The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 2

THE GUARDIAN Tuesday May 23 196S 2 NEWS 3 Fprmer prime minister omits to withdraw complaints about policy butblames 'distorted' press reporting ins for apology Michael White Political Editor Radio 4's Today programme about Lady Thatcher's criticism of the man who brought her. down, also stressed continuity, albeit with a more wounding purpose. "We would have to make the point that these are the policies Lady Thatcher advocated and implemented. What John Major has done in any practical effect is pull back from some of the deeper commitments to Europe," he explained. Asked if Lady Thatcher's calling for a U-turn was a reversal of her record in office, he said: "I do think that is broadly all you can say.

When we went into the ERM, Mrs Thatcher was prime minister, and I think that when history is written, the rate at which we went in some would say too high was very much Mrs Thatcher's personal view." Downing Street refused to discuss "history" and Mr Major, asked at a press conference if he had had time to reflect on it, said: "I think I have reflected on it and I have just called the next question." The row erupted after the Sunday Times reported comments from the second volume of her memoirs, The Path to Power. Lady Thatcher issued a statement implicitly accusing the Sunday Times which is to serialise the book of promotional hype in a crucial quotation. She was quoted as saying: "It is now, however, for others to take the action required" a phrase interpreted by some as incitement to mutiny. In the text released by Lady Thatcher's office, the quote appears where she is outlining some of the problems facing the West since the ending of the cold war particularly the lack of political purpose. "Of course I would say that, day" in 1992.

Since right-wingers such as the late Lord Ridley have always argued that that rate was too high in 1990-92, pushing. up interest rates and making Britain's recession far worse' than it need be, the charge is central. As the chancellor at the time, Mr Major regarded DM2.95 as a compromise, since industry had been pressing for a higher rate. Though Lady Thatcher was quick to blame "seriously distorted" press reporting, her call for tax cuts, renewed radicalism, and a pro-American, un-European but Christian-centred policy shift is consistent with the Tory Right's blueprint for winning the next election or the one after that, if Mr Major will not take their advice. Not surprisingly, right-winger Michael Portillo sounded more upbeat about her analysis.

In a World at One in terview recorded shortly before Lady Thatcher issued her statement, the Employment Secretary noted: "She has this ability to see things from the grassroots level and know what is on people's minds." He argued that, her remarks were not a personal attack. "I just do not believe that Mrs Thatcher is attacking the leadership of John Major. She is concerned with policy, but I don't think the policies are as different as people have made out either," said Mr Portillo. He argued that Mr Major's proposed No on a single currency and abandonment of Britain's national veto was close to her stance. "Mrs Thatcher famously said towards the end of her premiership about Europe 'no, no, no'," Mr Portillo recalled without recalling that it triggered her final leadership crisis.

Mr Heseltine, questioned on wouldn't Perhaps. But others who often criticised me in government are saying it too. In the pages which follow on Europe, the wider international scene, social policy and the economy I offer some thoughts about putting these things right. It is now, however, for others to take the action required." The Labour leader, Tony Blair, seized on Mr Heseltine's remarks, saying it was significant that he had suggested the ERM rate had not been chosen by the then chancellor, Mr Major. "I think that is a fairly serious allegation which no doubt people will want to clear up." At the time, Lady Thatcher told party activists that ERM membership was the price she paid to cut interest rates 1 per cent.

They were soon to rise. Catherine Bennett, page 1 3 was saved by his opposite number, Jack Cunninghanvwho at one point in his rant appeared to be blaming the Government for the improvement in the Chinese economy. If Mr Blair gets his way, and, instead of having them voted in, is able to appoint his own shadow cabinet consisting, for the most part, of Mr Peter Mandelson will Mr Cunningham last more than five minutes? I do notknow; I merely ask the question. Mr Wiggin waited. He knotted his fingers together.

He embraced his sides with his arms crossed over, as if wearing an invisible strait-jacket. He glowered glumly up at the press gallery. You'd have thought he was in some kind of trouble. Finally the moment came. The statement was a classic of its kind.

