1. In November 1955, at the Messina conference that laid the foundation for today's European Union, Britain's representative, a pipe-smoking Oxford-don turned-civil-servant called Russel Bretherton, made a brief comment: The future treaty which you are discussing has no chance of being agreed; if it was agreed, it would have no chance of being applied. And if it was applied, it would be totally unacceptable to Britain.
2. As a look at European households by the Family Policy Studies centre found, «the pace of change can only be described as leisurely». Similar research from America produces the identical conclusion. Even in Sweden, where it has been national policy for decades to make both the public and private spheres strictly gender neutral, the reality is that this is far from the case. Very few men take paternity leave and the jobs women go to are overwhelmingly «female» ones like day-care and nursing.
3. In Mr.Aznar's book the socialists who ruled post Franco Spain for 13 years, over-reacted by idolising all things foreign and despising the home-grown. That, says Mr. Aznar, meant being too obsequious to — among others — the European Union.
But it is proving hard to legislate Spaniards into being prouder of their history.
4. Tired of corruption and crime in the state [Maharashtra, India], voters, with some help from a few honest bureaucrats, are starting to disown bad government. Some citizens are challenging the abrupt transfer of their municipal commissioner, who had upset the rich and influential by ordering the demolition of some of their illegal buildings.
5. Elaborate international networks have developed among organized criminals, drug traffickers, arms dealers, and money launderers, creating an infrastructure for catastrophic terrorism around the world.
6. Aspects of the welfare reform program have infuriated legislators on Labour's left wing and interest groups representing the sick and disabled, who say that the proposed cuts will take benefits away from some of the neediest people.
7. During the Thatcher years, when whole industries collapsed, many people who lost their jobs found that their doctors were willing to declare them incapable of working. This enabled them to sign up for incapacity benefits, which pay more than unemployment benefits, and allowed the government to claim that fewer people were actually unemployed.
8. What to make of her [Albright's] humiliation? Some say it shows that charm and sound-bites are no substitute for geopolitical grasp or for attention to detail.
9. A law of 20th century communication has become evident: The length of a sound bite is inversely proportional to the complexity of the world and the overload of information to which we are exposed. Columnist G.W. summarized it best when he noted that if Lincoln were alive today «he would be forced to say, «Read my lips: No more slavery!»
10. The Liberal Party has pushed for a reinterpretation of Japan's pacifist constitution to allow greater freedom for the military overseas, but the Liberal Democrats opposed that. The two sides finally agreed to allow Japan's Self-Defense Forces to «actively participate and co-operate in UN peacekeeping missions if asked to do so by the organization.»
11. So, it's back to the drawing board for the U.S. Treasury and the IMF. Will they really come up with some new «architecture)) this time, something like going out of the global management business? Don't count on it.
12. Assuming that Vodafone completes its takeover of Air Touch, the resulting mobile-phone behemoth will become the world's largest cellular group.
13. A fashion designer sued the government of Kuala Lumpur for assault and battery Friday, saying he had been coerced into making a false confession. He and two others confessed but then retracted the allegations, saying police had forced them into making false declarations through the use of threats and physical abuse in order to build a case against the ex-finance minister.
14. «Regional Independent» offer (for takeover of Mirro Group PLC) is subject to financing, which some observers said could be tricky given the company's already leveraged condition.
15. Both Chancellor of Germany and President of France played down reports of a monumental row between their countries over how to bring the EU budget and agricultural programs under control.
16. Elections for the European Parliament are due in June, and almost all publicity is good publicity, from the parliament's viewpoint.
17. In determining the choice of candidates, was it a case of the more telegenic they were, the more chance they had of success?
18. The show [exhibition on Arab Spain in Grenada] was an eloquent statement about the need for an introverted country [Spain] to acknowledge its Moorish past and build bridges — to Maghreb as well as the New World and Europe.
19. Instead of tackling the problems of racism, jobs, inflation, social services and the like, which would make life more fruitful for the masses of people, the «revitalization» plan is organized to fill the formula demanded by big business.
In brief, «revitalization» is a raid on the Treasury for the benefit of big business. But it is also more; it includes the factor of an increase in monopolization of the economy, as The New York Times' editorial indicated.
More, it tightens the grip of monopoly on government; it is a step in the direction of something like a «corporate state». It means less popular influence on government. It will only increase the problems and troubles confronting the people.
20. The transport union executive yesterday announced a stepping up of the campaign to defend fair fares — after London Transport confirmed redundancy proposals and the Transport Minister held out no hope for their cause.
The union decided to allocate £10,000 for a campaign to defend subsidised transport in London and places such as South Yorkshire.
It also announced that its members would not obstruct members of the public who refused to pay the increased fares, due in two weeks' time.
