Asylum issues lead papers

Asylum policy dominates and divides many of Monday's papers.

"Asylum in Britain is now a Trojan Horse for terrorism" says the Sun - which wants its readers to "get angry" about the issue.

Sun readers moved to ire by a system the paper derides as "incompetent" are invited to fill in a petition urging Tony Blair to take a harder line on illegal immigrants.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Melanie Phillips offers some suggestions: Britain, she says, should withdraw from the UN Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights - and lock-up any asylum seekers that arrive without the proper papers.

Not all asylum seekers are terrorists, she writes, but "the asylum shambles is the sea in which terror most easily swims".

The casual juxtaposition of terrorism and asylum irritates Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian.

She says the panic evident in much of the coverage of the issue threatens to detonate the "explosive issues of race and faith".

Immigration benefits

The Mirror joins the attack on the "merchants of doom".

Under the headline "Why immigration is good for Britain", the paper highlights the achievements of some of those who have come to live in the UK.

They are, the Mirror insists, "far more representative" than the small number of dangerous asylum seekers, who have given the rest a bad name.

Prison works

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, adds fuel to the debate about sentencing policy in an interview with the Guardian.

He tells the paper that in a lot of cases, including some people convicted for the first time of burglary, "prison works".

The Guardian says his comments "flatly contradict" recent statements by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf.

The Austin cartoon features a burglar telling a fellow crook: "Prison works all right! That's where I learned the business".

A survey for the Daily Mirror suggests that few criminals get the opportunity to find out whether prison works because only 10% of offences end up with a defendant in a courtroom.

Fire dispute hope

With another firefighters' strike looming, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, Andy Gilchrist, is interviewed in the Independent.

Mr Gilchrist says he is certain there will be a negotiated settlement to the pay dispute, insisting he'd rather it came about without strike action.

His says his members are prepared to modernise, but want to negotiate not capitulate.

Mr Gilchrist speaks of his sadness that his wife and two children have been followed around during the dispute, but says it will not deflect him from doing his job.

Air smiles

Brian Clough, has had a liver transplant, according to the Sun.

It says the former Nottingham Forest manager, who is 67, is recuperating at a private clinic in the north east of England.

His son, Nigel, tells the paper: "Dad's doing OK".

And the Daily Express highlights one woman's determination to smell good.

On returning to the UK from a business trip, Annie Barden discovered that the department store, Tiffany's, had mistakenly given her the male version of a perfume.

With no receipt she couldn't swap the item in Britain, so she simply hopped on a plane back to New York and exchanged it at the original shop. The 47-year-old businesswoman tells the paper, "Everyone thinks I'm slightly mad but, believe me, this fragrance is gorgeous".