Cartoonists focus on Campbell row

As often happens when a story is tangled and subtle, the papers let their cartoonists try to capture the essence of what is happening.

So it proves with the row between the BBC and the government over the case for war in Iraq - the Times likens the exchanges to "trench warfare".

Some of the cartoons look to sport for a clarifying image.

One in the Daily Express puts the Corporation one side of a tennis net; Alastair Campbell the other - and the ball goes to and fro.

Pants on fire

But the Times thinks of wrestling and shows the principal contestants locked together in a tag-team fight.

Just visible, outside the ring, is Tony Blair. An onlooker asks him: "Aren't you the one that should be up there?"

That's a point others make too.

A laconic pocket cartoon in the Financial Times pictures two men in the Downing Street press office.

The pants of one are on fire. He explains: "It's a smokescreen."

'Questions unasked'

But several papers, including those which opposed the war, are determined that what they see as the underlying issues should not be obscured.

The Daily Mirror finds Mr Campbell guilty of producing an "outrageous scarlet herring" - and fears it has "allowed the real questions about the war dossiers to go, not just unanswered, but unasked".

Most of the papers offer blow by blow accounts of the row between the BBC and the government, and few feel bold enough to suggest how the confrontation will end.

The Daily Telegraph thinks the Corporation's director general, Greg Dyke, is determined to stake his own reputation, and that of the BBC, on an "all or nothing" battle.

The Guardian also thinks the BBC is determined - "for the moment" - to fight on.

But the Times believes the BBC is ready "to sue for peace" - it says the Corporation will offer to refer the dispute to an independent arbitrator, probably a leading lawyer, so it can be settled without a damaging libel action.

'Value for money'

The Independent concludes that "it is Mr Blair who must be held responsible for taking the nation to war on the basis of assertions which turn out to be untrue".

The image of the Prince of Wales is also in the spotlight - the Guardian thinks he hopes to "prove he's value for money".

But few seem to think that disclosing more about his finances will win him friends.

The Daily Mail seems to have its tongue firmly in its cheek when it describes his "frugal life".

The potential for conflict between how members of the public see the millions involved, and how it strikes the Prince's staff, is summed up in a phrase from a courtier which the Daily Telegraph highlights.

"We don't all sit here wearing monocles and eating cucumber sandwiches," he says.

'Fairytale festival'

Cucumber sandwiches may not have featured much at the Glastonbury festival - but everyone agrees it was a pretty much perfect event.

The Telegraph talks of "a fairytale festival".

The Times thinks it has "moved into the mainstream of modern Britain".

And the Guardian says there was a "precarious balance" between the tight new security and an atmosphere of "enduring freedom".

The paper was pleased to find experiences that were "as gloriously bonkers as ever" - for example "a collective of fake Irish priests pushing a portable confessional around".