Papers warn of bleak times ahead

Details of the heavy toll from the credit crunch and the housing crash are occupying Saturday's front pages.

The good times are over and the downturn will be deep and prolonged, warns the Daily Mail's City editor.

The Daily Telegraph says experts are warning families to prepare for more painful times than in the early 1990s.

Meanwhile, the Guardian says the Bank of England is now under intense pressure to cut interest rates and the Times wants those cuts to be bold.

High Street sales

Some papers think action is needed from the British public, as well as the government and the Bank of England.

The Daily Express says a little pruning may be in order but a national flight from the High Street would make things 10 times worse.

But it seems not everyone is losing out as recession looms.

The Times speaks to a childcare agency in York which says the phone has not stopped with calls from parents who are having to return to work.

'Fair system'

Away from economic gloom, the Telegraph claims the government is to allow patients to pay for drugs privately and still receive NHS treatment.

The story is not confirmed by Health Secretary Alan Johnson but he does say he wants "a fair system that doesn't deny essential treatment unduly".

The Mail and the Sun report that dying patients could be given drugs currently banned on cost grounds by the NHS.

The Sun says the watchdog, Nice, will be told to rewrite its rules.

Changing times

France is to accuse English soldiers of acting like "war criminals" at the battle of Agincourt, according to the Mirror, the Mail and the Telegraph.

At a conference, French historians will accuse the English of underhand tactics included beating a Gallic nobleman who had surrendered.

The Guardian focuses on more timely matters - resetting our clocks.

It tells the story of Pauline West, from Hampshire, who will forego an extra hour in bed to reset her 3,500 timepieces.