Peter Hitchens used John Prescott's silent gesture at jeering journalists outside No 10 last week to launch an assault on the deputy prime minister in the Mail on Sunday . Rather than accepting Mr Prescott's actions as just a bit of fun with provocative journalists, Hitchens denounced him as "a grotesque oaf ... flashing V-signs like a lagered-up bootboy who has just been let off with a caution for the ninth time. What a disgrace he is to Labour's tradition of great working-class figures." The Mail columnist was equally scathing of Tony Blair: "In future he should appear in public with a leather jacket and tattooed knuckles. Then we would know what we were dealing with."
In the Sunday Times , Ferdinand Mount sought to defy claims that congestion charging in central London has been a success. "Parts ... have become like that Dutch town in the beer ad where nothing much happens," observed Mount who went on to describe mayor Ken Livingstone's admission that charging had affected businesses in central London, and his subsequent call for councils to cut the cost of parking around the zone, as "quintessentially Livingstonesque, being a cynical exercise in electoral calculation masquerading as a charming piece of newt-fancier's idealism".
In a week which revealed the questionable role of the News of the World in the collapse of the Victoria Beckham kidnap trial and DJ Sara Cox's victory against the People, Bill Hagerty took the opportunity to discuss the press's "period of public abhorrence" in the Independent on Sunday . Remarking that recent events "will do nothing to improve the public's view of the tabloids as prurient snoopers", the former tabloid reporter lay the blame for journalists' actions at the feet of "unhealthy competition, greed and unscrupulous bosses".
Catherine Barnes, in the Sunday Express , suggested that celebrity chefs should ration their TV appearances and put their talents to good use in the school canteen instead. As an ex-footballer who could simultaneously help out in the PE department, Gordon Ramsay was an "excellent candidate [though] ... obviously, his notorious bad language could be a problem". After careful consideration, Barnes decided "good old Delia Smith would be the best bet for tasty, sensible food ... The trouble is by the time she assembled all her ingredients ... it would be home time. And boiled eggs most lunchtimes might be a bit tedious even if they were timed to perfection."
