Monitor: The Sunday papers give their verdict on Ron Davies

All the News of the World

FIVE TIMES the Prime Minister asked Ron Davies what he was doing on Clapham Common. And four conversations later, the Prime Minister and the rest of the country is still in the dark.

The rumours are now so wild that when the truth does out, as it will, it will seem like an anti-climax. The quicker he owns up, the quicker he and his family will be able to get on with rebuilding their lives.

However painful it is. Ron Davies needs to tell the whole truth.

The Sunday Mirror

THERE WOULD be no cause for public comment if Ron Davies had pursued his homosexual lifestyle discreetly in private. But he didn't. Hiding behind the facade of a solid marriage, he continued to seek excitement in public places frequented by promiscuous homosexuals. In doing so, he betrayed his party and dragged British politics, at the highest level, into the gutter.

News of the World.

IF YOU care about Wales and its attempts to build a vibrant, modern image, then the events of the last week have been unbelievably depressing. Yet again, Wales looks like some backwater, run by odd-bods, which simply can't keep its own house in order.

If that sounds harsh, it is - unfortunately - the reality. And we have to face up to it.

Wales on Sunday

PUBLIC DEBATE would, at least, make a stab at seriousness if we accepted that politicians are not saints, and that confused motivations and messy sex lives do not stop once you enter the House of Commons.

If we don't, then all politicians may feel required to discuss their sexual histories at length - a gruesome eventuality which might push the already dismal national discourse into banal terminality.

The Observer

EVER SINCE Sir Francis Bacon, the Lord Chancellor, was ticked off for "the habit of making his servants his bedfellows," the British have enjoyed their parliamentary scandals as counter to politicians' pomposity.

Ron Davies cannot compete with the Profumo affair's winning formula of a stately home, a naked tart in the swimming poll, a Russian agent, lords aplenty and a gun-toting West Indian. But, by advancing such implausible accounts for his conduct, Davies is giving his story "legs".

Colour inevitably gives a scandal life. Davies should study the lessons of sleaze: either put up or shut up.

The Sunday Times