Dossier doubts highlighted

Many papers sieze on Wednesday's evidence to the Hutton Inquiry from two senior intelligence officials as proof the government's dossier on Iraq was meddled with.

The Daily Mail says the government's argument has been "Shot To Pieces" and its credibility now "blown out of the water".

The Independent calls it a spectacular double missile strike, which leaves the prime minister's reasons for invading Iraq in tatters.

Yesterday's expert witnesses did not call anyone a liar, says the Daily Mirror.

But they insisted they were unhappy with the langauge used in the dossier, and the way the information was presented.

And that, says the Mirror, points the finger of blame straight at Downing Street.

'Spin' shake-up

The shake up of the government's media operation in the wake of Alastair Campbell's departure is widely covered.

The Financial Times feels the changes themselves were announced yesterday with a welcome lack of spin.

But it believes much more needs to be done if the decline in public trust is to be reversed.

The Guardian welcomes the overhaul and credits Tony Blair with a huge u-turn which offers the biggest opportunity for mature political debate in many years.

But the Times is unimpressed, saying the restructuring is based on a fantasy, and insisting that virtually all politicians are born with what it calls "original spin".

Citizenship tests

The forthcoming tests of "Britishness" for immigrants seeking UK citizenship get three cheers from the Daily Mail.

It's not about erecting barriers, it says, but about helping people to belong in ways that enable them to celebrate British culture in addition to their own.

And the Telegraph likes the idea too. It says the significance of the latest proposals is that even Labour - or at least the government - seems to have realised how damaging multiculturalism has been.

But the Sun demands to know what David Blunkett's tests will achieve.

They won't stop illegal immigrants and bogus asylum seekers, it claims, because they don't need to understand British history, culture and traditions before they smuggle their way here to work for £30 a day.

And Magnus Linklater, writing in the Times, also forsees problems.

The truth is that the British themselves are so fuzzy about the meaning of the term "British" that teaching it to foreigners is well-nigh impossible.

'Runaway romance'

The main story for the Daily Mail is the search for 12-year old Natasha Philips and 15-year-old Ashley Lamprey.

The "Puppy Love Pair", as the paper dubs them, are on the run, it says, after refusing to let a holiday romance die.

'Fat jab'

And the Sun's lead story is the hormone injection that's been developed by British scientists to combat obesity.

The paper says the treatment - which suppresses a patients' appetite - could render the Atkins diet and other regimes redundant, and will be greeted with joy by millions across Britain.