He checked to his satisfaction, and decided to publish or be damned; he has ended up damned.The ramifications of the Mirror’s misjudgement were unusually grave, because of the subject matter and the climate in Iraq. In an unreserved apology, it said that the paper had been the subject of a “calculated and malicious hoax”.
There has been no serious suggestion – except from the paper’s diehard enemies – that the Mirror knowingly printed fake pictures. Once the arm-chair consensus had agreed that they did not look genuine, it was easy to concur. The dismissal of Piers Morgan as the editor of the Daily Mirror is a regrettable conclusion to a dishonourable episode. The Mirror now acknowledges that the pictures that it printed purporting to show British soldiers maltreating Iraqi prisoners were fakes.

It can also be objected that the money earmarked by the Government is not enough to replace what the retired workers have lost Nor will it be retrospective, which is clearly unjust. The pensioners of bankrupt companies may have to settle for less than the amounts to which their company schemes entitled them.But it is still more than they would have got without the Government’s change of heart, and, at a time whenmany workers will have to rely on private provision, with all the risks that entails, it is still proportionately more than the next generation of pensioners is likely to receive.. This is what these workers did, at a time when the choice was between the company scheme or nothing.
It is easy to be cynical and argue that the decision was announced in time for the local elections Of course, there is politics here as well as justice. Failure by ministers to act would also have sent the opposite message to the one the Government wants to convey, which is that people should make provision for their own retirement. The only surprise about the Government’s decision to set up a fund to help 60,000 workers who lost their pensions when their employers went bankrupt is that it was so long in coming. The alternative was to leave retired workers who had expected company pensions relying on state benefits. These people had paid into company schemes precisely in order not to depend on state benefits.

Yet while his supreme gifts gave his music an unforgettable quality, above all, it was his deep humility and natural goodness that shone through, to bring such added distinction to a rich and fulfilling life.Kenneth Shenton. In 1998, amid great pomp and ceremony and no little pride, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge.Modest in outlook, substantial in commitment, dynamic and diverse in equal measure, Percy Young enjoyed a worldwide reputation second to none. A long-standing supporter of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, he also served as its historian, meticulous as ever, as he charted the club’s somewhat roller-coaster fortunes of recent years.Awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Institute for Advanced Research in Humanity at Birmingham University, Young was also a Vice-President of the Elgar Society and a Fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters. He was a member of his local borough council, a school governor and a co-opted delegate on a number of statutory health bodies.

Commissioned for the 1960 Zwickau Festival in Germany it was repeated specially at the 2002 event in honour of the composer’s 90th birthday.Young never spared himself in the service of his beloved Midland community. These include “Virgin’s Slumber Song” (1932) and a fine setting of Robert Louis Stevenson’s cycle of poems, From A Child’s Garden which dates from 1941. Works on a larger canvas range from the 1931 Passacaglia for Violin and Piano through to the Fugal Concerto in G Minor for Two Pianos and String Orchestra some 20 years later Particularly fine is an Elegy For String Orchestra. Essentially a miniaturist, choral motets, solo songs and chamber music dominate his early period. Criticised by some, lauded by others, here was an Elgarian authority allowing the public a rare and privileged insight into the composer’s mind as he approached the end of his life.Throughout his career Young was equally prolific as a composer, though the demands on his time often relegated it to a secondary activity.