There's something rather self-consciously hair-shirted about it.'script of Dennis Skinner's early life could have been taken from one of those grimy British films of the Sixties: poor Derbyshire miner's son, born in 1932, the third of nine children, to a staunch trade unionist who was victimised after the miners' strike of 1926 and a mother who took in washing; a childhood divided between playing on the coal tips and roaming the local woods for chestnuts and blackberries while mother, despite her heavy load, sang old music hall songs to her children and father talked the politics of the class struggle over the meagre meals; bright lad gets to grammar school and university beckons, but he gives it all up at 16 to go down the pit, because that's where his mates are.In the movie, it would end in gritty tragedy, because then, at least, it was beyond the imagination of British movie makers to create a working-class hero who would not be broken by the betrayals implied in social ascent. 'There is little food, few medical supplies, mediocre shelter,' said Irish relief worker, Anita Ennis.'These children have no clothes, no blankets, no mattresses. They filled it with 700 people paying pounds 45 a head, including the aristocracy of the fashion, rock and club worlds.The venue, Four Millbank, is a favourite rendezvous for MPs, who visit its restaurant and health club. Fignon, lieutenant to the Italian contender, Gianni Bugno, won the 249-kilometre 11th leg from Strasbourg to Mulhouse in a style that bore comparison with his heyday in the mid-1980s when he twice won the Tour.This was vintage Fignon, finishing alone 12 seconds ahead of his nearest rival. Other countries also went out of their way to laud the Italian measures. What it would demonstrate is not merely the high quality of the pictures inspired by the subject but their extraordinary variety.

How very odd, the stranger must observe, to find so carefully honed an undertaking in such a place. A former film actress, Madame Mao had seized control of the arts and wanted a new face to play the title role in her most ambitious propaganda exercise - a film, based on an idealised version of her own life, to be called Red Azalea. The retail arm, which includes 196 managed pubs, earned pounds 10.5m on sales of pounds 45.4m.The dividend is being raised from 12.3p to 12.9p, covered almost three-fold by earnings per share of 36p.Bottom Line, page 26. To me, that's a sign that we are over the hump of the old cynicism, and football is now seen for what it is; a magnificent event and a great sport.'In that order? Definitely.

But the 1991 loss included pounds 5.5m of exceptional costs. National Express forecast profits of pounds 6.5m before the flotation, which raised pounds 15m net for the group.Ray McEnhill, chief executive, said that the proceeds remaining from the flotation would be used to make acquisitions. The doubters were not encouraged to change their opinions when the Ramsay expert launched into quite different fields. Police and army units were last night patrolling mixed Hindu- Muslim neighbourhoods to avert another flare-up of communal fighting.. Two draining, euphoric cup ties in the previous six days did for them, and a Villa side mixing neat passing, lofted drives for Dean Saunders to chase and long punts for Cyrille Regis to knock down, were far superior.Wednesday went into what they would have regarded as a six- pointer with a makeshift central defence which will have had Saunders straining at the leash before kick-off.