The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 33

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1999 33 The Daily Telegraph Est. 1855 Britain deserves better 1 HURCHILL once famously said of a pudding that it had no theme. Much the same criticism could be. made of yesterday's Queen's Speech. With 28 Bills, it had been trailed as one of the most extensive ever.

Yet there was little that will make much difference to most people's lives. John Prescott's vaunted transport Bill will doubtless make motoring even more expensive. Apart from that, most of the measures foreshadowed yesterday are likely to pass unnoticed in middle Britain. There was certainly no big idea, and perhaps that was deliberate. But it still seems an oddly unambitious approach for a party with such a huge majority, particularly as the coming parliamentary session could be the last full one before the election.

There were no significant announcements about either education or the NHS, despite the Queen's reassurance that "education remains my Government's number one Instead there will be Bills covering such diverse issues as freedom of information, trial by jury, race relations, the Patten report on the RUC, the right to roam, political funding and the age of consent for homosexuals. Here some threads, at least, can be divined. The speech may have contained little for ordinary voters, but there was plenty to gladden the heart of Labour activists while causing minimum inconvenience to their masters. Thus the public will gain rights to inspect official information, unless i it concerns ministers and mandarins. Similarly, the right to roam will be expanded while that to trial by jury will be restricted.

The homosexual lobby will be pleased both by the reintroduction of the Bill to lower the age of homosexual consent, which the Lords threw out in the last session, and by the repeal of Clause 28. The unions will be satisfied that, while the Post Office is to become a limited company, the sale of shares in it will be specifically prohibited. And, as always with Labour, regulation features prominently, despite the presence of one lone and contradictory deregulation Bill. The notorious Financial Services Bill, which failed to make the statute book last time round, will be reintroduced, together with fresh measures to regulate utilities, railways and care homes all three established new Labour bogies. Much of this is worrying in itself.

Even more worrying is the casual lack of respect for individual freedom that so many of these measures reveal. Trial by jury is one of the oldest and surest safeguards of the citizen's liberty. But Jack Straw, apparently, considers that in many cases it has become little more than an expensive anachronism. The powers to be vested in the Services Authority are so Draconian that many lawyers already expect them to be the subject of early challenge in the European Court of Human Rights. Private property will be literally trampled under foot by the new right to roam.

The right to roam freely on the Queen's highway in a family car, meanwhile, is condemned as anti-social and taxed accordingly. Speaking in the Commons yesterday afternoon, the Prime Minister devoted more energy to extolling the economy and attacking the Conservatives than he did Blair, to of the coming has year's to make his programme. political Mr. course, capital as and where he can, and he had to try to return the palpable hits scored by William Hague. But with an election perhaps only 18 months away the Prime Minister should be worried that his administration has so far made such little impact on the key public services.

When he faces the voters he will not have much of a story to tell about either health or education. On transport, it will be even worse. These issues will always matter, whatever the strength of the economy. Labour ungrammatically entitled its last manifesto "Because Britain deserves Two and a half years later, it still does. The Tory fight-back URIED on an inside page of the opinion Guardian poll yesterday showing was that an the ICM Labour lead over the Conservatives has fallen to 10 points.

This is the best showing by the Tories since William Hague became leader and the first time that the gap between the parties has been narrower than Labour's 13-point lead at the last general election. The Guardian which makes much of its independence of the Government was too embarrassed to report the. most interesting opinion poll since 1997 on its front page, let alone to deem it worthy of comment. One poll does not make a recovery. And even if this modest Tory resurgence is borne out by other evidence, most governments would be very comfortable with a mid-term lead of 10 points.

Still, it must be a fillip for Conservative morale to find the party's Herculean efforts at last reflected in the polls. Those efforts included the European election, in which they won a famous victory, though not famous enough. For it was then, according to ICM, that the long-term swing against Labour began. History may well confirm Mr Hague's conviction that June 10 was a turning point. Many people are less frank with pollsters than they used to be.