21. While a few MPs are believed to favour this revolutionary proposal certain party leaders and older MPs are opposed to it.
22. Another early confrontation could occur in Nottinghamshire over the proposed closure of New Hucknall colliery near Mansfield.
The Board announced yesterday that «redundancies are inevitable» in Kent, as it plans to shut Snowdown Pit within three months, putting 960 jobs in jeopardy.
23. Senior staff at Granada TV's London offices staged a one-day strike yesterday in protest at the company withdrawing creche facilities for staff children.
All 50 members of the TV technicians' union, at Granada's Soho offices stopped work for the day, both men and women. Most of them were producers, directors and researchers.
The strike was called because of the company's decision to end the creche facility for staff children at a local nursery centre.
24. Leaders of the Federation of Labour met representation of the Government and employers on Nov. 17 to discuss how to further implement the suggestions regarding a longer term wages policy which had already been discussed.
The major element in the discussion was the implementation of a Court ruling to hear the case for wages rates «catching up» in relation to past inflation.
25. At present, even the existence of the office is officially classified. In the intelligence community, it is known as a «black» operation, meaning that nothing about its work or the identity of its officials is subject to public scrutiny.
26. The vision one gets of a so-called constitutional reform is one of cheap nagging and bargaining, all at the expense of the Canadian people, who have been completely excluded from the debate.
As for the New Democratic Party, «Rather than coming forward with a truly democratic alternative to the constitutional crisis, the NDP too has become part of this 'wheeling and dealing' at the expense of the national rights of the French Canadian people, the rights of the native peoples, the economic and social rights of the Canadian people,» the statement charges. From being among the advocates of Canadianization of resources, the NDP has now become the champion of provincial ownership of resources, even though these resources are in fact in the hands of the multinational corporations.
27. In the case of the Union of Post Office workers a member could be excluded from membership for up to twelve months since there was no provision for any stay pending appeal to annual conference.
28. The company is reluctant to consider the workers' demand for wage increase. What seems to be the case is that it wants to prevent any drastic steps being taken to interfere with their profit making activity.
29. The fact is that local industrialists were invited to become members of the board when it was set up, and it must have been obvious that they would not only be concerned with local development, but in some cases be personally involved.
30. Complicated legal issues which have arisen are being studied by the Attorney General's department which believes there is a case for damages against the tanker's owners.
31. Yet for large and small nations, their record in the General Assembly does provide a yardstick with which to measure the application of their publicly announced foreign policy.
32. Mr H. is the only serious rival at present, and if politics was a science, he would be a formidable rival. He has a splendid record as a reform mayor and a courageous Senator.
33. Mr N. had been under fire from many sections of the student community for allegedly being out of touch with the problems of ordinary students, and his speech tonight was being regarded as a make-or-break bid to win back popular support for executive policy.
34. The biggest problem, however, is likely to be on the wage front. How cooperative will the unions be this summer as their demands culminate? A strong point is that the Chancellor of the Exchequer can now have as fullscale and thorough a Budget as he thinks necessary.
35. The tourist potential is as yet largely untapped. But every effort is being made to develop the industry into a major foreign exchange earner. Apart from the existing facilities, the National Development Corporation is embarking upon a major programme for tourist accommodation facilities.
36. There has been a vast deterioration of public facilities throughout the nation over recent decades, according to the study just made public by the Council of State Planning Agencies.
The council's 97-page study declares that the nation's streets, roads, including the Interstate Highway System, publicly operated solid waste and toxic waste sites, treatment plants, port facilities and dams have been permitted to deteriorate drastically. Hundreds of billions of dollars are necessary to halt the ongoing deterioration and to restore the facilities to their former level, let alone expand them to fill growing needs.
The most important factors in the deterioration are not included in the study: the diversion of hundreds of billions of dollars from maintenance of the nation's public works into the pockets of the rich, through tax giveaways and the huge war budget. The cancer is bipartisan.
37. Americans are accustomed to a confrontational, adversarial relationship between the government and business. Japan's regulatory style is based on intensive dialogue and extensive interaction that leads to compromise.
38. Americans may have been disturbed by Lockheed's conduct but few of them had any sense of wounded national pride or much concern over loss of face in the international community.
39. The problem now is how to de-escalate this international crisis.
40. America should weigh the president's program on its merits and ignore the pretence that all the changes he has proposed are either necessary or sufficient to conquer stagflation.
41. Coming mainly from academia and think tanks, where they had been on the outside for years, they (Russian emigrants) found that being on the inside was both exhilarating and excruciating.
42. Big business relies on its massive public relations rumor mill to twist truth into lies. There is no question that this campaign has been a success.
