Papers give verdict on ex-butler's trial

The Observer has a list of no fewer than 10 questions it wants MPs to put to the Attorney General about the Queen's extraordinary intervention, which cleared the former butler.

Why, it asks, was reliance placed on inadmissible hearsay evidence when the police should have obtained a witness statement from the Queen?

Justice has been mocked, the paper says.

What a shambles, declares the News of the World.

Despite all her advisers it seems the monarch was so out of touch it did not dawn on her an intense, three-hour conversation with her butler was fundamental to the whole case, the paper says.

The Sunday Times also calls the trial a mockery. It says the Windsors still have a lot to learn.

So do some of their subjects, according to the Sunday Express.

It says the mighty organs of state doffed their caps to the royal and blue-blooded establishment like medieval serfs.

They allowed themselves to be used by the class system to crucify an innocent man, the paper says.

But The Sunday Telegraph begs to differ.

The charge the Queen revealed what Mr Burrell had told her simply to save the Royal Family from imminent humiliation simply does not stand up to scrutiny, it says.

Posh plot

The alleged plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham prompts the Express to reflect on what it calls the "downside of fame".

It chronicles a series of attempts to menace the singer and her family, including an earlier abduction conspiracy.

The Sunday People says the couple's aides always feared there might be another kidnap attempt.

Calorie counting

The Sunday Times says new laws being proposed by the Food Standards Agency could require restaurants and fast-food outlets in Britain to list the calorie content of everything on their menus - including the drinks.

Critics tell the paper it is another example of government interference.

Fearing wheels

Meddling from beyond the grave is being blamed for a spate of crashes on a country lane in Herefordshire, according to the Daily Star Sunday.

It tells how locals have called in an exorcist, because they believe a ghost is wrenching the steering wheels of vehicles using the A465 near the village of Stoke Lacy.