Polls consistently underestimate the real level of support for policies and personalities of whom the media disapprove. This means that Conservatives usually do worse in polls than in elections, even when they are in opposition. By the same token, the approval ratings for Tony Blair and the Labour Government are artificially boosted by a kind of inertia. The unpolitical, those who don't know and don't care, feel a vague obligation to tell the man with the clipboard what they think he wants to hear: that they are Labour voters. Many of them were, of course, in 1997; and those who voted Labour for the first time, however disillusioned, may still be reluctant to admit that they made a mistake.

The task for the Tories remains formidable. With sound policies and an undisputed leader, however, they are a match for the faltering Blairite project. This is not the beginning of the end of Mr Hague's ordeal; but it is the end of the beginning. Island of freedom? WHAT is being hailed as a triumph for freedom and modernity, the ruling body of the five-squaremile Channel Island of Sark will agree next week to reform its ancient land laws to allow daughters to inherit property. The Chief Pleas, as this quaint legislature is called, has also agreed to review the archaic system of government, which is run by a hereditary Seigneur and where landowners have an automatic right to rule.

At present, only 12 members of the Chief Pleas are elected. The other 40 belong automatically as the owners of "tenements" or land holdings on the island. In agreeing to "modernise" Sark, where motor cars and divorce are banned, the Chief Pleas will be acting under pressure from the secretive multi-millionaire Barclay brothers. They want all four of their children to be allowed to inherit shares in the £60 million castle that they have built on the neighbouring island of Brecqhou, which is ruled by Sark. Under the present arrangements, which came into force in 1565, when Helier De Carteret colonised Sark for Elizabeth land can be handed down only to the eldest son and cannot be divided.

The brothers, who own the Scotsman newspaper among many other interests, took their case to the European Court of Human Rights and lobbied the Home Office to press for reform. Now that they have won, modernisers everywhere are rejoicing. But not us. And not the 600 residents of Sark. They did not ask for reform, and now they accept i it only with unenthusiastic resignation.

There they were, jogging along happily for more than 400 years, affectionately proud of their unchanging system of government. And then along came a couple of multi-millionaires, who scurried to a pan-European court to try to impose their will on the island. We wonder what on earth this has got to do with freedom. Footnote Alexander Chancellor WELL, I ask you: when was the last time This implicit confession of the Sun ever made anybody laugh? humourlessness.is supposed, of course, to Sometimes it is mildly entertaining. give the opposite impression.

It is Sometimes it manages a striking headline. supposed to show that the Prime Minister Often it makes the flesh creep. But make can take a joke and shares with the British you laugh? Among the testimonials it public what he presumes (I trust wrongly) solicited yesterday to mark its 30th to be its idea of one. It is a common anniversary was one from Lady Thatcher delusion among politicians to think that saying that "when the fainthearts faltered their popularity depends on their and the Wets wilted, the Sun did appearing to have a sense of humour. Take but the Iron Lady certainly didn't suggest the case of Al Gore, who is hoping to that she founds funny.

I know of only one succeed Bill Clinton as President of the person publicly admitted to this, United States. He is well to be one and he is our Prime Minister, Tony Blair. of the most boring politicians alive. Yet In a fawning tribute to the Sun yesterday, this is how he says in a press interview he he praised its "sense of fun" and its habit imagines the end of a perfect day: "Go of "putting a smile on people's and back to the cabin and build a fire. Barbecue he ended by saying that he didn't mind its on the deck.

Light some candles and talk criticism of himself. not even a front page and tell stories. And laugh. And laugh headline calling him "the most dangerous some more." I can think of no political man in Britain" because "I also know leader who has been elected for mindless that some of it, barbed as it may be, will cackling, but the message just won't get make me through. www.dailytelegraph.com Letters to the Editor Canada Square, London E14 5DT Telephone: 020 7538 5000 Fax: 020 7538 e-mail: Trafford Park, Manchester M17 1SL Telephone: 0161 872 5939 Reassurance on decommissioning SIR -I am concerned that it is asserted in your leading article (Nov.

