The seasonal gesture, typical of Mr Norman's flair for PR, is meant to underline to staff and customers alike that the revival of Asda, which began the supermarket price war 15 months ago by slashing produce prices, is not simply about price-cutting. None the less, it must surely be true that price aggression has been a big contributor to Asda's surprisingly strong 9 per cent increase in first-half like-for-like sales growth at a time when the industry saw increases of 1 to 2 per cent. Georgians put aside their doubts about Gamsakhurdia, an expert on Shakespeare, by saying that he was after all the son of a much-loved Georgian writer.But after he took power, his critics began accusing him of dictatorial tendencies and suggesting he was mentally unstable. Absence from school with parents' knowledge accounts for another large group of cases which has a rather different origin. In 'Muff Diva' she camps it up as a 'professional lesbian' with knobs on (literally, when she produces a double-ended dildo).

The policy of the Major government towards the service was clearly put on to the record last November by Stephen Dorrell, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, when he promised nothing less than a 'long march through Whitehall'.Yours faithfully,BARRY REAMSBOTTOMGeneral Secretary, Civil and Public Services AssociationLondon, SW1122 July. The US can export its culture to most places other than France, but France finds it difficult to export its culture across the language barrier to the Anglo-Saxon world. Over the past 18 months Fisons has faced a succession of woes, beginning with the decision by the US Food and Drug Administration to ban two of its products.The problems led to profit warnings, shareholder criticism of the management and a tumbling share price. Indeed, it so dislikes opposition, is so constrained and calmed by it, that what ought to be a labour of love - resistance, investigation, challenge and above all the creation of a historic conversation with the people - is only an enervating labour of Sisyphus. The common impression is that ECT is about as scientific as kicking a television set because it is not working. He is not quite as mobile as he was before he went to Clifton, but I think he's a great prospect.'Mobility has been hampered recently by a knock he received playing for the Exiles against the North and Midlands at Northampton on 12 December. However, there will be some champagne to celebrate key psychological and physical milestones, such as Cape Horn, Paul's 30th birthday, and Christmas.

Lancaster had its own distracting problems of industrial decline and unemployment.Since then, visitor spending in Morecambe - adjusted for inflation - has fallen from pounds 43.6m to pounds 6.5m. One in 10 of the 600 church-school heads questioned felt this way.David Hart, general secretary of the NAHT, said last night that the Bishop of Ripon, who had seen the survey results, had promised to pass on the association's concerns to the Secretary of State for Education, John Patten. Take her love of a bright, singing red - magazine-spread red. Thus in the NHS and state education, for example, government has devolved control from Whitehall without setting out its new strategic goals and monitoring their implementation.