Papers mull Blair's summit performance

The Seville summit has ended in agreement... at least, agreement among most British newspapers that Tony Blair suffered a defeat.

The Independent talks of a "knock-back" for Mr Blair, with France dominating, and British and Spanish plans on immigration and EU reform being watered down.

"Blair was humiliated," says the Sun, in an editorial which asks: "Why do we bother with Brussels?"

The Times says the summit might be seen as Mr Blair's least successful performance on the European stage.

In a possible sign of his irritation, says the paper, he left the conference without waiting to take part in the customary group photograph of European leaders.

The Daily Telegraph believes the summit - far from proving the case for tackling asylum at an EU level - has once again highlighted the limitations of this approach.

Confession session

Confessions seem the order of the day from several quarters.

In The Guardian, the Higher Education Minister Margaret Hodge says the social divide in higher education has widened under Labour.

The paper says research shows that those who have taken advantage of the expansion in higher education come, in general, from higher social backgrounds.

Several papers highlight yesterday's admission by the Minister for Europe, Peter Hain, that the government suffered "a lack of trust" by voters.

The Daily Telegraph says his blunt remarks were in sharp contrast to Mr Blair's refusal, during his news conference in Downing Street last week, to give a direct answer to questions about whether he had lost the trust of the people.

Euro 'dunces'

Several papers have fun with the results of a Europe-wide general knowledge quiz by the Reader's Digest, in which the British came second from bottom, just ahead of Portuguese.

The Daily Mail calls us the Dunces of Europe, while according to the Daily Mirror, we are the United King-DUMB.

Across Europe, only 52% could name the president of the European Commission, who is of course... Romano Prodi.

MPs 'drown their sorrows'

Keen young MPs who entered the Commons believing they could help "put things right" are increasingly drowning their failure in beer when they find they cannot, according to the front page of the Daily Telegraph.

The accusation comes from the Conservative MP, Teddy Taylor, who says alcohol consumption is increasing in leaps and bounds, while the Commons chamber remains empty for much of the time.

Fly the flag

The Mirror urges the English not to put away their flags of St George until the next World Cup.

It prints a huge glossy one and has a double-page spread of photos showing the flags flying from cars, taxis and motorbikes.

The musician Billy Bragg writes an article welcoming what he sees as the reclaiming of the English flag from the far-right.

Tennis 'torture'

The hopes of a nation now turn to Wimbledon, where, according to the Independent, "we can start kidding ourselves all over again".

The Times asks: "Anyone for torture?"

It calls on Tim Henman to spare everyone needless agony and either secure the title - preferably without dropping a set at any stage - or do the decent thing and lose in the first round.