17) that current proposals in Northern Ireland involve a U-turn by the Ulster Unionist Party on the decommissioning of paramilitary On Monday, Senator George Mitchell concluded that the parties devolution should occur and the institutions be established at the earliest possible date. It is also common ground that decommissioning should occur as quickly as On Tuesday I said: "The establishment of inclusive political institutions and the commencement of the process of decommissioning are the first steps in this process." Sinn Fein, in its statement, said: "Sinn Fein accepts that decommissioning is an essential part of the peace process. believe that issue of arms will be finally and satisfactorily settled under the aegis of the de What I did not say SIR- Robert Shrimsley is right to say that the rash of stories about Cherie Blair's clothes came from a conversation I had with journalists on the flight back from South Africa (report, Nov. 17). What I did not do, contrary to the central point of those stories, was say that Mrs Blair had ever complained to anyone about the costs incurred.

I simply pointed out that she was determined to look her best when accompanying the Prime Minister on official business, and that meant spending a good deal of her own money. Nor did I make any link with the issue of Cabinet ministers' pay, on which point, finally, I do not earn more than Cabinet ministers. Nor will I next April. ALASTAIR CAMPBELL Chief Press Secretary 10 Downing Street London SW1 Abusing the Queen SIR- -It was disappointing that as the result of the removal of most hereditary peers, none of the Royal Family was present at the State Opening of Parliament, though the Princess Royal was there as Gold Stick in Waiting. It is a further erosion of the Royal Family's place in our national life and it should not pass unnoticed.

More serious were certain aspects of the Queen's Speech. The purpose of the speech is to announce Bills that will be introduced. The Queen is constitutionally bound to read what is written for her by the Prime Minister. It was therefore more than shocking that he should use this occasion to oblige the Queen to commend his recent achievements more people in work; employment up by 700,000. Effectively the Prime Minister tricked the Queen into promoting his propaganda.

It is wrong. HUGO VICKERS Ramsdell, Hants SIR- -Can the Home Secretary and Lord Williams of Mostyn explain, as the ministers who will be proposing writers are requested to give both Chastelain Commission as set out in the Agreement." Yesterday the announcement was made that the IRA would appoint its contact person to enter into disthe de Chastelain Decommissioning Commission in addition to the Sinn Fein appointee. Gen de Chastelain has said that his commission will issue a report "within days" of the commencement of those discussions on the modalities for decommissioning. I confidently expect that report to indicate arrangements for the next phase of the decommissioning process. Against this background, I would have thought it is clear that I am firmly of the view that devolution must be accompanied by decommissioning and cannot otherwise work.

DAVID TRIMBLE, MP Leader, Official Ulster Unionist Party London SW1 the removal of the right to choose trial by jury, why the former recently called the measure "not only wrong but sighted and likely to prove ineffective" the latter branded it Sir IVAN LAWRENCE, QC London EC4 Pill that kills SIR- You wrongly stated that the "morning-after is a 'contraceptive" (report, Nov. 9). It is an abortifacient which kills the fertilised ovum. I hope you are not a deliberate party to Sir Michael Havers's lie as Attorney-General when he told the House of Commons on May 10, 1983, that the Pill is a contraceptive, thereby giving it a false legitimacy. Whereas the Government has told us how much taxpayers' money it spends on "the but not on legal damages "for wrongful no government has ever told us how much taxpayers' money it spends on procuring miscarriages, morningafter pills, "the Pill" and contraceptive devices.

Government calls itself "modern" and but in its culture of divorce, abortion, sterilisation and promotion of lesbianism, it is anti-civilised. imploding population and great decline in morals. F. C.J. RADCLIFFE London EC4 all that SIR -Lyn Jenkins (letter, Nov.

15) may be interested to know that her version of these matters corresponds closely with that given by Sellars and Yeatman in 1066 And All That: "The Scots (originally Irish, but by now Scotch) were at this time inhabiting Ireland, having driven the Irish (Picts) out of Scotland; while the Picts (originally Scots) were now Irish (living in brackets) and vice versa. It is essential to keep these distinctions clearly in mind (and verce visa)." GAVIN MARTIN Skipton, N. Yorks their work and home telephone numbers Peterborough frost Unsporting THE Prime Minister is the oddly world shy see about what letting a good tennis player he is. Photographers who sneaked shots of the PM practising his top spin at the Durban summit were warned that, should they publish any, they'd be barred Commonwealth Score to settle: Marianne Faithfull 7538 6455 How Red Ken shows up Tony Blair SIR- The national organisation of the Labour Party, in insisting that Ken Livingstone should subscribe to their manifesto (report, Nov. 17), have proved yet again that they do not understand the process of political decentralisation which they themselves have in motion.

