He gamely tries himself out as a character – ‘I can program poorly

He gamely tries himself out as a character – ‘I can program (poorly) in four computer languages. A number of leading rebels said they would abstain, rather than vote against.Sir Marcus said: ‘Parliament has considerable powers.’ But he hinted that the 1922 executive would be seeking to delay, rather than halt the closures.He would not support ‘massive subsidies’ to keep loss-making pits open.’The impact of the number of pit closures, the speed with which they are going to take place, has caused enormous concern,’ he said ‘It’s true to say that some colleagues are incensed. But they imposed a severe practical restriction on the project by adding that the change would not be introduced until they were ’satisfied that the transmission arrangements (for Radio 4 on FM) meet the listeners’ need throughout the UK’.After talking to senior BBC figures, the ‘Save Radio 4 Long Wave’ campaign decided yesterday that the governors’ statement was a cast-iron guarantee that listeners who cannot receive FM would not be forced to tune in to rolling news – nicknamed ‘rolling bollocks’ by BBC journalists convinced it will consist of little else but 24-hour waffle and punditry.BBC insiders said the ruling was a setback for supporters of rolling news within the corporation.The service was originally due to start in the autumn of 1993, they said. Until it appointed a marketing manager, Jackie Horn, a year ago, the marketing function was fulfilled by a marketing partner, with outside consultants used on an ad hoc basis.According to Ms Horn, her firm is making a ‘real commitment to marketing with the necessary investment that it entails’.

THE FA Cup semi-finalists, Sheffield United, spoiled Brian Clough’s night of recovery with a relegation-easing victory of their own at Coventry City. An idealistic socialist, he feared their corrupting influence.In evidence to the Beveridge Committee examining the question of commercial television in 1949 he said: ‘The right of access to the domestic sound and television receivers of millions of people carries with it such great propaganda power that it cannot be entrusted to any person or bodies other than a public corporation.’His diffidence about soiling culture with commerce explains the curious homily that rounded off the station’s first night on air on 3 May 1956 (eight months after Associated Rediffusion’s London start-up).’You can use Granada advertisements as a trustworthy guide to wise spending,’ viewers were told ‘Wise spending eventually saves money. With people he feels are sympathetic, he will relax completely and start chatting about his passions, yachting and opera. As fledgling composers, G & S were modernists too – Gruber was a student of Stockhausen – but by the mid-Sixties they had rebelled back into tonality: into triadic harmonies and simple vernacular forms that derived from cabaret and the streets.Now, this was not so radical as it might seem, because, having cradled modernism, Vienna lost no time in fostering the baby out. In our view, any compensation scheme true to its name must return this amount in full to these households.We call on the Government to undertake immediately a full and open consultation process to ensure that, in delivering compensation, all vulnerable groups are fully protected from the impact of this tax.In addition, the Government should announce a major expansion of investment in upgrading the energy efficiency of low-income households. ‘The company has made trading profits of pounds 2m since 1 April,’ he said..

RAINWATER that fell on the Lake District more than 30,000 years ago has been discovered 850 metres beneath the Sellafield reprocessing plant in West Cumbria. John Turner’s attractive production combines elements of Christmas pantomime, rap narrative and bhangra dance. ‘Of all the governors of Hong Kong, Chris Patten is the most lonely,’ the Hong Kong Commercial Daily said.Mr Patten has most recently been left off next week’s invitation lists for a luncheon at which Lu Ping, China’s top official for Hong Kong, is to make a major speech, and for the ceremony to launch the first Hong Kong banknotes issued by the mainland Bank of China.’China’s stance of no dialogue with Britain remains firm’ unless Mr Patten backs down on his democratic reform proposals, a Chinese official said. As a consequence, De La Rue has grouped its cheque and passport printing activities with its currency printing business in an enlarged security printing division.The first results from the transactions systems division showed a 72 per cent increase in operating profits to pounds 5m, on sales 12 per cent ahead at pounds 64.4m. ‘Nothing’s changed]’She had a turbulent, at times exotic, childhood. Cardinal Martini, the refined biblical scholar, the Piedmontese bourgeois, the thoughtful observer of political complexities is clearly not cut from that clerical cloth.