Newspaper headlines: 'Send the Army to Calais' By Andy Sully

BBC News Published duration 30 July 2015

Thursday's newspapers are full of news of what is widely becoming known as the Calais Crisis - the repeated attempts by migrants based in "Camp Jungle" near the port to enter Britain illegally by ferry or train.

The Financial Times reports that the disruption to cross-channel links is costing the UK £250m a day and has driven some hauliers to abandon the international transport business.

The paper notes that about £200bn worth of goods are traded between Dover and Calais each year, carried on 2.5m lorries.

It adds that rerouting freight is not always possible as capacity at other ports cannot meet the demand.

image copyright AP image caption Research suggests many migrants try to reach the UK because they are more familiar with English than other European languages

The Daily Mail is among a number of papers to echo demands from some politicians for the British army to "bolster" British border defences and inspect incoming vehicles for illegal migrants.

It also calls for new laws to "send out an incontrovertible message that economic migrants posing as asylum seekers will be caught, detained and sent home without enjoying a single day of freedom in the UK".

In a column in the paper, journalist Leo McKinstry blames the French government for creating a "departure lounge" near Calais for migrants seeking to reach Britain, and of failing to properly process and police migrants in their country.

"The Calais crisis is the ultimate symbol of the failure of the 'EU project'. Open borders were meant to herald a new era of freedom and enterprise. Instead, they have brought only chaos and division," he writes.

The Sun also accuses the French of taking too soft an approach to the situation.

image copyright PA image caption Labour's Harriet Harman says the government's diplomacy has failed to solve the migrant crisis

Calling the security situation "a shambles" it has two pictures suggesting migrants have been using the same hole in a security fence near the Channel Tunnel for 13 years.

The paper's editorial calls Calais "a weeping sore on the face of Europe". It applauds Labour's interim leader Harriet Harman for calling on the French authorities to identify genuine asylum seekers and deport economic migrants.

The Independent's editorial says the only sustainable way to deal with the migrant crisis is "rebuilding shattered societies and economies wrecked by conflict".

The paper's French correspondent John Lichfield writes: "The 'Calais problem' cannot be solved in Calais because it is not a Calais problem. It is a small part of a European, or world, problem which has no obvious solution either.

image copyright PA image caption Operation Stack - which parks stranded lorries on the M20 in Kent - has been used 24 times

"The whole depressing circus might be a kind of "Jeux sans frontieres", or rather "Jeux avec frontieres", organised by the UK government to select the most enterprising possible recruits to the British population."

Columnist David Aaronovitch takes up the theme in the Times.

"It would still be a drop in the drowning ocean. The crisis is elsewhere and cannot be solved by single governments.

"But we're scared and that makes us hard-hearted and, worse, it makes us unable even to ask the right questions, let alone imagine the right answers."

'Charismatic megafauna'

The death of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe at the hands of "trophy hunting" dentist Walter Palmer continues to gather more rage and condemnation in the press than that of any other large carnivore in history.

The Daily Mirror condemns "sick" big game hunting safaris organised in African countries and names and condemns Britons involved in the "scandal of lion slaughter".

The paper says that the African lion is regarded as "vulnerable" to extinction and hunting is one of the major causes of a 30% decrease in the big cats' population in the last two decades.

image copyright Getty Images image caption Protesters in the US are calling for Walter Palmer to be extradited to Zimbabwe over claims he lured the lion outside the legal hunting area

The Daily Mail chronicles the "agonising last hours" of Cecil, as he was shot by a crossbow bolt then tracked by a trail of blood for 40-hours before being run to ground and shot dead by a professional hunter employed by Mr Palmer.

Reporter Andrew Malone notes the continuing popularity of big game hunting, with operators charging tens of thousands of pounds per animal killed.

"Such is the popularity of the sport in certain circles that many hunters film their kills and share them with other enthusiasts," he adds.

The paper reports calls to strip former Bank of England director and BBC governor Sir David Scholey of his knighthood over pictures of him posing next to a lion which was shot dead in Zambia in 2011

The Independent's environment editor Tom Bawden argues that the psychology of big game hunting is tied into the need for rich white men to "demonstrate their machismo".

Safari hunting is a £156m industry he notes, with one US hunter willing to pay £224,000 to kill an endangered black rhino in Namibia.

