They can be cancelled for no reason at all – and cancelled speedily too

They can be cancelled for no reason at all – and cancelled speedily too.”Labour, which only imposed a one-line whip, broadly backed the Bill, but spokesmen emphasised the need to ensure that the mediation services it envisaged did not turn out to be another Child Support Agency.t The Conservatives who voted against a Second Reading were: John Butcher (Coventry SW); Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman (Lancaster); Dame Jill Knight (Birmingham Edgbaston); Sir Michael Neubert (Romford); John Patten (Oxford W and Abingdon); Sir Trevor Skeet (Bedfordshire N); and John Townend (Bridlington). The tellers for the “noes” were Tories Edward Leigh (Gainsborough and Horncastle) and Bob Dunn (Dartford).The two Labour MPs were Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) and Dr Jeremy Bray (Motherwell S). In practice, that is likely to mean a measure will be announced in this autumn’s Queen’s Speech, while the Lords’ amendment – described by Mr Freeman as “defective and insufficient”- will never be brought into force.Introducing the concept of the “genuine” free vote, Mr Freeman promised that the issues of removing fault from divorce and the length of the cooling-off period would be dealt with in this way. They were joined by three Ulster Unionists, two Labour MPs and one Liberal Democrat.To a barrage of criticism from critical Tories as he opened the debate, Roger Freeman, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said his door was open to any backbencher who wanted help with drafting a workable amendment that could be put to the vote at the committee stage. And, “as a measure of our acceptance of the principle”, a Lords amendment on splitting pensions on divorce would not be overturned.Earlier, Mr Freeman prom- ised the Government would bring forward legislation “at the earliest opportunity” following a Green Paper in July. The first Commons debate on divorce law reform for a quarter of a century saw nine Tory rebels defy a Government instruction to back the controversial Family Law Bill on its Second Reading last night.

The rebellion came despite Government efforts to meet critics’ concerns, with pledges to change the law to allow divorced wives a share of husbands’ pensions and promising “genuine” free votes on the key reform of no-fault divorce after a year.
A heavily whipped Government side easily secured the Second Reading by 280 votes to 13, a majority of 267 – but the rebellion, led by the former Cabinet minister John Patten, presages a far stronger protest during the coming free votes and a bruising line-by-line standing committee stage.Seven Tories defied the party whip, plus two Tory tellers for the “no” votes. Cattle markets around the country were empty yesterday with buyers not turning up.The statements by Mr Dorrell and Douglas Hogg, Minister of Agriculture, followed a meeting of Cabinet ministers at which they rejected, for the immediate future at least, the solution canvassed by Mr Hogg of killing up to 4.5 million cows.Mr Hogg continued to press the case for a cull in the 11.8 million national herd but was isolated by a powerful coalition of ministers who lost no time in pointing to the fact that the scientific advisers had not made any such recommendation.Kenneth Clarke, the Chancellor, was also against such a mass slaughter – which could cost the Government several billion pounds in compensation to farmers, threatening a big increase in the PSBR and undermining chances of tax cuts.But the EU ban left many MPs convinced yesterday’s statements, far from drawing a line under the crisis, would be little more than a holding operation for the Government.EU ban, page 2. Senior officials and scientists are being sent to Brussels today to pursue Britain’s case.The newly established committee of senior Cabinet ministers will today meet to consider its next step in the wake of the EU ban – described last night by Mr Dorrell as “outrageous”. The EU ban also covers processed food such as stock cubes, soups, sweets and gelatines with beef extract.

Asked when the public could be sure that any risk of an epidemic of CJD caused by BSE-infected food was over, the answer was also that they did not know.Downing Street said last night that Mr Major, who expressed, his “astonishment” at the EU decision, had secured a promise from Mr Santer for a second look at the scientific evidence. but there are limits to the sensitivity of the tests, so in our calculation we can only say within limits of the tests.” Inquiries by the Independent have also established that the Department of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) still cannot answer two key questions central to the crisis. Asked yesterday whether a single mouthful of infected beef could be enough to pass on the disease or whether the effects were cumulative, both departments said they did not know – though Maff said that a single gram of contaminated feed was sufficient to infect cows. His announcement followed a 40-hour meeting of the Spongiform Enceph- alopathy Advisory Committee (Seac) over the weekend which concluded by saying it did not “believe that additional measures are justified at this stage” – but the situation should be “kept under careful review”.However, Professor John Pattison, chairman of the committee, revealed a widening gap between ministers’ certainties and increasing uncertainty in the committee about the dangers posed by BSE. Asked whether red meat was safe to eat, he said: “There is no evidence in cases of BSE infection in muscle meat. “We are delighted for Diane,” the BAF spokesman Tony Ward said. “And if she decides to compete again internationally she will be welcomed back into our team.”Modahl planned to celebrate the news in an appropriate fashion “I’m going on a run,” she said.

“It’s going to be a very exhilarating one.”Full report, page 24. The Government’s attempt to restore ebbing public confidence in the meat industry threatened to misfire as a furious John Major last night protested to Jacques Santer, President of the European Commission, over a blanket EU-wide ban on British beef. A Cabinet-level decision to veto a hugely expensive programme of cattle slaughter was swiftly followed by the disclosure of two more suspected cases of Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD), promises by Wimpy, Burger King, and Wendy’s fast-food chains not to use British beef, and the politically combustible ban by Europe.
Last night’s developments came after Stephen Dorrell, Secretary of State for Health, told the Commons he would not be issuing new advice to parents to withhold beef and there were no plans to take it off school menus. I am very angry that it happened in the first place.”"The powerful organisations in control of my sport can make you or break you,” she added. “I believe there were those who wanted to break me.”The IAAF Council, meeting in Cape Town yesterday, decided the Lisbon laboratory which originally found huge levels of testosterone in Modahl’s urine sample after a minor meeting in Portugal two years ago had provided analytical data that was “not satisfactory”.The council took into account independent scientific evidence provided by Modahl to show that testosterone could be produced in urine samples which were not stored correctly The BAF welcomed the decision. The mental strain it has placed on myself, my husband and our friends has been enormous. The former Commonwealth 800 metres champion had a four-year ban lifted by a British Athletic Federation appeal panel last September, and international endorsement of that decision now means she can seek an Olympic place this year.
Modahl, 29, who is training in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her husband and coach Vicente, reacted to the news with a mixture of delight, disbelief and anger “It is still sinking in,” she said “We went the whole distance, and we won.