This not be their manifesto. It should be the manifesto of the London Labour Party and of any candidate they may ultimately succeed in choosing. It should be none of Millbank's business. It is impossible to decentralise power in the state without also decentralising power in the political party. Liberal Democrats have always understood this.

The Conservatives are beginning to learn it. Labour do not understand it at all and therefore have what they are doing. That is why they have got themselves into such a mess. Earl RUSSELL London SW1 SIR- -Coming from Tony Blair, it seems a bit rich to be "worried about Ken Livingstone's extreme There are two outstanding characters in the Labour Party who have consistently lived out their genuinely held beliefs, laced with colour, courtesy and humour. One is Tony Benn and the other is Ken Livingstone.

Their consistent behaviour has earned them a credible reputation. st Mr Blair's vacillations and volte-face have exposed his deceit and guile. The London electorate deserve better than a slippery sycophantic Blairite nominee. BAKER Blandford, Dorset SIR While I was not a supporter of Ken Livingstone when he led the GLC, and would not vote for him as London Mayor, he needs all our support in his fight against Labour's "controlling 'controlling tendency" doesn't trust the people to decide. It is this contempt for London's voters that means that Tony Blair cannot accept a Labour candidate who does not agree him.

The London Mayor's role is to speak for London and not act as a mere mouthpiece for Mr Blair. ANDREW WAUCHOPE London SW10 SIR -Neil Kinnock is a senior civil servant of the European Union. Thus his interference in the Labour Party's choice of mayoral candidate is wholly unethical. G. COMER East Grinstead, W.

Sussex SIR- Since it is now becoming clear that Labour's candidate for mayor will be forced to stand on a manifesto which he or she will be powerless to influence, what is the point of the party wasting time and money on an electoral process when the candidate could simply be appointed by the Prime Minister? Few Londoners are likely to be convinced by such a hollow "democratic" charade. PETER RUSHTON Hyde, Ches Corner cutting needles tailors in Savile Row BATTLE royal has A broken out on Savile Row between traditional tailors and what they see as vulgar international pedlars of offthe-peg encroaching on their territory. Now the old guard are launching a tailoring kitemark to distinguish the creators of handmade bespoke suits from suit shops with a Savile Row address. They propose to special "SR" banner at shops vetted by the "Companions of Savile "These banners should show customers that, while THERE was a fracas at Television Centre the other day when Peter Snow, the notoriously excitable presenter of Tomorrow's World, was found with a gun on his person. "It was all very funny," says a passer-by.

"Snow had to unload his gun which he said was a replica before the security guards were satisfied." Happily it turned out to be a prop. "We don't think the incident funny at all," a BBC spokesman says. "Mr Snow and the researcher were stopped by security guards as they left the building. It's really not the sort of thing we want Mr Snow to comment on." Admirers may be interested to learn that Mr Snow who affected a Stetson and cowboy boots while studying Classics at university was known as "Six Gun" by contemporaries. Coughing in the aisles SIR -While one cannot take exception to Dr Bagshaw's statement that the effect of a cough is no different on a plane than in any other place where people are gathered (letter, Nov.

12), it is misleading to say that no case of "active" TB has been identified as a result of exposure in a commercial aircraft. In 1996 Dr Kenyon and colleagues of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, documented transmission of TB from a highly infectious passenger to other passengers proven by tuberculin skin tests. was not suggested by Dr Kenyon that the mycobacterium tuberculosis was transmitted by the plane's air circulation system but proximity to the source of infection as well as duration of exposure were important factors. In this report, those seated within two rows of the infectious more than sourcelvere become infected. J.

C. DAVIDSON Tibberton, Glos Single questions SIR -I am getting tired of the simplistic thinking of people like Nicola Saunders (letter, Nov. 13). I am 68 and single. Throughout my working life I paid National Insurance for my state pension, and six per cent of my salary for an occupational pension.

