Brown's jobs quote bites him back

Few quotations from Gordon Brown could have featured as heavily as his pledge to create "British jobs for British people" does in Saturday's papers.

From placards to leader columns and cartoons, the sound bite has, in the words of the Daily Telegraph, been thrown back in his face.

The papers use the quote to link the prime minister directly to the wildcat strikes that have spread across the UK.

They nearly all show pictures of demonstrators brandishing that quote.

'Hollowness'

The Daily Mail says the "hollowness" of the prime minister's pledge of British jobs for Britons has been exposed.

The Times goes further, linking the strikes directly to the prime minister. The paper's headline calls it "The Dawn of a New Age of Unrest".

The Sun calls it "Back to the 70s", saying the dispute has sparked bitter memories of the mass walkouts which crippled the UK during that decade.

The Independent says Mr Brown was playing with fire and has been burnt.

'Big Bang'

The Financial Times reports that Barack Obama will try to increase confidence in the $700bn bailout fund.

He will do so by ensuring tax payers' money is not used to fund excessive pay, bonuses or share dividends.

The move by the US president follows news that the American economy shrank by over 3.5% at the end of last year.

The paper predicts the new treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, prefers what it calls a "big bang" approach to catch the eye of the financial markets.

'Poverty porn'

According to the Independent the road to the Oscars is far from a succession of glamorous parties and back-slapping.

The paper says the front runner for many of this year's awards - Slumdog Millionaire - is the victim of a whispering campaign.

The paper says the film has suffered negative headlines on everything from its treatment of child actors to its "white man's portrayal" of Mumbai.

The Times reports one Bollywood star described the film as "poverty porn".