The front pages
And then he resigned, finally. Senator Ivor Callely quit the Fianna Fáil party last night after a party disciplinary committee found him guilty of “conduct unbecoming†following an investigation into his mobile phone expenses claims.
The Irish Times have dedicated the story to the top of the News Digest on the front page, while the Irish Examiner gives it a simple headline, ‘Callely resigns from Fianna Fail’.
The Irish Independent prefers to run with the newly crowned Rose of Tralee, the London Rose Clare Kambamettu, who looks petrified while being photographed after claiming the crown for 2010 in the Dome in Tralee, Co Kerry.
The Examiner has mentioned that Dáithà Ó Sé is the bookmakers favourite to stay on as the presenter of the Rose of Tralee after doing such a good job first time out.
The Indo also gives detail on how Ireland’s credit rating has been lowered yet again by one of the world’s largest rating agencies.
‘Lenihan fails to halt new credit downgrade’, reads the headline. The story continues by saying that the rating from the agency, Standard and Poor’s, derives from concerns of the ultimate cost of Anglo Irish and NAMA. Ireland has been downgrade from AA to AA-.
Tales from the tabs
It’s the beginning of the end for Big Brother after Josie Gibson won BB11 with a huge 77.5 per cent of the public vote.
The Sun pays homage to Josie today and tells us that ‘the financial sales rep from Bristol fell into the arms of her Aussie lover John James after being interviewed by Davina McCall and snogged him on stage.’
Josie said that she will donate £20,000 of her £100,000 winnings to cancer charity Clic. She’s also going o but her disabled housemate a new click.
BB11 was the final series of the reality TV show before a final, final series kicked off. The champion of champions sees a whole bunch former Big Brother housemates locked up once more for a chance of rejuvenated celebrity stardom.
The sports pages
If Roy Hodgson is about to lose Javier Mascherano to Barcelona then he will turn to Marseille’s £7million-rated midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa to fill the void.
Liverpool are looking for £20million for Mascherano, who has caused consternation in the camp with his behaviour at not being allowed to hold talks with the Spanish giants, however an original £12million bid was furiously rejected by the Reds and will only sell for an appropriate fee.
Meanwhile, Jermaine Defoe is to undergo an operation on his groin, according to the Star, but, the striker will feature against Young Boys in the Champions crunch match at White Hart Lane tonight.
