imagine as you are lying mouth open in the dentist’s chair and questions are raised in your mind about the dentist’s skills as he drills into your gum and not your teeth.”You ask to see his certificate of competence. This would probably be made available through classic car clubs.Four-star has been linked with brain damage in inner-city children and is banned in Germany, the Netherlands, the United States and Canada.. THE BITTER feud over plans to scrap hereditary peers’ voting rights broke out once again yesterday as Jack Straw spoke of them as an “absurd and offensive” principle. Pledging the Government’s determination to press ahead with Lords reform, the Home Secretary warned Conservatives they would be defeating the will of the electorate if they voted against the legislation.
“The principle of hereditaries is seen to be completely preposterous, risible, the moment it is applied in any other walk of life… Oil companies were devising lead-free alternatives for four-star cars without the need to install a catalytic converter, the spokeswoman said.Ms Jackson stressed the new rules would allow “a very limited supply” of four-star fuel for “historic vehicles”. Who will actually watch all this stuff he didn’t say, but perhaps that’s for another day..
FOUR-STAR leaded petrol is to be banned from sale in the new millennium under a European directive, the Government confirmed last night. The Transport minister Glenda Jackson said in a Commons written reply that this type of fuel would be forced off the forecourts from 1 January 2000 under regulations being prepared by the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions. The move would bring Britain into line with a directive on fuel quality passed by the European Parliament and the European Council last month, a department spokeswoman said.
About five million cars in Britain run on leaded petrol, with three million of those able to be converted to run on unleaded petrol, according to the department. Every year, apparently, 30,000 media students graduate from universities and colleges. This is an appalling statistic and for a moment it seemed as if Lord Bragg might propose some way to stem the senseless waste of young lives.But, on the contrary, he wanted to find them jobs – creating programmes for a new cable channel, funded by existing broadcasters as a hothouse for young British media talent. To show that she meant business Miss Boothroyd later rapped Sir Norman Fowler, the Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield, over the nose with a rolled-up copy of Hansard when he too began to drift towards that irresistible lamppost.In the House of Lords, Melvyn Bragg was making his maiden speech, and conjured up a vision more alarming than marauding Freemasons or a disgruntled Speaker.
Since the columns of every newspaper in the land were filled with discussion of the general’s future, and since MPs and ministers were able to comment freely outside the chamber, could the Speaker confirm that “we alone are not allowed to discuss this issue?”Yes, the Speaker could confirm it.MPs, used to the idea that they have more privileges than the man in the street, looked rather crestfallen, as only harshly disciplined dogs can. He quoted Hansard, he quoted Erskine May, and the more he did so the more Madam Speaker tugged irritably at his choke-chain. “This is getting rather tedious,” she said crossly.Mr Leigh’s whining became a little more strangulated as his collar tightened but it did not cease altogether. They knew, as everyone else did, that the Speaker has the power vocally to neuter a wayward canine.But, later, in a far more impressive display of nerve than that demonstrated by Mr McWalter, Edward Leigh, the Conservative MP for Gainsborough, raised a point of order about the Speaker’s ruling.
It was an act of self-restraint that called to mind the heroic obedience of a dog required to balance a meaty treat on its nose, until its owner gives the word of permission for it to toss it in the air and gobble it down. So yesterday, despite the tantalising presence of the Home Secretary, and despite several promising questions on the order paper, there was not a peep about him during oral questions.Even Eric Forth, the Conservative MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, and David Winnick, the Labour MP for Walsall North, managed to ask questions without mentioning his name. They knew that there is something far more unnerving than disgruntled Freemasons and far more effective at stilling loose tongues in case of reprisals.
Last week Madam Speaker made known her displeasure at repeated attempts by members to raise the matter of General Pinochet’s arrest and possible extradition. “Did the Home Secretary understand,” he said, that such secretive groups were “capable of precipitating real fear?”
Mr McWalter had his back to the wall as he made his point; if masked men were to attempt to seize him and bury him up to his neck at low tide he knew, at least, that they couldn’t come from behind. Maybe he now hopes that Mr Straw will assign a Special Branch team to protect him from the Masonic fatwa that must already have been issued, but other MPs didn’t look greatly impressed by his selfless act of bravery.
