She recalled only repairing to a back room with Mrs Saxton but didn’t remember what they had talked about whether

She recalled only repairing to a “back room” with Mrs Saxton, but didn’t remember what they had talked about, whether they had stood or sat, or what furniture might have been in the room “I can’t remember… I don’t know, I think but I can’t be sure,” she said repeatedly.Then she was confronted with the only tangible evidence that her story was contradicting her husband, who has refused to speak to the inquiry team about this and the other 400 cases. The cremation certificate Shipman signed clearly stated that she was present at the time of Mrs Chapman’s death. “Does this not cause you doubt – that you were not there?” asked Mr Spink.”I wasn’t there when she died I don’t remember being there… she wasn’t…” she said before her voice faltered, she apologised and looked to Dame Janet.After taking a sip of water she continued. “As far as I can remember, Mrs Chapman was dead when I went into the house.

I didn’t know about [the form] it until recently,” she said.The inquiry continues on Monday.. The head of the Arts Council, Gerry Robinson, is facing a revolt by some of the most senior figures in arts administration who say they have lost confidence in him and accuse him of “a lack of confidence and a lack of integrity”. who don’t listen and don’t care”, in an authorised biography to be published next week.Mr Robinson, who is a former chairman of Granada, has run the council since 1998. He is known to have the ear of the Prime Minister and was brought in to bring more business acumen to the affairs of the council, which hands out £243m a year in grants.Sir Simon, who is shortly to take over the Berlin Philharmonic after bringing the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra world fame, tells his biographer, the BBC Proms director, Nicholas Kenyon: “I am stunned at how British orchestral musicians manage to survive. Shame on the Arts Council for knowing so little, for being such amateurs, for simply turning up a different group of people every few years with no expertise, no knowledge of history, to whom you have to explain everything, where it came from and why it is there, who don’t listen and who don’t care. Shame on them.” Sir Simon said: “They will scream when you write this, and you must They abandoned us. Thank God for Birmingham City Council [which gives a £1m grant], because otherwise we would have had to sack a lot of musicians.”Mr Robinson is also under attack with accusations of secrecy and lack of accountability.

He is introducing a new system of arts administration, which regional administrators claim will mean a lessening of power for them and more decisions being taken in London.Two chief executives of regional arts boards have resigned, Sue Robertson of the London Arts Board and Roger Lancaster, the chief executive of Yorkshire Arts.A letter obtained by The Independent, sent by Robin Guthrie, the chairman of Yorkshire Arts and a former member of the Arts Council, to the Arts Minister, Baroness Blackstone, is scathing about Mr Robinson. Mr Guthrie writes that the new process demands a great deal of energy and time and “I shall personally have nothing to do with the new organisation – certainly so long as it is led by Gerry Robinson.”An even more damning letter from six chairmen of regional arts boards was sent to the the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell, in the summer. The six said the reforms would prove more expensive than the £8 to £10m forecast. And they wrote: “We must now express our personal loss of confidence in the ability of the current leadership of the Arts Council to bring about beneficial change .. The Arts Council has behaved …