Mrs Thatcher was in Paris when her power started to drain away

It's a pretty crushing indictment o the power o notoriety that this particular incident is considered so much more signi icant than the humdrum sel -annihilation o people, including a signi icant number o children, whose crimes - more o ten than not merely alleged - are known only to those in ol ed in them. More rom Deborah Orr. The Blair era is almost o er. It is ending in a way that echoes the all o Margaret Thatcher. She was orced out as a result o a rebellion by the cabinet and Conser ati e MPs. Mr Blair is losing control o er the manner and timing o his pre-announced departure or similar reasons. Mrs Thatcher was in Paris when her power started to drain away.

Mr Blair was making a speech in York when the rebels stirred Already e ents are mo ing ast. orget about the aguely con licting letters being circulated by e erish Labour MPs A bigger story broke yesterday. The cabinet minister Da id Miliband, who has worked closely or Tony Blair or many years, told the BBC that the Prime Minister would be gone by this time next year. Mr Blair's allies pointed resti e Labour MPs in the direction o Mr Miliband's inter iew That is the line, they insisted desperately He is going. More rom Ste e Richards. So when did Margaret Beckett become oreign Secretary then? With them all being so similarly robotic and awning it's easy to orget which one does what. But when I saw her speaking in Iraq I thought, "That can't be right", the same as i you watched EastEnders and saw that rank Butcher was now being played by Syd Little. As i to emphasise the miscasting, the minute she arri ed things started blowing up e en more than usual.

So she did her little pre-rehearsed speech about how things were impro ing "step by step" and there was still a lot to do but she'd witnessed encouraging signs and so on. And this was all said with the same intonations as i she was a local councillor opening a youth club. More rom Mark Steel. Chimpanzees ha e de eloped the ability to cross roads sa ely, research has ound. Male chimpanzees protect emales and their young by taking the ront and rear positions in a line, to a oid the danger o tra ic.