What he had done, he confessed, was "at odds with the proper expectations of the If Mr Wiggin was leaving someone's house, and a cascade of silver fell out of his coat, he would say that this was "at odds with the proper expectations of my Suspicions had been voiced, he said, surely not, Heaven forfend!" nobody was heard to cry) that he had done this to avoid declaring a financial interest. "There was no intention to deceive. But 1 accept that my actions were open to other interpretations. It sank gently in that Sir Alf was not apologising for what he had done, but for something which might have been misinterpreted as being wrong. He had, you might say, merely been borrowing the silver for a dinner in aid of paraplegic Romanian orphans.

Personal statements are traditionally heard in silence, which made it easier for us to hear the murmurs of disbelief from the Labour benches. The Speaker said she trusted this was the "last distasteful occasion" on which she would have to inquire into the conduct ofamember. I doubt it. If she cannot set their moral compass, who else is likely to try? Simon Hoggart DENNIS Skinner was the first MP to recover. As the Speaker finished, he shouted into the silent House: "Is that it? Has he got away with it?" And he had.

With one bounder, he was free. Sir Alf "Jerry" Wiggin had escaped. He can now walk through summer meadows, drink the heady wine of liberty, and table amendments in whatever name he pleases. It was sad to see Ms Booth-royd join the ranks of those who just don't get it, who don't realise the degree of contempt, disgust and despair so many ordinary electors now feel about Parliament. We are told that Mr Wiggin had apologised to her in person (she must have been wearing her silver-buckled "lick-me and had later suffered the humiliation of having to apologise to the whole of the House.

But there is no humiliation in grovelling before this lot. Who could possibly have any sense of self-abasement or chagrin at having to apologise in front of such people. As well expect Vin-nie Jones to feel contrite for kicking an opponent's shin. This was, we were supposed to accept a professional foul, something which would be understood by everyone else in the game. Of course he had taken money to promote a private interest.

Of course he had hidden it by tabling an amendment in the name of another MP, whose permission he hadn't troubled to seek. But, hey, who doesn't? Before his "apology" Mr Wiggin had to sit through a lacklustre statement on competitiveness from Michael Heseltine. Once again, The President 1 ADY Thatcher yester-I day denied that her 3 latest attack on John WnMajor's administra- was intended to incite his overthrow, but pointedly refrained from withdrawing her reported complaints that government policies especially on Europe "are moving rapidly in the wrong As more cabinet ministers piled in behind Mr Major to repudiate their former leader's intervention, the Trade Secretary, Michael Heseltine, twisted the knife by recalling Lady Thatcher's role in Britain's ill-fated entry into the European exchange rate mechanism at 2.95 German marks to the pound which was too high to sustain beyond "Black Wednes- Pride and prejudice of Sheriff Joe, the meanest, cheapest, harshest jailer in America Jonathan Freedland in Phoenix, Arizona T'HEY CALL him America's meanest sheriff, and he tloyesdtJoe. Arpaio. may look like a retired accountant, but he revels in his reputation as the toughest crimebuster in the business.

"I like to think that even though they hate me, they respect me," he says of the inmates of the outdoor jail that has made his name. Tent City he calls it, a clump of ex-army tents that house more than 1,000 prisoners on the desert edge of Phoenix. Sheriff Joe came up with the idea as a solution to prison overcrowding. "If tents were good enough for our boys during Desert Storm, then why isn't it good enough for criminals?" Prisoners and others say it is cruel to leave men exposed to the searing Arizona heat, especially in mid-summer, but the talk shows and television soundbites, Joe Arpaio denies his sights are set on Arizona's governorship photograph chris brovjn Soul of the artist under Nazism a coarse vulgarian. I suspect Harwood's intention is to pit the conductor against a man who refuses to take art's claims on trust.

But he thereby weakens the genuine case against Furt-wangler, that he lent his prestige to a barbaric regime. It is fascinating to observe how the debate really takes off when Harwood downplays the American's crudity. Once the major invokes the horrors of the death camps, he begins to expose the weakness of arguments about the supremacy of art. But equally, Harwood allows Furt-wangler the realisation that an artist can never be entirely apolitical and that his actions have social responsibility. At moments like this the play achieves the force of dialectic.

