably prefer to play first but it's out of my control.")
Poor Tim Hames, writing in the Times, has been forced to turn out hundreds of words on the embarrassment of sharing a first name with the Tiger. "For crying out, well, quietly, Tim, for all of your fellow Tims, please, please, even pretty please, this time, do not blow it."
Tim is due on court late this afternoon. Readers who cannot (or cannot bear to) watch may like to follow Guardian Unlimited Sport's game-by-game coverage at http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport.
* Henman hype faces huge reality check
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/wimbledon2003/story/0,13391,987682,00.html
>>> MATCHED AND DISPATCHED
It's official, says the Herald Tribune: "Online dating dumps its losers.com reputation." As it did for book buying and auctioning used toys, the internet reduces the transaction costs of meeting romantic prospects," the paper reports.
"The first trick to online dating is to narrow the search without inadvertently ruling out a perfect match. Helen Gaitanis, 35, of Los Angeles searches only for white men aged 33 to 43 who are at least 5ft 9in. She refrains from filtering out brown eyes, despite her strong preference for blue. Typically 600 profiles of men within 25 miles of her zip code show up in her results, Gaitanis said."
>>> COMING UP ON GUARDIAN UNLIMITED TODAY
>>> Network Rail has announced that it will cost GBP54 billion to run
the railways over the next 10 years. The infrastructure company also confirmed that "around 2,000" of its staff would be losing their jobs over the next three years.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport
>>> Foreign secretary Jack Straw flies into Afghanistan for talks with
President Hamid Karzai.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan
>>> Deputy PM John Prescott makes a Commons statement on the white
paper on the fire service this afternoon.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics
All comments and suggestions are welcome. Please send them to userhelp@guardian.co.uk.
To unsubscribe, email thewrap-request@guardianunlimited.co.uk and include the word "unsubscribe" in the subject field. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL.
If you have any difficulty subscribing or unsubscribing, visit http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,12908,933903,00.html for help.
Were you forwarded this email? To subscribe, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/thewrap.
Guardian Unlimited copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003.
Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396. Registered office: 164 Deansgate, Manchester M60 2RR
---