"IT WOULD be morally indefensible to oppose it." This claim was made by one of those behind the "protato" – the genetically modified (GM) wonder crop we were told last week will solve malnutrition in India. No one should be fooled.
IMAGINE THE outcry if the Home Office gave residency to a Muslim political activist wanted by Interpol in connection with the murder of a policeman. Imagine if that person was found living in luxury and working with children. Now imagine if that person was a racist member of South Africa's fascist Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB), which used extreme violence to oppose black majority rule.
"BLAIR'S REFORMING reshuffle," read the Guardian's headline on Friday last week. How naive can you get? In the first place, the post of Lord Chancellor is undoubtedly an outdated hangover from an earlier era.
WHAT A debacle. Tony Blair's disastrous cabinet reshuffle was supposed to help strengthen his government's purpose and resolve. It has had the exact opposite effect. Now a number of key Blairites like Alan Milburn have joined the ever expanding ranks of ex-ministers on the back benches.
IF YOU think college fees are terrible now, look what could be in store. The government says it wants to cap top-up fees at £3,000. But the retiring vice chancellor of Cambridge University, Alec Broers, has called for the cap to be raised to £6,000.
ISRAELI PEACE activists say Ariel Sharon ordered the assassination of a leader of the Palestinian group Hamas in order to "bury" any chance of peace. The Gush Shalom group says the attempted assassination of Dr Abdel Azziz Rantisi on Tuesday of last week was designed "to destroy Palestinian prime minister Abu Mazen and prevent a planned truce".
THE RELENTLESS testing of school pupils is coming under increasing fire from teachers and parents. But as anger grows against the tests, education secretary Charles Clarke has announced that even more will be inflicted on school students. Clarke is demanding that pupils are tested in all subjects at the age of 14 so they can decide which subjects to drop at GCSE level.
AS THE car giant Ford celebrated its hundredth anniversary, it was also being fined £300,000 for safety breaches that led to the death of a worker. Christopher Shute drowned in a vat of hot paint at the Ford factory in Southampton.
A 102 year old woman in Kent faces eviction from her care home because she can't afford to pay the increased fees. Winifred Humphrey is a victim of the privatisation of care for the elderly. Over 86 percent of care homes are in private sector hands. They are run as a business with high fees for residents and low pay for staff. This is the reality of Blair's "modernisation" of public services.
