What the papers say

Journalist Liz Kennedy takes a look at what is making the headlines in Thursday's morning newspapers.

A generous rate of civil service sick pay is the lead story in the Irish News.

The assembly's Public Accounts Committee has been taking a forensic look at the more than £25m paid out each year to sick civil servants, with staff off twice as long as private-sector employees.

Committee chairman Paul Maskey has blamed poor management and a "lack of effective responses" from the Department of Finance and Personnel in treating the problems.

But concerns have also been raised that "preferential" sickness payments may actually be encouraging absenteeism.

Inside the paper is a picture of Olympic silver medal winner Wendy Houvenaghel and the star cyclist from Upperlands is pictured with a beaming smile at her homecoming party.

She's also waving out from the front of both the News Letter and the Belfast Telegraph.

But the same lead story in both papers is somewhat less bright, with the gloomy news of a huge hike in energy prices said to be imminent, just as autumn looms and the darker days dawn.

We are told to expect both gas and electricity to go up by approximately one third and the Telegraph also points out that home heating oil has already gone up by 80% since last year.

And the bite of financial hard times is the lead in The Irish Times and the Irish Independent.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen is pictured "fighting fit" - according to the Independent - to deal with the current economic crisis in the Republic.

He's in a boxing pose, with the Olympic bronze boxing medallist Darren Sutherland the photo lead in both papers.

Crisis

Meanwhile, the Times and the Independent detail Mr Cowen's plans to bring forward his 2009 budget by almost two months to deal with the "crisis in public finance and the decline in consumer confidence" as the Irish Times puts it.

According to The Times in London, plans are being prepared to oust Sir Ian Blair.

Apparently ministers, senior officials, and leading police chiefs have secretly discussed replacing the Metropolitan Police Commissioner by the end of the year - to halt what it terms "a collapse in morale in the force".

The paper says that it's learned that Sir Ian will be told this week that his contract won't be renewed when it expires in 2010.

And inside the paper, the first senior officer listed in those said to be in line for the job is PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde. The other runners are speculated to be the Chief Constables of West Yorkshire and Merseyside.

And another police chief makes the front page of The Guardian. The chief constable of Kent, Mike Fuller, has told the paper that government policies have damaged public and police confidence in the criminal justice system.

And The Guardian adds Mr Fuller to that list of contenders to be the next commissioner of the Metropolitan force.

Meanwhile, The Daily Mirror reports that Celtic coach Neil Lennon may have been moments from death after a street attack.

Apparently the former Northern Ireland star swallowed his tongue when that assault took place in Glasgow in the early hours of Monday morning, but someone saved the Lurgan man's life by putting him in the recovery position.

Testimonial

And the former player, who's previously suffered sectarian abuse, is spearheading an Old Firm testimonial for Dougie Arnott against Motherwell Greats on 11 September. The team will wear shirts made by splicing the two teams' strips together.

Finally both the Daily Mail and The Guardian feature Professor Splash.

There's a spectacular bird's-eye view of the American former strip-club DJ, Darren Taylor, diving, or rather belly-flopping, 35 feet four inches, into a foot of water in a paddling pool.

Now he's aiming for a 40-foot dive. The Mail has spoken to the Institute of Physics, which says that although he hits the water at about 30 miles-an-hour and the deceleration will be painful, it's within the limits set by NASA for astronauts.

But apparently Darren suffers for his art... his legs and chest are black with bruises for a week afterwards.