Brown's borrowing bothers papers

Among the mountains of analysis of Gordon Brown's pre-Budget report, there is little dispute about the main story - with the various headline writers apparently singing from the same hymn sheet.

"Chancellor gambles on pre-election boom" is the headline in the Times, which speaks of Mr Brown trying to soothe middle-class fears over tax and pensions, while relying on borrowing and economic growth to ensure his public spending promises are kept.

Under a headline: "Borrower Brown's brave face", the Guardian pictures a beaming chancellor leaving for the Commons to deliver his speech.

The Independent has a photograph of a smiling Mr Brown being driven away from the Houses of Parliament - after announcing he was to borrow a record £37bn this year.

Even the Daily Star is shocked: "Borrow, tax and spend..That's not sensible or prudent," it says.

For a man planning to borrow £176bn, Mr Brown was surprisingly upbeat, observes the Financial Times.

In an editorial, it says he is certainly keen to make it to the next election without having to raise taxes or cut spending.

Yet he now has what the paper calls "diminishing wiggle room".

His luck may hold - it says - but there is no slack in the public finances if the economic going gets rough. The Daily Telegraph speaks of Mr Brown taking emergency action to curb council tax rises in an attempt to head off a middle-class backlash.

"Council Tax Giveaway" is the Daily Express's version.

It is claiming the credit for the chancellor's announcement of an extra £400m for town halls, on condition they spare voters further big increases.

Mayoral 'deal'

The Express says Mr Brown buckled in the face of a "middle Britain revolt" it led.

The prospect of the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, returning to the Labour Party has moved even closer, report both the Independent and the Guardian.

The Independent says Labour's official candidate for next year's mayoral election, Nicky Gavron, has now said she is ready to work with Mr Livingstone to re-unite the Labour vote in London.

The Guardian believes they have struck a deal - and the party's national executive could vote to re-admit Mr Livingstone next week.

Prison report

Elsewhere, the Guardian says it has seen court documents in which the Prison Service admits officers at Wormwood Scrubs in west London subjected inmates to sustained beatings, mock executions, death threats, choking and torrents of racist abuse.

According to the paper, the service has conceded that 14 prisoners were seriously assaulted by officers at the jail between 1995 and 1999.

The Telegraph has news of a symbolic reversal of Australia's convict past, 215 years after the first Britons were transported to Botany Bay.

Australia's highest court has ruled that long-term British residents who commit a crime can be deported back to their homeland. For immigration purposes, they are to be treated as "aliens", like any other country's citizens.

Mother freed

The Sun leads with the quashing of Angela Cannings's convictions for the murders of her two baby sons.

Her husband, Terry, tells the paper he never once doubted her. His wife has never had the chance to grieve for her babies - and he has had his own cell: his front room.

The Daily Mail quotes Mrs Cannings leaving the Court of Appeal, declaring: "I just want to go home and be mummy."

Wednesday's ruling at the Court of Appeal was the third of its kind this year. The Times believes that the prosecution of mothers accused of killing their babies will now be consigned to legal history - in all but the rarest cases.