Elsewhere in the paper, author Louis Theroux writes: "If nothing else, Palmer has finally learned what it means to be the prey of an incomprehensible force much larger and more powerful than himself."

Theroux adds that as a carnivore "you can't subtract death from existence" and he admits many hunters are involved in conservation and that there are "many nincompoops" in the anti-hunting movement.

image caption A Texan hunter bid $350,000 for a licence to kill one of the 5,000 remaining southern black rhinos

But he adds that even if the cause is inconsistent: "Animals like Cecil - termed "charismatic megafauna" by some conservationists - are a convenient rallying place for those of us who think we owe animals more consideration."

Not all of the papers' coverage of the issue condemns trophy hunting.

In the Guardian, columnist Simon Jenkins argues that sustainable ranching is a better option for conserving rare creatures than outright hunting bans.

He says the "war on ivory" has been no more successful than the "war on drugs" and the appetite for big game hunting is still there.

Jonathan Young, editor of The Field, a magazine for hunting, shooting and fishing enthusiasts, writes in the Daily Telegraph that the killing of big game offers the key to their conservation.

"Western armchair animal lovers may rail against the ethics of trophy hunting in Africa but it brings considerable income to poor countries," he says.

He contrasts the decline in the over-poached black rhino population, with the resurgent numbers of white rhino "most of them in South Africa, where you can legally hunt them."

Eye-catching headlines

Blessing from above: A priest has performed an exorcism by helicopter over an Italian seaside town "said to be beset with social and moral decay", the Independent reports.

Text-walkers in their own safe bubble: The Daily Telegraph reports research from the University of Bath and a Texas counterpart which found that those walking and texting have "developed a protective shuffle" that prevents collisions and falls.

No more nagging with the bagging: Tesco has vowed to replace the "irritating and bossy" automated female voice that tells people of an "unexpected item in the bagging area" of their self-service tills, with a "friendlier" but less talkative male, the Sun says.

Banish rogue otters, anglers demand after Big Lady killed: The Times reports that fishermen are up in arms about the "growing population" of otters following the death of "one of the country's largest and best known freshwater fish". Big Lady, a 20lb barbel from Bedfordshire was eaten by a member of the protected species.

'Strident opposition'

The promotion of Jeremy Corbyn from 200-to-1 outsider to 5/4 favourite to become Labour's new leader excites considerable comment.

Mr Corbyn - seen as the "hard-left" candidate - has attracted the support of his second major trade union, the "traditionally moderate" Unison, the Times reports.

One such contact tells the Times: "This is a collective primal scream from party members sick of soggy drab centralism, lack of strident opposition to austerity and whatever else.

image copyright PA

"I have no idea what the Labour party does next."

The Daily Mirror's leader column says the other three candidates - Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper - "should study why Corbyn is generating so much excitement then seek to emulate his appeal."

It adds that "smear merchants" attacking rivals have done their own candidates no good.

The Daily Mail's headline asks "is Corbyn unstoppable?"

It says new Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has suggested some Labour members may defect to his party if Mr Corbyn is elected as leader.

Mr Corbyn is quoted thanking Unison members for their support and saying: "We are building a movement for a modern, kinder Britain."

image copyright AFP image caption Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper is in second place behind Mr Corbyn, a poll suggests

The Mail takes its fascination with the 66-year-old MP to the extreme of tracking down where he buys his "trademark" white vests (Nag's Head Market, North London at £1.50 each) and chronicles that certain members of the Mumsnet web forum have declared Mr Corbyn to be "attractive in a world weary old sea dog sort of way".

Writer John Harris in the Guardian says the Islington North MP's appeal (apart from to his Mumsnet fans) rests as much in "tone as content".

He adds: "The daily cacophony of pro-Corbyn noise on Twitter and all those packed [public] meetings symbolise something beautifully simple: people refusing to do what they are told.

"The choice, as many see it, is not between imminent electoral salvation and oblivion but two rather more complex outcomes.

"The election of another empty politician who will enact their own version of the Ed Miliband tragedy or the hope that Labour might reassert its essential values, and begin finding out what exactly 21st-century left-wing politics might entail."

Making people click

Express : Has MH370 wreckage been found?

FT : Barclays lacks scale to match Wall Street, says chairman

Telegraph : How to get to the Moon in four hours