It is directed with iron precision by Harold Pinter and quite superlatively acted. Michael Pennington as the major has the difficult task of reconciling us to a man prepared to use every dirty trick in the book, but when he delivers his final indictment he persuades us that there is moral substance to him. Daniel Massey is also deeply moving as Furtwangler, marvellously suggesting that behind the passion for music lurks a guilty awareness of the man's complicity with a monstrous tyranny. Gawn Grainger as a collaborative violinist and Suzanne Bertish as an impassioned defender of the maestro also lend weight to a play that acts as a powerful metaphor for the present and all those post-authoritarian societies busy ransacking their pasts. but they were soft.

Their prisoners were only shackled at the feet. On Thursday, Joe Arpaio plans to do it properly, with convicts chained to each other. Tellingly, he describes the plan as "a sexy He also has a file about himself on hand for visiting journalists, and can tell you the precise number of radio talk show appearances he has made. This is the rub being an accomplished crimefighter in today's America is all about being seen to be tough on crime. The primary goal of Alabama's chain gang, like the old-style convicts' uniforms complete with arrows now restored in Mississippi, was publicity.

With voter anxiety about crime going up, even as the crime figures fall, it is reassurance people crave. And no one knows that better than America's meanest sheriff. and repression Beijing came as they sought to cool trade war rhetoric. Although the US threat of $6 billion in punitive tariffs against Japanese luxury car exports remains, the US Commerce Secretary, Ron Brown, said yesterday that the US would abide by any ruling of the new World Trade Organisation on the dispute. Japanese car manufacturers called for talks to resolve the impasse, and meetings between Japanese and US representatives are expected in Paris this week, at the OECD ministerial meeting.

Leader comment, page 1 2 Martin Woollacott, page 1 3 having been posted throughout the US and Central America, Sheriff Arpaio has" been embraced by his new community. Polls give him an 80 per cent approval rating in a county with a population of 2.5 million larger than that of 18 US states. He denies that he wants one day to be governor of Arizona. When he called for volunteers to form a citizens' posse just like in the movies 2,300 people came forward. Lawyers, doctors, and academics now patrol Phoenix in their jeeps, wearing uniforms, badges and carrying guns.

"I've even got an air posse," the sheriff boasts, referring to the volunteers with private planes. This week, Sheriff Arpaio's men will have another outing, supervising the debut of the Maricopa County chain gang. Alabama revived the idea first, The decision was virtually forced on President Clinton after the US Senate voted 97 to one, and the House 196 to none, in favour of lifting the ban against President Teng-Hui. It was conveyed to the Chinese ambassador to the US on Saturday, who said it would have serious consequences. Ambassador Li was told by the White House national security adviser, Tony Lake, that Congress was in no mood to compromise, and could well pass binding legislation that would upgrade US diplomatic relations with Taiwan, administration sources said yesterday.

The coincidence of the Japanese and US measures against "I use my jails as a crime deterrent," he says. "I want people to say; Tdon't want to go to that crazy sheriffs jail'." He has no time for liberal arguments about attacking the causes of crime. Save that for the social workers, he says. "That's going to take ages. In the meantime; put 'em in jail." Mr Arpaio was elected sheriff of Maricopa County as a retirement job, after a starred career in the Drug Enforcement Agency, Within weeks he attracted nationwide attention with his eye-catchingly simple ideas and mastery of publicity.

"We are in the county of the greatest sheriff in America," said Senator Phil Gramm, a Republican presidential candidate, speaking in Phoenix on Saturday. "I think we could use Joe Arpaio as director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons." Born in Massachusetts, and The effect is more symbolic than punitive. Japan's far greater programme of soft loans to China, which have totalled more than $18 billion since 1979, with another $7 billion on the point of being agreed, will not be affected. The US decision to grant a visa to President Teng-Hui is also symbolic, and of far less practical effect than President Bush's decision in 1992 to brush aside Chinese protests and sell F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan. But it nevertheless reverses Washington's refusal since 1979 to have formal links with Taiwan, and dents the one-China policy under which Beijing is seen as the legitimate government.

