Police stabbing outrages papers

News that the ill-fated police raid in Manchester aimed to arrest someone twice refused asylum prompts stinging criticism of the government.

The Daily Mail says one of the more potent messages of the tragedy, in which a detective died, is the stark realisation Britain's defences against terrorism are dangerously weakened because of Labour's lack of grip on asylum and immigration.

This is a nation, declares the Mail, that has not only lost control of its own borders but has virtually given up trying.

UN-acceptable

In the Daily Telegraph, the paper's editor, Charles Moore, writes Britain should insist on changes to the United Nations convention on asylum.

It should seek a declaration that terrorist activity would place the perpetrators outside the protection of the refugee process.

And it should withdraw from the agreement until the changes are made.

'Soft touch'?

The Sun believes Detective Constable Stephen Oake would still be alive if Britain was not such a soft touch.

In its view, the politicians and the lawyers have conspired to make Britain a terrorists' haven.

The Times says there must be a full inquiry into how Algerian terror suspects have been able to slip into Britain and remain at large, despite many warnings by France.

Arms link

The Daily Express renews its call for police officers to carry guns routinely as part of what it calls a wide-ranging crackdown on lawlessness.

The Daily Mirror links the Manchester raid to the government's decision to back US President George W Bush's so-called "son of star wars" missile defence programme.

How, it wonders, would the decision to upgrade the Fylingdales early warning centre have helped Detective Constable Oake?

And how would the initiative stop suicide bombers hitting shopping centres - or poison gas attacks on the London Underground?

Total threat

But The Guardian has harsh words for the Conservatives who, it says, came close to insisting that all asylum seekers should be detained.

The paper asserts the threat of terrorism is not restricted to physical violence.

An equally serious menace, it says, is the readiness of right-wing politicians to use the threat of terrorism to erode the very civil liberties that distinguish democracies from totalitarian states.

Kelly arrest

The Daily Mail provides detailed coverage of the arrest of television presenter Matthew Kelly as part of a police inquiry into sexual abuse against young boys.

The host of Stars In Their Eyes had been appearing in pantomime in Birmingham.

The Mail says, within minutes of the curtain coming down on the matinee performance, detectives who had been in the audience arrested the entertainer.

Pillow talk

"When is a bed not a bed?" ponders The Independent.

The answer, so far as the National Health Service (NHS) is concerned, is when it is a trolley, a couch or - in the official jargon - "any device that may be used to permit a patient to lie down".

The paper says an NHS reference book used by staff who tot up how many beds are available even allows chairs used by patients having dialysis to be counted.

The Conservatives claim the figures are being massaged to paint a rosier picture.

But an NHS spokesman tells the paper the definitions are simply to ensure continuity.