07/01/93 "Strange Notion Of Honor"

DON'T know what your New Year's resolutions were, but one of mine was not to receive a knighthood. I find them much overrated and decidedly embarrassing. My agent, Ron Stevenson, must have made the same resolution.......

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14/01/93 "Must It Be All Rest And No Pay?"

JUST about everyone seems to have a view on this one. If I was to receive marks for every group that had contacted me, I might just be in line for a Big Chief I‐Spy badge by now. The subject isn't the recession or Maastricht or pit closures.......

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21/01/93 "Saddam Is Easy Target For The West"

YOU can't lose these days if you want to exterminate Saddam Hussein. A cry of "let's bomb the hell out of him" rallies the Government and Press corps troops like nothing else. Killing "the beast of Baghdad" assumes the status......

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28/01/93 "Britain Going Off The Rails"

AS a child I was once given a model train set. I can still recall the sense of incandescent anger I felt when, after three days, I still couldn't get near the thing because my father and various uncles were engrossed in "setting it up properly".......

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05/02/93 "Time To face Some Home Truths"

I AM reading a book at the moment, but I'd better not tell you too much about it You are, you see, not fit to read it. It is written by a former Israeli security agent and claims that Britain and America systematically broke their own arms.......

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11/02/93 "Putting A New Face On Britain"

WHERE were you when Labour unveiled its plans last weekend for a pathway out of the ruins of John Major's "bankrupt Britain"? Like most of the country, I suspect you might have missed it. Those who didn't might (sadly) be not much the wiser.......

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24/02/93 "Passport Checks A Distraction"

ARE Britain's passport checks for European travelers the one thing which stands between stability and a flood tide of illegal migration? To judge by Charles Wardle's decision to resign as a Government Minister on this, you might conclude.....

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25/02/93 "Facing Up To Harsh Reality"

THERE were two important lessons I was taught during the General Election campaign. The first was that the public were far more concerned about crime than about any other issue apart from dog muck......

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04/03/93 "Straight Replies But Still No Joy"

VISITING the European Commission is a breathtaking experience. The directness of answers you get is refreshingly different from those of British civil servants. Whether the answers themselves infuriate or inspire you, they are certainly illuminating.....

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11/03/93 "Do Fair Play Over Forest"

JUST for a minute join me in a bit of football fantasy. All it requires is a little excitement (real or imagined) about the game itself. Imagine that Brian Clough had discovered a new Pele ‐ a young lad playing in a little known outpost of Africa......

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18/03/93 "Who Calls The Tune?"

THE political system in Italy has recently been rocked by the scandal of corruption and financial malpractice. Resignations have been tumbling in, and there is a national future about whether ministers should be granted immunity from prosecution......

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23/03/93 "Bikers Clipped By EC Rules?"

MOTORCYCLISTS are revolting. This has nothing to do with personal hygiene, sleeveless denim jackets or an opinion on the relative merits of Chanel's Pour Monsieur and Duckham's 20‐50 motor oil.....

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01/04/93 "Records Broken, For What Reward?"

THIS has been a great week for those of you who voted Conservative at the last election. Your Government, your party, has just sunk a nail so deeply into the side of Nottinghamshire that it will leave the county deeply wounded for decades......

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08/04/93 "A Time To Look Back In Anger"

NO bouquets, no flowers. I simply stood in the Market Square and took a deep breath. It's not the clearest mountain air you'll ever come across, but it's home. Home from the crazy world of arcane rules and all-night sittings. Parliament has taken a break.....

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15/04/93 "Closer look At House Style"

I AM aware that, in writing this column, I've never really given yon a peek inside at the daily rituals of the House of Commons. Let me draw back the curtains so you can look a little closer. Parliament is a tale of everyday folk......

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22/04/93 "Europe Must Help In Bosnia"

I have put off writing this particular column for several weeks. Why? Because I've been afraid of getting it wrong; scared of pushing for something which could be worse than the tragic mess we already have. I'm talking of course about Bosnia.....

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29/04/93 "It's An Old, Old Story"

GROUPS lobby Parliament like the tide visits the beach. Each day, delegations supporting or opposing different issues arrive at the shores of Westminster, demand an audience with MP's, write their names in the parliamentary sand and then disappear.

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06/05/93 "Bread And Butter Vote"

HERE is a man I know who used to drive me barmy. He was in the habit of calling round at about 11.30 at night, to give me an update on the street lighting which was defective, and on pavements which were in a dangerous state of disrepair....

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20/05/93 "Is It Really that much to Ask?"

HERE are mixed blessings associated with the global television network that now seems to be a part of our everyday life. It does make it easier to understand that the world is a very small place; that what happens in a far off corner of the planet......

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27/05/93 "Costing Poor An Arm And A Leg"

NOT too long ago some trans­plant surgeons in America came up with a bright idea, they knew that the health ser-1 vice in the US was creaking at the seams and that the poorest 30% of the population received no health care at all.....

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03/06/93 "Forgive The British Bus"

THIS is a tale of love and sex and buses. Well, actually it is mainly about buses, but the other two do have important walk-on parts. I have to confess that between buses and me, it was not love at first sight As a child even thinking about buses made me sick....

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10/06/93 "Peace In Our Time In Israel"

I HAVE just come back from a parliamentary visit to Gaza and the West Bank. We were the first MP's to go to the area since Israel closed the borders of the Occupied Territories in March. It was a sad and moving experience.....

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17/06/93 "To the White House: Dear Bill,"

I KNOW that these are difficult times for you. The US economy is still in a mess and you seem to be dogged by errors of judgment. But I just wanted a quiet word about your foreign policy. The argument that you have used to justify....

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24/06/93 "A Poor Big Bang Theory"

IF you were shipwrecked on a desert island what is the first thing you would set about doing? The answer I invariably get from people is "rebuild myself somewhere to live". I ask this, not as a riddle or a party game, merely to see that priorities people.....

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