Michael Billington Taking Sides Minerva Studio, Chichester WHAT does the artist do in a brutal, totalitarian society? Can art ever claim to be above politics? It is a theme that haunts countless novels, plays and films from Mephisto to The Last Metro. It is also what gives life and energy to Ronald Harwood's Taking Sides at the Minerva Studio, Chichester, which deals with the case of Wilhelm Furt-wangler, chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Third Reich. Harwood's fierce moral debate is set in the American zone of Occupied Berlin in 1946. Major Arnold, a vindictive Philistine who in private life is an insurance claims assessor, is investigating whether the maestro should come before a de-nazification tribunal. Furt-wangler, for his part, initially argues thatartmust be kept separate from politics.

Eventually he admits his naivete, but he shifts his ground to claim that he was trying "to defend the intellectual life of my people against an evil Harwood strives to present both sides of the argument: the American's revulsion against the privileged claims of the artist versus the conductor's idealistic belief in the transforming power of art. But what prevents a good play from being an even better one is Harwood's portrayal of the American major as US and Japanese warning shots reflect nervousness over China's rearmament Bang to rights Master of the sheriff couldn't care less. "I'm glad they complain. If they liked it, it wouldn't be a good jail," he smiles. "Maybe now they won't come back." To that end, he has imposed the harshest prison regime in the US.

He has banned all privileges, from nude magazines to cigarettes. Coffee is illegal and classified as Food consists mainly of polony cold, cheap meat after he abolished the policy of three square meals a day. Entertainment is sparse. First videos were restricted to Donald Duck or Lassie. When the inmates objected, films were withdrawn altogether.

Next Sheriff Arpaio plans to regulate what television is shown on the one set in the communal day room the sole non-canvas structure around. He will allow only the weather channel and the televised pro South China Sea, and renewed domestic repression. "A new wave of suppression is unfolding on a large scale," the Human Rights in China organisation said yesterday. Wang Dan, the leader of the Tiananmen Square students, and Wang Xizhe, who launched the "Democracy Wall" poster protests in 1979, are among dissidents detained after the latest appeals to free the remaining prisoners of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. China yesterday accused Taiwan of setting up obstacles to any rapprochement, after being told that Taiwan's president, Lee Teng-Hui, is to be granted a visa to visit the US.

A leading S8 ceedings of the local council. "Cruel and unusual punishment," he says with a chuckle. The sheriff rattles off his achievements. He has brought the cost of prisoners' meals down to 30 cents the lowest in the country. Tent City itself is cheap because the tents, many of them veterans of the Korean war, were supplied for free.

"Some of them leak," he says, with unmistakable pride. The inmates work, which lowers costs even more. He is planning an extension, where prisoners will have to "shower and crap" outside. He also wants 50ft watch towers around the perimeter, "like a concentration His highest compliment came when he heard that Arizona criminals were pleading guilty to more serious crimes, so they could go to the state prison and miss out on Sheriff Arpaio's hospitality. figure in Taiwan's democratisa-tion process which will see free elections this year, President Teng-Hui is to attend a reunion of his Cornell college classmates in New York next month.

Japan, saying it was shocked by China's nuclear test last week, hours after an international agreement was signed to extend the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, said its $92 million (about 59 million) aid to China would be trimmed. "It is important that China adequately consider Japanese feelings on nuclear tests, because the government needs citizens' understanding to extend grants," said Japan's government spokesman, Kozo Igarashi. 5M 4 animal To a the Martin Walker in Washington iHINA, cracking down on 'dissidents at home in advance of next month's sixth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, faced foreign crises on two fronts yesterday, as Japan cut its aid in protest at China's nuclear test, and President Clinton reversed a 16-year policy of barring Taiwanese officials from the US. These two largely symbolic warning shots, coming amid China's internal power struggle for the succession to Deng Xiao Ping, reflect international nervousness at China's rearmament, its sabre-rattling in the inspectors on the road. And to keep just one of our three hospitals operating costs up to 800,000 per year.

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