Newspaper headlines: 'Kingzzz speech' and police resist march ban calls

Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has said he cannot ban the pro-Palestinian march planned for Armistice Day this Saturday

Many of Wednesday's papers focus on the measures announced in the King's Speech and how they have been received.

According to the Times, senior Tories think the measures in the speech are not a "game changer" and may not do enough to revive Conservative electoral fortunes. They want the chancellor to go further and bring tax cuts forward to this month's Autumn Statement.

In an editorial, the Daily Telegraph says there were some "eye-catching" proposals, but the paper questions whether they offered the Conservatives a "coherent springboard for a successful bid for re-election". For the Daily Mail, the speech drew the election battle lines, but the paper also says it is troubling there is nothing to "quicken the pulse" about the economy.

The Guardian accuses Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of offering old ideas when new ones are needed. It says there are some welcome changes - such as a football regulator - but that "the good is dwarfed by the ugly", referring to more anti-green measures such as new licences to look for oil and gas in the North Sea.

The Daily Mirror calls the Speech "vapid, shallow and tired" and says it offered only "shabby electioneering" and political gimmicks. It praises some measures, such as requiring serious criminals to attend their sentencing, but said overall the direction was wrong and slow.

The Daily Telegraph carries a report from Gaza describing a "last stand" by Hamas fighters at a hospital in the north of the territory. The paper says Israeli forces have cornered the few remaining members of a 1,000-strong battalion at the site and quotes one commander, Lt Col Blich, saying Hamas's forces have proved less formidable than feared. "They talk the talk but they don't walk so good," he says.

The Guardian has more detail about the insistence of Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, that he cannot ban the pro-Palestinian march planned for Armistice Day this Saturday. The paper says a "defiant" Sir Mark has resisted what the paper calls a "chorus" of cabinet ministers calling for the ban and insisted on the independence of his force instead.

The Times says further discussions between the government and the Met are expected today. Downing Street is said to have asked how Sir Mark reached his decision. The Daily Mail says it hopes Sir Mark's decision to "give a green light" to the march will not result in a riot at the Cenotaph. It reports that groups of football hooligans are planning to "protect" the monument in case marchers veer off course.

According to the Financial Times, the accounting watchdog has scrapped plans for a full-scale shake-up of boardroom rules. The Financial Reporting Council says it is protecting competitiveness, but critics say the move marks the unravelling of long-promised corporate governance reforms.

And the Times reveals that, among women, the joint-heaviest binge-drinkers in the world are British. A new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said one in four British women had at least six small drinks in one session at least once a month. They were matched only by women in Denmark.

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