Sunday Sun

Star Cover ; Renault Megane Tourer Pounds 19,000

AS with the recent three-door hatch I drove, the handling and road-holding of the latest Renault Megane Tourer estate are superb. But where other recent Renaults have suffered with a less than comfortable ride, this one does not, making it a great all-rounder. It had huge grip on a trip to a nearby town across country late at night and back via a different route. There is very little roll, excellent balance and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive with little else on the road.

Fiat Grande Punto Pounds 10,000 ; Review

IT can be awkward to reach the seatbelt in most three-door cars, but the Fiat Grande Punto is particularly bad. With the seat set back for a tall driver, the belt gets caught between the door frame and the side, and can be very difficult to get out.

Porsche Boxster Spyder Pounds 44,640 ; Review

ANY new car from Porsche is always worth the wait and I can't wait to get my hands on this one. It's the Boxster Spyder, which comes with a lightweight body and more power for an even better drive.

Renault Laguna From Pounds 4000 ; Used Car Used Car

THE latest Renault Laguna is hugely safe, but the previous one was awarded five stars in crash tests so it's almost as good. It has a light clutch and slick gear change, superb brakes, excellent power steering and, in the Renault tradition, a good ride.

A Hefty Price for Cheap Drink

A hefty price for cheap drink SO, what can you buy with only 69pence? A bar of chocolate or a packet of sweets, perhaps ... but surely not an alcoholic drink. Now, thanks to a hare-brained scheme introduced by a North nightclub, 69p will get you a spirit and mixer, a pint, a bottle or a shot.

Take a Bow As Appeal Is Off to Flyer

Take a bow as appeal is off to flyer WHAT a splendid lot you readers are. Last week the Sunday Sun launched our Air Angels appeal to help raise pounds 1m in order to buy a chopper for the Great North Air Ambulance.

I Want to Remove Curse of Knife Crime From Our Streets

AS Justice Secretary, I regularly meet the victims of crime including most poignantly of all bereaved families. I have seen the devastation that knife crime can cause and listened to the harrowing stories of lives cut needlessly short and of others' lives torn apart by the loss of a loved one.

Nothing to Fear

Nothing to fear THE wonders of modern science have helped put numerous criminals behind bars who would otherwise be walking our streets. Today we highlight such a case when a man was jailed for rape almost two decades after committing the offence, through police finding a DNA match.

Pooches' Boot Camp

A DOG trainer has launched a boot camp for pooches to help them find their "Rex Factor". Ingrid Grayling has expanded her kennels and training school near Shap, Cumbria, after receiving requests from all across the UK for help in grooming their dogs into obedience stars.

Flowers Move Blooming Mad ; Anger Over Revamp at Shut Centre

CASH-strapped council chiefs have been branded "blooming crazy" after planting flowers in the garden of a doomed care complex for elderly people in Northumberland. Winter bedding plants have recently been put down in plots next to the Greenholme building in Haltwhistle, despite the fact that its residential care home shut a month ago and the adjacent day care centre's closure was agreed last week. No one has lived in the home for weeks after the last resident moved out and the day care servic...

Families Get Chance to Dance

Families get chance to dance FAMILIES had an opportunity to try their moves at a dance day held at an art gallery. The Laing Gallery, Newcastle, held a free session in dancing from ballroom to Bollywood yesterday. Lucy Smith, learning officer at the Laing Gallery, said: "We worked with dancers throughout the North east to organise this free day of dance at the Laing.

Santa Takes to the Rails

SANTA may be travelling by reindeer come Christmas day but in the run up to the 25th he'll be using steam train to get about. And children who want to meet their Christmas hero in the flesh will be able to step aboard and travel with him.

Whinge of the Week

Duck Law Is Just Quacker

If you're going for a walk in the park today then be careful about feeding those ducks. Feed them in the wrong place and you might be accused of littering and get fined pounds 75. That's what happened to 26-year-old Vanessa Kelly last week in a Midlands park. Her toddler Harry was allowed to continue feeding the ducks, though, because he was too young, apparently, to be prosecuted.

Some Speedy Sausage Rolls

WITH the news that Greggs the baker is to open another 600 stores, I wonder if they'll ever launch a drive-through service? The business, originally launched on Newcastle's Gosforth High Street, pictured right, in the 1950s, is a fast food outlet so surely a drive-through facility would prove extremely popular. Not with lovers of carrots and celery sticks, but with the pasty brigade and people like me who like to tuck into a naughty muffin. I tend to whizz through the doors and out again in t...

A Sorry State of Affairs ; Heartfelt Apology Now a Rare Thing

THERE'S been a lot of apologising this week. In fact, there is so much apologising these days that one starts to question the depth of the apology.

Uni Fashion Show

650 Job Knock Backs for Mum

A DESPERATE widow claims she has applied for 650 jobs ... and received just one reply. Mature student Brenda Parker fires off an average of five job applications a week, but so far only one company has bothered to write back to tell her she has been unsuccessful. The 63-year-old, of Washington, Tyne and Wear, says her only conclusion is that she is a victim of ageism.

Hopes and Fierce

Snapshot

A BEAVER that escaped from a wildlife park has made its mark on a local golf club where it gnawed its way through a tree. The beaver, who is called Mrs B, went missing from Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, after digging through a pond about four weeks ago.