Papers unpick PM's economy speech

The economy speech Gordon Brown will give to the TUC on Tuesday is covered at length across the papers.

The Independent on Sunday thinks he will give a positive assessment. Or, as the People puts it, "the good times are just around the corner".

The Sunday Mirror says the "upbeat forecast" is a "high-risk strategy".

The Sunday Telegraph expects Mr Brown to play up the fragility of the recovery because he wants to dissuade the unions from threatening to strike.

'Union dinosaurs'

The News of the World says it is "time to slay the union dinosaurs".

The paper tells Mr Brown - and the unions - that "strikes and fairytale pay demands won't get this great country back on its feet".

The Sunday Times agrees. It relies on the evidence of a recent opinion poll for its claim that "voters have had enough of a bloated state".

It says people are "fed up with paying" to support the public sector and want "cuts in public spending".

'Unknowable' royal

The publication of a previously unseen letter by the Queen Mother has whetted appetites for the up-coming official biography by William Shawcross.

The Sunday Times says the book promises to reveal more about "the most unknowable of the royals".

The Observer says that, during her lifetime, she gave just one interview.

The Mail on Sunday says it looks forward to "new and fascinating insights into the woman behind the pearls and pastel dresses".

Crumbling cathedral

According to the Sunday Telegraph, the pillars that hold up Canterbury Cathedral are being held together with duct tape.

Chunks of masonry are falling off and a spokesman for the church says there must be swift action "if we don't want to have a ruin there".

The paper too calls for a gesture to save the cathedral.

It says the building is made of "precious stones" and "deserves better than to crumble through sheer neglect".