Papers' unflattering Kilroy portrait

The broadsheets paint a less than flattering picture of the former MP, columnist and TV host, Robert Kilroy-Silk.

His recycled views on the alleged shortcomings of Arab people have caused the BBC to suspend his TV talk show.

The Sunday Times notes that Mr Kilroy-Silk asked what the Arab world had contributed other than oil.

The paper says that Arabs gave us numbers, made great strides in medicine and had a flourishing civilisation while Vikings were busy raping and pillaging.

The Sunday Telegraph says it is hard not to sense that this could be the end for Kilroy.

"At 61", it comments, "he retains the faintly chippy, over-assertive air of the poor boy made good, the politician made redundant and the clever man made low-brow".

The Independent on Sunday recalls that he once said he carried on doing the job because he was paid an awful lot of money.

"Let's hope he's put some of that cash away for a rainy day," says the paper, "it looks like he's going to need it".

But there is strong backing for Mr Kilroy-Silk in the Sunday Express - in which his comments were published last week.

It says that politicians and commentators insisted the BBC was wrong to take him off the air - and hundreds of outraged readers phoned with messages of support for the paper's columnist.

Difficult votes

The Times reports that more than 100 Labour MPs are committed to voting against the government over university tuition fees.

The Independent believes that rebellion on such a scale would place Tony Blair's authority as leader in grave danger.

According to the Telegraph, he will call a vote of confidence if the proposals are defeated.

There could be another difficult vote looming if the Conservative leader, Michael Howard, gets his way.

The Independent says that Mr Howard will demand that MPs are given the chance to register their verdict in a vote at the end of the debate on Lord Hutton's report into the death of the weapons expert, Dr David Kelly.

Political honours

The Observer says that a big shake-up of the way the government handles secret intelligence will follow the publication of the report.

The paper says that the intention will be to stop such intelligence being cherry-picked for political effect.

The Sunday Mirror claims that the Queen forced Mr Blair to make changes to the New Year's Honours list because she thought it too political.

It says she took Downing Street by surprise by blocking peerages for a number of supporters of the prime minister.

Virtue, not vice

Colonel Tim Collins, who made a rousing speech to troops on the eve of battle in Iraq, has resigned, says the Mail on Sunday.

His wife is quoted as saying that he believes the Army is being crippled by political correctness, petty bureaucracy and under-funding.

Lust is good for you, a leading philosopher has concluded.

The Times says that Professor Simon Blackburn, of Trinity College, Cambridge, has spent three months thinking about sexual desire on behalf of the Oxford University Press, which is re-evaluating the seven deadly sins.

Professor Blackburn says his aim was to rescue lust and declare it a life-affirming virtue rather than a vice.