Row over honours 'snub'

There is strong support in Tuesday's newspapers for the neuroscientist Professor Colin Blakemore who has threatened to resign as the head of the Medical Research Council after learning he was not to be recommended for an honour.

A leaked Cabinet Office document said he was not being put forward because of his vivisection work.

The Times asserts that animal rights extremists have set about trying to make the lives of some scientists, including Professor Blakemore, a misery.

Now, it says, they seem to have succeeded in frightening off those who decide which scientists the state should honour.

The Independent describes vivisection as deeply distasteful.

But while the activity remains legal and necessary to prevent great human suffering, says the paper, those who carry it out should not be discriminated against.

The Financial Times takes a wider look at the honours system and suggests that becoming a knight or a dame is losing its prestige.

"The greatest admiration," the FT suggests, "is now conferred upon the distinguished few who each year politely decline the knighthoods, CBEs and other gongs awarded by methods that look increasingly bizarre".

Hostage headlines

Fleet Street might well wish to strike a medal for Services to Headline Writers and award it to the Henderson family.

On being released from captivity in Colombia, the backpacker Mark Henderson proved a sub editor's dream.

The Daily Telegraph highlights his disclosure that he had been "at breaking point" when he learned he would be freed.

The Daily Mail shows him phoning home alongside the headline: "Sorry, Mum, I forgot your present!"

Sharelle Henderson herself provides the Daily Mirror with a gift of a headline, describing her son's freedom as "the greatest present we could get".

The Daily Express also has good reason to be grateful. It bases its main headline on Mrs Henderson's joyous cry: "Thank God you're safe".

The Sun prefers the gentle ribbing that Mark gave his father, Christopher, who took the phone and answered "Hi? Three months in the jungle and you say 'Hi'. Is that it?"

Paternity leave

New fathers could be in line for six months' unpaid leave to care for their babies, according to the Times.

It says that the Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt is exploring the idea as part of a shake-up of parents' rights.

Voting rethink

The Independent claims that talks between the government and the Liberal Democrats over changes to the voting system have been revived.

It recalls that the possibility of scrapping first-past-the-post elections was discussed before Labour came to power, but ruled out after the party's landslide victory in 1997.

Festive frenzy

Finally, in a letter to the Independent, David McNickle of St Albans suggests that the government should pass a law to stop people working themselves into a frenzy in the run-up to the festive season.

"Every Christmas from now on," he proposes, "should come with a Sanity Clause".