Papers focus on petrol protests

Analysis of the first day of the Dump the Pump campaign dominates the papers.

The Daily Telegraph's view that yesterday's Dump the Pump campaign "failed to gain any momentum" is widely shared.

The Independent says the response was another example of the "British public's lack of fondness for mass protest."

The Daily Mail describes how guilt was etched across the faces of motorists found filling up.

The paper urges the Chancellor to check the fuel prices when he goes on holiday to Cape Cod later this month.

However, the Guardian believes America's low fuel costs are not an example Britain should follow.

'Compensation for poor'

It says future generations may well "castigate the profligacy of American cheap energy policy".

In the paper's view, "taxing a scarce finite resource" is a good way of raising more money to fund health and education services.

But it says poorer people should be compensated.

The Times reports that the government is to help people living in rural communities on low incomes with the high costs of fuel.

Writing in the paper, Alice Miles believes those behind the Dump the Pump campaign are largely rural opponents of the government, who view New Labour as "an appalling metropolitan elite."

"Shafted" is the front page headline in The Mirror, which reveals that thousands of sick miners, promised compensation two years ago, are dying before they get their money.

'Solemn vow'

It says a High Court judge has ordered the government to speed up the payment of £4bn to former pitmen suffering from lung disease caused by years of breathing in dust.

According to the paper, the complicated medical assessment and red tape could keep some miners waiting until 2005 for their money.

The paper's view is that it is "a scandal that a solemn vow to honour the nation's debt to the men who helped build its prosperity has been dragged down by red tape."

The Express says the Republican convention in Philadelphia had scenes "reminiscent of the Waltons" as the "Bush clan" joined forces to hail George W their latest candidate for the White House.

It describes his wife, Laura's, speech as "potent and touching," with the party keen to "underscore the character issue and draw on the discomfort over the moral legacy of the Clinton presidency."

'Unifying'

The Daily Telegraph focuses on the speech delivered by General Colin Powell.

It concludes that the sustained applause which followed his "stinging criticism" of the Republican's record on race was the "strongest sign yet of the party's determination to claim the centre ground".

The Guardian says General Powell re-emerged as "America's most potent unifying figure".

Many of the papers report on how the former Welsh rugby international Jonathon Davies rescued two young sisters as they drifted out to sea in a rubber ring.

The Times says Mr Davies fought against strong currents to reach the girls, who had floated 100 yards from a beach near Cardigan, in west Wales.