Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, was forced by the presence of protesters to have a cup of tea instead of delivering a speech in Islington on nuclear energy. After his cup of tea he said that energy policy was ‘back on the agenda with a vengeance’ while ‘round the world you can hear the heavy sound of feverish rethinking’. The government is expected to produce a preliminary White Paper on the matter next spring. Even before it was published, a report on pensions by a commission headed by Lord Turner was discounted by Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a leaked letter. Later remarks by Mr Brown, still before the report’s publication, threw doubt on a deal struck between Mr Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and public-sector unions, guaranteeing them retirement at 60. Muggers under 17 should ordinarily be given community sentences instead of being jailed, if they used only ‘minimal force’, according to the Sentencing Guidelines Council, made up of senior judges under the chairmanship of Lord Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice.
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