During that time I contributed to the upkeep and education of other people's children through rates and high taxes. I am still doing so. SHELIA TATE Bracknell, Berks Crimean delusion SIR- When the decision was taken to attack the Dardanelles (report, Nov. 13), memories of the Crimean War of 1854-56 were still comparatively fresh. One of the lasting impressions in British minds of that war was the cowardice of the Turks as evinced by their withdrawal from the redoubts at Balaclava which led indirectly to the Charge of the Light Brigade.

However, it has now been well established that the Turks were forced to withdraw only after some two hours' hard fighting in the teeth of overwhelming Russian superiority. The heroic Turkish defence of Eupatoria and successes on the Danube were all forgotten or ignored, and the British went into the campaign convinced that they were dealing with backward poltroons. W. S. CURTIS Crimean War Research Society Rhyl, Clwyd A Frenchman, please SIR -My uncle Gaston Berlemont's father was not a Belgian (obituary, Nov.

3). Gaston's father, Victor Berlemont, was born in St Quentin, France, and served in the French army during the First World War. He was the descendant of a Constant Berlemont, who served under Napoleon, and had two other sons who served in the French army during the Second World War. (Mrs) PATRICIA SNEARY London SW16 they will get suits cheaper elsewhere, only in approved tailors can they be assured of the full service, says Michael Skinner of Dege. Another tailor, clearly needled, added: "One of the newcomers has admitted to me that if he never sold a suit, the rent would still be worth it in terms of having a Savile Row address.

Anyone can put a sign in their window saying they are a bespoke "We do not hand-make our suits," concedes Ian Jones of Alexandra, one of the shops under fire, "but that's not the definition of bespoke as we understand it. We are responding changing times. If the tother tailors on this street wish to remain as dinosaurs, that will be sad. I would like the chance to sit down with them a and discuss this." "They were only allowed to take photographs of heads of governments relaxing with their permission," says a Downing Street spokesman with no perceptible sense of the ridiculous. WHEN the Royal Court theatre returns to its Sloane Square home, will it resume a tradition? "We used to have a nude cleaner," says artistic director Ian Rickson.

"He vacuumed in the middle of the night with no clothes on. We don't know why he did that." SIR Peregrine Worsthorne offers ringing support to my call for Auberon Waugh to be knighted. "I shall certainly propose him," he says. "It would be only to return a favour." "Bron" successfully campaigned over 10 years for "Perry" to be knighted. Marianne takes aim from future meetings.

'HEN an NME reporter asked WE most Marianne like to be Faithfull revenged, on whom she she'd replied: "I can't tell you because it's happening right now. It's a big, big, big, thing coming. There's going to be trouble. Somebody had better watch out. I you any more." A friend says: "She's had a long career.

It could be anybody." DIANA's mother, Frances Shand Kydd, is cock-a-hoop at the release of her charity single Will You Walk On on which our own "Whispering" Bob Hardman plays keyboards. "I thought I might get a call from Chris Evans asking me out for a date," she says. "He knows all about Ginger Spice; you never know what he might think about Old Spice." MAGNANIMITY in the competitive world of restaurants. "We've only been open for four days but it's been an absolute disaster," says Mark Fuller, of the new Reef. "But I asked Marco Pierre White for advice and he even offered to loan us Titanic's head chef to help sort us out.

Now things are back on track." Cole: From Harrods to Herod Royal scoop FORTHCOMING ITV A Zero, series, presents Bethlehem the Year Christmas story as it might have been reported on the television news: with Martyn Lewis as anchorman and the current mayor of Bethlehem issuing a statement about the accommodation crisis. Their "royal amusingly, is the former Harrods spokesman Michael Cole, who reports from the court of King Herod. "From Harrods to Herod," chirps Mr Cole. "I will be covering the Massacre of the Innocents, the death of John the Baptist and Herod's tertiary syphilis." 'SIR Sting doesn't have much of a ring to it," muses the pop star. "It's going to have to be Lord Sting or nothing." Stinky Winky? FROM Tesco's Free Gift Guide: "Baby's first Pooh will be a life-long cuddly playmate for any baby and would make an ideal Christmas present." Edited by Sam Leith e-mail:.