What the papers say

Journalist Mike Philpott takes a look at what is making the headlines in Thursday's morning newspapers.

Pictures of Shevaun Pennington appear everywhere on Thursday's papers, after she returned safely from four days in the company of a former US Marine she met on the internet.

The Irish News takes the opportunity to warn about the dangers of allowing children unrestricted access to the internet.

"It may provide unrivalled educational and entertainment opportunities but it also has its sinister aspects," the paper says.

The paper also comments on the official report on the derailing of a Northern Ireland Railways train last year, describing its findings as "damning".

It believes it was an accident that needn't have happened and it calls on the train company to introduce a more effective system for transmitting emergency messages to drivers.

It says questions must also be asked about the company's attempts to place the blame for the derailment on a local landowner.

The News Letter considers the findings of another report - this time into the break-in at Castlereagh.

It says the report will have done virtually nothing to improve public confidence in security, mainly because we are so used to spin that we no longer know what to believe.

"6,000 Iraqis and 200 American and British soldiers have died in a pre-emptive attack launched on the basis of an argument for which no evidence has been uncovered," it says.

If the government put as much effort into catching villains as they did into massaging the figures, then we would have nothing to fear Daily Star

And "the spinning disease", as it calls it, "has gone far beyond what might be expected from second-hand car salesmen".

In a similar vein, the tabloids take the government to task for releasing two sets of apparently conflicting official crime figures.

The Daily Mirror highlights the confusion by offering readers a multiple choice headline: "Crime Rises Seven Percent...or, if you prefer...Crime Falls Three Percent."

According to the Daily Mail, it is just another example of "lies, damned lies and statistics".

The Daily Star reckons that "if the government put as much effort into catching villains as they did into massaging the figures, then we would have nothing to fear".

Locally, the News Letter reports on what it calls "a shocking increase" in the number of attacks on emergency crews and public transport drivers.

'Double standards'

It quotes Jim Barbour of the Fire Union, who said crews were trying to protect their colleagues from mobs as they attempted to do their job.

There is some concern over European Union plans to oblige the UK and Ireland to charge VAT on children's clothes and shoes.

The Mail accuses the EU of "double standards", because, it says, "Dutch flowers will escape duty and restaurant meals in France will be taxed at only five per cent."

The Irish Times says the government in Dublin is "outraged", but the paper itself regards the harmonisation of tax rates as "sensible".

The Irish Independent is bemused by two transport stories.

One is the fact that the Irish Republic's postal service, An Post, has bought a new fleet of trucks ... the problem being that they are 10 centimetres too tall to fit in the Dublin Port tunnel.

The other is that if you are using the Drogheda Toll Bridge any time in the near future, don't be surprised to get a receipt for a toll plaza half way between Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Apparently the company that provides the equipment is South African, and hasn't had time to change the details in its computer system.