The Best and the Worst of the British Press

May 9 -- The election battle has begun and the British papers are predicting a Labor Party landslide, led by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The Labor leader kicked off his election battle in a school in London rather than the more traditional 10 Downing St. Pictured on the front cover of all the major newspapers, Blair was depicted in a somewhat evangelical fashion, singing from a hymn book to the students.

A survey by the Daily Express and pollster NOP finds Labor government support at 51 percent, the Conservatives at 31 percent and the Liberal Democrats at 13 percent.

The Labor-supporting Mirror tabloid could not help but poke fun at Blair's struggling main rival, Conservative leader William Hague. Hague is pictured as Bridget Jones with a diary entry that reads, "June 7, 2001: Nightmare! Told we're going to be left on the shelf again!! Seems everyone's right. I AM useless."

The Fifth Column

Secret Intelligence files released by MI-6 today reveal that Scottish nationalists tried to forge an alliance with the Nazis during the Second World War. Interceptions by British code breakers revealed a group known as the Scottish Independent Movement was planning to create a Scottish republic while England was under attack by the Germans.

The Guardian reports that although the Germans did not want to have anything to do with the Scottish nationalist cause, they did "'explore the possibility of utilizing the movement as a source of information about what is [was] going on in England.'"

Shahi Korma Overtakes Boiled Cabbage

Bland food in Britain? British hospitals want to spice up the fare for patients. Today's papers enthusiastically report the government's new initiative to revamp the nutritional quality and presentation of hospital food.

According to The Guardian, celebrity chefs were asked to design interesting menus with a budget of $1.15 per meal, the current average spent. Dreaded boiled cabbage and mashed potatoes are being replaced by Indian lamb shahi korma and a British favorite, sticky toffee pudding.