Newspapers welcome 'pasty tax' turnaround welcomed

News that the controversial "pasty tax" has been scrapped makes most of Tuesday's front pages and is the lead in the Sun.

<link> <caption>It greets the success of its campaign</caption> <url href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/4343514/Victory-as-Chancellor-George-Osborne-caves-in-over-his-hated-Pasty-Tax.html" platform="highweb"/> </link> to scrap the measure with the headline "Pasty La Vista, Taxman".

The <link> <caption>Daily Mirror goes with "Osborne's pasty tax crumbles".</caption> <url href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/pasty-tax-is-axed-after-massive-851746" platform="highweb"/> </link>

And <link> <caption>for the Financial Times, it is "Humble pie for Osborne</caption> <url href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b65043ae-a8ee-11e1-b085-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1wEgoKRBO" platform="highweb"/> </link> as his pasty tax proves too hot to handle".

'Historical revisionism'

Tony Blair's appearance at the Leveson Inquiry also features widely in the papers.

"Blair goes on spinning," <link> <caption>writes the Daily Express.</caption> <url href="http://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/323128/Blair-goes-on-spinning" platform="highweb"/> </link>

The <link> <caption>Daily Telegraph believes Mr Blair delivered "a masterclass in historical revisionism",</caption> <url href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/9295180/Spinners-and-sinners.html" platform="highweb"/> </link> and was "wholly disingenuous" in defending how his government went about managing relations with the media.

<link> <caption>Polly Toynbee, in the Guardian, wonders more generally</caption> <url href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/28/tony-blair-rupert-murdoch-leveson" platform="highweb"/> </link> why Mr Blair has "been so reckless with his reputation since leaving office" - using his "ex-leader prestige to earn obscene sums of money".

'Excesses'

The Times, the Guardian and the Daily Mail all lead on concessions by the government over plans to hold some civil court proceedings in secret.

The <link> <caption>Daily Mail claims victory for its campaign</caption> <url href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151343/Secret-justice-Kenneth-Clarke-says-inquests-wont-held-closed-doors.html" platform="highweb"/> </link> to stop inquests being held behind closed doors - a move it says would have made it possible "for somebody to be killed in modern 'civilised' Britain without their relatives knowing precisely how or why they died".

Conservative MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind <link> <caption>tells the Times</caption> <url href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/" platform="highweb"/> </link> the government has "reined in the excesses" of its Green Paper.

But <link> <caption>the Guardian says the climbdown hasn't gone far enough</caption> <url href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/29/secret-courts-plan-still-justice-in-the-dark" platform="highweb"/> </link> and argues judges will still "be pressed to throw a veil over evidence which prevents those it concerns from interrogating it".

'Dark days'

The <link> <caption>Independent says there is "a whiff of a witch-hunt"</caption> <url href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-charges-with-a-whiff-of-a-witchhunt-7794067.html" platform="highweb"/> </link> in the allegations against Conservative co-chairwoman Lady Warsi over her expenses.

It says there has been "no stampede" of Tories rushing to her aid and wonders if her "relative youth, gender and background" have left her without many friends in the party.

Finally, <link> <caption>the Times has returned to Libya,</caption> <url href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/" platform="highweb"/> </link> nine months after Colonel Gaddafi's death, and finds a nation that "teeters between democracy and a return to the dark days".

Its correspondent reports that a veneer of normality conceals an uglier Libya in which thousands of suspected Gaddafi loyalists are still held in secret detention centres.