Papers pay tribute to Lord Jenkins

The "grandfather of New Labour" is how the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph choose to remember Lord Jenkins of Hillhead.

The Daily Mail instead describes him as the party's mentor. Both the Times and Financial Times prefer to see him as a politician who "broke the mould".

The former Labour Chancellor, Denis Healey, offers a frank account of Roy Jenkins' life in the Independent.

While not always complimentary, Mr Healey does acknowledge that his former colleague's greatest contribution was, as home secretary in the 1960s, to liberalise the statute book as no-one has before or since.

The Sun praises Lord Jenkins for being, it claims, the only Labour chancellor to leave office with his "books balanced".

The paper adds that it was proud to disagree with him 100% over his enthusiasm for the euro.

Child protection

Writing in the Daily Express, John Kampfner says although Roy Jenkins never became prime minister himself, he has influenced Tony Blair's thoughts and actions perhaps more than any other politician.

The Daily Mirror's editorial is more reserved in its judgement. It says Roy Jenkins was "merely" the "nearly" man of British politics.

The Independent reports that a national child protection force may be set up by the government, to try to halt the tide of abuse scandals that have exposed failures in the current system.

The plan, says the paper, is likely to be included in a draft bill next month - and would lead to a downgrading of social services departments.

Bush's 'oil' motives

The headline writers at the Mirror have been working overtime.

Their front-page takes a cynical look at President Bush's motives for war against Iraq.

They have managed to weave the brand names of oil companies into a statement purporting to be from the American leader.

It reads: "I Shell not Exxon-erate Saddam Hussein from blame. I will Mobil-ise our troops and Jets to Q8, and the Persian Gulf. I will BP-repared for Total war. The message is Amoco-ming, Saddam".

Inside, the Mirror says George Bush Junior will not let rising oil prices bring him down, as they did his dad.

First and last babies

The Sun speaks to a mother from Warwickshire who amazed staff at her local hospital, by giving birth to the first baby they delivered in 2002 - and the last.

Nicola Woolvine gave birth to baby Dominic at the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, just after midnight on New Year's Day last year.

She was back on the maternity ward 364 days later, on New Year's Eve last week, giving birth to her second son William.

According to the paper, there were 2,321 other new arrivals at the hospital in between.

Lorra, lorra tears

Cilla Black's announcement on Saturday night, that she's to stop hosting the ITV programme Blind Date, is scrutinised by several papers.

The Sun claims she made her decision after receiving a psychic message from her dead husband, Bobby.

The Mail suggests her departure from the show could kill it off completely.

The Times though - under the headline "Tarra, Chuck" - says that after Cilla's surprise declaration "a thousand boys called Gary buried their heads in sofa pillows".

Something that started with a "lorra, lorra laughs", says the paper, "will surely end in a deluge of televisual tears".