Newspaper headlines: New French revolution and Blair's return? By BBC News

Staff Published duration 24 April 2017 Related Topics France elections 2017

The race to become France's new president dominates the front pages of many of the day's newspapers.

"New French Revolution" is the headline in the Daily Mail, which describes the success of Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen as a major shock which wiped out the traditional parties.

It says their polarised views on Europe mean that the final vote will give French voters a say on "Frexit" and that the result will have major implications for Britain and its departure from the European Union.

"French elite humiliated as outsiders sweep to victory," is the headline in The Times.

The Guardian says the run-off between the two candidates will mark "a redrawing of the political divide, away from left-right towards a contest between a liberal, pro-globalisation stance and 'close the borders' nationalism".

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A group of MPs has accused the former Chancellor, George Osborne, of showing "disrespect" for the advisory body which vets jobs taken by ex-ministers by failing to ask permission before accepting the post of editor of the London Evening Standard.

Members felt Mr Osborne had set "an unhelpful example" and that the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments had become a "toothless regulator".

The committee would like former ministers to be banned for two years from taking jobs in sectors related to their previous responsibilities.

Nastase ban

The Times reveals that the 1970s tennis star, Ilie Nastase, won't be invited into the Royal Box at Wimbledon this year after what it calls his "disgraceful behaviour" during Romania's victory against Great Britain in the Fed Cup, when he swore and hurled abuse at British players.

It says the decision was taken by the All England Club at the weekend.

The Daily Mirror quotes the star as saying: "They can send me to prison if they want, I don't care. Remember I was world number one."

The i newspaper's chief sports correspondent, Kevin Garside, recalls how, as an impressionable young lad from Manchester, he spent the summer of 1972 on his local tennis courts imagining he was Nastase.

Now, he laments, "there goes another hero".

The Mail, the Mirror and The Sun all tell the story of a patient who's been waiting more than three years to be discharged from hospital - apparently because of difficulties arranging alternative care.

The patient, who hasn't been named, has a learning disability and physical and mental health problems.

Conservatives in the Welsh Assembly have described it as a scandal. But a Welsh government spokesman tells the Sun that the patient has complex needs and requires highly specialist services.

Driving test cheats

New measures are to be introduced to stop people cheating in driving test theory exams, according to tThe Times.

There were 355 people arrested for test fraud in the past 12 months. Now CCTV is to be installed at test centres in response to an increase in the number of candidates using wireless earpieces linked to a mobile phone to get help with the answers.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency is also considering using voice recognition software to prove identity and so that an exam can't be taken by someone impersonating the candidate.

Bronzed blushes

The bronze statue of the Ancient Greek mathematician is in a garden close to a road in the village of Ellisfield near Basingstoke.

The statue's owner, Adrian de Ferranti, has applied for retrospective planning permission.

Some local residents say the sculpture is offensive and could cause an accident by distracting drivers. But the chairman of the local parish council says it's inspiring.