Papers consider Morris exit

Thursday's papers are divided squarely on two issues - Ulrika Jonsson and the resignation of Education Secretary Estelle Morris.

On the subject of Ms Morris there is a rare thing: kind words for a New Labour cabinet minister from the Daily Mail's editorial.

It praises Estelle Morris for the dignified manner of her resignation on Wednesday as education secretary.

It feels she deserves every credit for honestly accepting her limitations in an age where ministers cling like limpets to office, no matter what.

The Daily Mirror feels her departure is a black day for politics and for everyone who cares about schools.

It says she was no sharp-suited, smooth-tongued spinner but someone who cared passionately about children and their schooling.

The Financial Times agrees that in a government obsessed by spin, her plain-speaking honesty was a tremendous asset.

The Guardian says it was widely assumed Ms Morris would ride out the storms which had engulfed her in recent months.

But the Daily Telegraph sounds a different note in its editorial.

It believes Miss Morris had the air of a concerned nursery school teacher who could not keep her class in order and should never have been more than a junior minister.

Scented prey

Another person who will not relish reading the papers this morning is a television presenter.

For legal reasons, we cannot tell you his name, although one quick glance at any news stand will solve the riddle - because most of the papers risk a libel action and do name him.

He is the man alleged to have raped the TV presenter, Ulrika Jonsson - an allegation he is said to deny.

The Independent says that all week, tabloid papers have scented their prey and been waiting to pounce.

This morning - they do.

The catalyst was the man's name emerging during a TV discussion yesterday.

And so The Sun, Mirror, Daily Express, Mail and Daily Star go into great depth, over many pages, about the man's past career and his prospects for a future one.

There are also reports of other allegations of assault.

The Star says the man has asked a well-known public relations expert for help, describing his plight as like "being in a minefield".

The Mirror's editorial says he should make his case to the public.

The Star says the whole truth must now come out or there is a risk of chequebooks and PR fixers getting in the way of justice.

Ditch diplomacy

There is some strong advice for the government on how to resolve its dispute with the firefighters.

The Financial Times - in its comment column - concludes that, so far, ministers have been as ill-equipped to deal with the dispute as Green Goddesses are at doing more than 35 miles an hour.

It says it is time for the government to ditch diplomacy and take action.

The Times feels the prime minister's strategy, of appealing over the heads of union leaders to their members, is plausible.

But if reasoning fails, it calls on him to dust off Mrs Thatcher's handbook and use the sort of tactics she employed against Arthur Scargill.

The Independent reports that Cambridge graduates are being urged to withhold donations to the university - until it promises not to introduce huge increases in tuition fees.

The student union fears the top-up fees could be as much as £10,000 a year.

The author Zadie Smith - who graduated four years ago - tells the campaign website that fees of any kind would have made her Cambridge career impossible and would rule out an education there for hundreds of gifted students.