Papers unite on Hoon's 'escape bid'

A consensus among many of Thursday's papers was that Geoff Hoon's evidence to the Hutton Inquiry was a case of "passing the buck".

The Guardian sums up Geoff Hoon's appearance before Lord Hutton with the headline, "Don't blame me".

Or, as the Daily Mirror puts it: "It wasn't me... it was Number 10, Alastair Campbell, Blair's Chief of Staff, the Civil Service, my secretary, MI6, some bloke down the pub and anyone else I can think of".

The Daily Mail describes it as one of the most brazen escape attempts in political history.

It was, concludes the Financial Times, an extraordinary defence of his conduct.

The Daily Telegraph says the defence secretary tried to save his political career by blaming Downing Street for the way Dr David Kelly was named.

Future in doubt

The Independent thinks he proved reluctant to take on the role of fall guy and sacrificial lamb. But, as the Times points out, this strategy exposed him to charges of weak departmental leadership and failure to accept responsibility.

Inevitably, there is much speculation about Mr Hoon's future.

In the assessment of the Financial Times, his attempt to deflect the blame may not be enough to salvage his career. For the Guardian, his defensive performance has left him vulnerable.

The Sun is convinced that Mr Hoon talked himself out of job when he revealed his ignorance of just about everything that moves in the Ministry of Defence.

The Mail agrees, saying his testimony looked a spectacular act of self-destruction.

Asylum argument

Another minister in the firing line is the Immigration Minister, Beverley Hughes. The Express is calling for her resignation over the decision to build an asylum centre in Oxfordshire.

Last November, she told the Commons that the government would abide by the result of planning inquiries into proposals for such sites, but the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott later overruled the decision to block the Oxfordshire scheme.

The Daily Mirror welcomes what it says is a startling fall in the number of asylum seekers coming to Britain.

But the Sun adopts a sceptical note, arguing that it will need more than a fanfare of statistics to convince it that ministers are turning the tide.

The Star is also unconvinced, and accuses the Home Secretary David Blunkett of ignoring the true scale of the asylum problem.

The Sun is worried about the prospect of a national postal strike.

The paper fears postal workers are being led down a rocky road by a handful of what it calls militant troublemakers.

What a steal

The Express is concerned that the Royal Mail is heading for disaster unless managers and union officials resolve their dispute.

There's widespread coverage of the theft of a masterpiece by Leonardo Da Vinci from a castle in southwest Scotland.

The Herald says the painting, the Madonna with Yarnwinder, appears to have been stolen to order because it was so well known that it would be almost impossible to sell.

The Scotsman thinks the picture is most likely to end up in the private collection of an unscrupulous art lover.

The Sun - which describes the theft as a daring daylight raid - cannot resist the headline "Leonardo da Pinchi".