The Mark Johnston-trained Double Trigger has a favourable draw in six, although Johnston admitted: “I don’t know what to make of it – I wouldn’t have reacted any differently had we been drawn in one or 24.” Double Trigger heads the handicap with 9st 7lb, a weight that no winner has carried since 1969.
Vintage Crop became the first Northern Hemisphere runner to capture the prize in 1993 and was seventh last year. He was courage on four chestnut legs, and we will miss him.Thanks to Lammtarra, Sheikh Mohammed was finally able to lead in a Derby winner at Epsom, though the colours were those of his nephew. He completed a treble – Derby, King George and Arc – which eluded all but Mill Reef before him. He did not even stay around to lead the line in the Breeders’ Cup at Belmont, (and in view of how close Freedom Cry, the Arc runner-up, went to winning the Turf, that may be a decision which Sheikh Mohammed now regrets). As MPs debate Nolan and the disclosure of their outside earnings, Labour backbenchers will not resist having a go at Tories’ links with the likes of Ian Greer, GJW, Westminster Strategy, Westminster Communications and the other specialist parliamentary consultancies

For many Labour MPs, lobbying is a dirty word That, at least, is the public face. Ice-hockey pucks (Martin Smith).AJ Brewer notes that the numerological value of “tortoise” is four, which uncannily is identical to that of “Fidel Castro”.

To me, the bizarre thing is that anyone should ever consider Tory MPs worth paying, in the way “exposed” by the Sunday Times. Genetically engineered tortoises may, according to Fiona and John Earle, operate civil engineering sites and save money on hard hats. There are other games that I do not remember ever having seen on television, even in these global days, such as Thai kick-boxing and the Burmese game called chinlon but, as I do not have access to a non-stop sports channel, I may be behind the times here …Judging from Thomsen’s list of things I am supposed to be used to, I certainly am behind the times I have not got used to Big Macs I hate Big Macs. The judge warned the jury at the outset: “Remember, you are not trying Rene Bousquet for what he may have done, but Christian Didier for responsibility for this killing.”. Paris – The French Prime Minister, Alain Juppe, is preparing to introduce controversial changes to France’s 50-year-old social security system by edict, under cover of an official government policy statement, it emerged last night, writes Mary Dejevsky.

The changes, designed to arrest disastrous financial losses in the system, are currently being finalised. It had been expected that Mr Juppe would present his “structural solution” to the “grave difficulties” facing the social security system during a two-day parliamentary debate on 13 and 14 November, giving MPs a chance to discuss and vote on the measures Now this debate may be cancelled. Admitting to unhappy relations with his father, international wandering, failure as an author and a history of mental illness, Didier darted capriciously among the judge’s questions, sprinkling answers with references to his “traumatisation” as a child.If the defence lawyers and a section of the public wished the Didier trial to become the trial of Vichy, or at least of Bousquet, they may be disappointed. Standing alone in front of the microphone, dwarfed by the red-robed dignitaries, he went from stumbling replies to garrulousness.

The Saint-Die council last week passed a motion asking the Paris court to show clemency. The town, close to the German border, was almost destroyed during the Occupation, and Mr Didier claims that his childhood was scarred by the constant stories of round-ups and killings that were told around him.Despite his already mythical moral stature, Mr Didier cut a sad and confused figure yesterday. His long-standing friendship with then President, Francois Mitterrand, is cited as a possible reason why the investigation took so long.Mr Didier enjoys strong public support. His defence lawyers are bringing a dozen or more specialist witnesses – professors of moral philosophy, historians and lawyers, specialising in the Holocaust and in the war crimes of the Vichy regime, and individuals who had been called to testify against Bousquet when it was expected that he, not Mr Didier, would be in the dock.Didier’s home town is also standing by him. He was indicted for war crimes in 1991 at the instigation of the anti-Nazi campaigner Serge Klarsfeld, and was awaiting trial at the time of his death. In 1987, posing as a doctor, he got into the Lyons prison where Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo in France, was being held.

In 1991 he tried to force his way into the Elysee Palace to complain about former Vichy officials not being brought to trial. He also admits to having tried to kill Paul Touvier, the Vichy intelligence chief in Lyons.His trial has attracted huge attention in France, reviving once again the unresolved question of the Vichy regime and how to deal with it. The police arrived to arrest him as he was explaining that Bousquet was a “monster” who deserved to die.Mr Didier, who was brought up a Catholic but professes admiration for Jews, has a history of pursuing senior Vichy officials. Bousquet, contrary to usual practice, answered the door himself. As he bent to look at the (false) papers, Mr Didier shot him at point blank range five times.Afterwards, Mr Didier took the Metro to a hotel in the Lilas district on the eastern fringe of Paris, and invited a selection of media organisations to a “press conference” about the not-yet-reported murder of Bousquet.