The murder of James Bulger hangs over the whole country like a dark cloud. All of them poured scorn on it: ‘I’d be amazed if any reputable company would do such a thing,’ said one. Commissioned in the Royal Corps of Signals, he was posted to Singapore and spent virtually his whole service as a prisoner of the Japanese in Thailand.He was remarkably little affected by this; although I remember his describing how he and others would risk punishment by pooling their prophylactic doses of anti-malaria drugs to save sick prisoners who would otherwise have died.After the war he applied to join the Colonial Service, as administrator; but with his mathematical background and obvious ability he was persuaded by Col Humphries, who was recruiting survey staff, to become a surveyor instead; and after training he joined the Tanganyika Survey Department in 1946. As John Petersen, UK head of public affairs for Amex – which, like Diners, has always charged for the right to hold a card – points out, this led people with more than one card to review the contents of their wallets.’There may be more cards in issue, but the number per individual may have dropped,’ he says.But just as members of the public are reviewing their card holding, so are the operators reviewing their policies on dispensing them.In particular, Amex, which offers the Optima credit card to holders of any of its charge cards, admits that it is shifting from the more egalitarian policy developed over the past decade.While dramatic cuts in the charges made to merchants are making the charge card more widely available than before – in garden centres and off-licences rather than just high-class hotels and ritzy shops – Amex is tightening up on card holders.About 6 per cent of personal card holders have been ‘involuntarily cancelled’ in the past year, Mr Petersen says. LOOKING at the Premiership table this weekend I can only agree with the bookmakers, the only worthwhile bet is who is going to finish second? With the hard- fought point from the Newcastle fixture, Manchester United’s domination of the championship appears complete before the half- way stage is passed. Clearly, there’s less mud involved: indeed, the Gladiators contest (which is basically It’s A Knockout performed in rubberwear) takes place on a set as squeaky as the bathroom in a show home.

Some managers get lucky and build an outstanding team but you don’t build three or four great teams like Sir Matt did through luck He did it all with the human touch He was no softie but was a warm, friendly man. Admiral Sir Richard ‘Dickie’ Fitch, 64, was discovered by his wife in his fume-filled car parked in the garage at their home in Middleton-on-Sea, West Sussex.
Sir Richard, who was second in command of the Royal Navy before retiring five years ago, had been a Lloyd’s ‘name’ for several years.His French-born wife, Lady Kathleen, told the hearing at Chichester: ‘He was suffering clinical depression due to the worry of Lloyd’s over the last three years.’The depression affected him quite a lot at times and it would lead to a certain irrationality in his behaviour.’Asked if her husband was suffering financial hardship because of the Lloyd’s situation, she replied: ‘He would probably have faced difficulties in the future. In particular, a rather joyful serialisation of The Three Musketeers (Radio 4, Thursday) has just started. ‘All our staff are on annualised- hours contracts, which means there is no overtime system,’ the ITN man said.

Demand for some properties in good residential areas is strong and not matched by supply, yet there is little interest in properties in secondary areas.’Housebuilders appear to be more confident about the future. The buyer arranged for the work, a Degas drawing, to be deposited in a bank, left it there for five years and then returned to Agnew’s asking ‘What’s it worth? And will you sell it?’ On the other hand, Agnew says, most people need to know that the money spent is justifiable in terms of the market, should they want to re-sell.The Old Master sales ended last Friday; another set of buyers will be pouring into London this week – for the British picture auctions They, too, are likely to pop into Agnew’s. I don’t think books are intrinsically better than movies.Mostly what I think about is how children now look at the world. We are born in Kosovo and we must be ready to die for our land.’Adem shared a ‘classroom’ with 50 other young Albanians. Unless the system is kept scrupulously up to date, with old products whose quality has fallen being crossed off the list and new products whose quality has risen being included, it will gradually lose its authority.There is also a danger that names may be used entirely arbitrarily to preserve the commercial advantage of a small group of food businesses, and the high price of scarce products. Under the White Paper, a local education authority has to share responsibility with the new national funding agency when 10 per cent of its schools have opted out, and loses all funding control when the figure reaches 75 per cent.Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: ‘Wherever Mr Patten fears the voice of democracy may be heard he seeks to silence it.

A visitor comes into my room and makes himself at home, fiddling with pens on my desk. The day before, they had been ordinary civilians.Battle-hardened veterans of the Georgian national guard were swaggering about, their chests festooned with rows of bullets. He finds it peopled with heartless pleasure-seekers and moralising hypocrites, all rotten to the core. In the UK, its bigger deals included flotation of MFI as a public company and the demerger of Chubb and Racal.Half of SNC’s profits come from its businesses outside the UK..

It’s on for another five weeks (to 12 Jan; tickets bookable at Ticketmaster, 010-1-212-307-4545). One boy ‘crossed all the boundaries’ by leaning forward and kissing her on the cheek. For the darkest years of the war the APN was the only English-language paper on the Continent and once had the honour of being insulted by Goebbels. RETIRE as he might, the limelight would not stop shining on Desmond Douglas. At this point in time, there is no plan to run the 1993 Grand National.Wally Pyrah (Coral): The Grand National is the biggest betting bonanza of the year.