Halifax has assets of pounds 60bn nearly twice the size of its nearest mutual rival Nationwide Anglia and is four times the size

Halifax has assets of pounds 60bn, nearly twice the size of its nearest mutual rival, Nationwide Anglia, and is four times the size of Leeds Permanent, which he left on Friday. Mr Blackburn is likely to make the most of his new post, which he assumes in August when Jim Birrell retires. (First Edition) ONE OF Baroness Thatcher's ministers, Lord Gilmour, last night accused her of vandalising the best television in the world and pandering to the world's worst newspapers, writes Anthony Bevins.Calling for curbs on the tabloid press in an address at the Council for Freedom of Information's annual awards ceremony in the City of London, Lord Gilmour said many were afraid of trespassing on the sacred ground of press freedom.But He heaped scorn on the tabloids, which displayed all the arrogance of unreformed trade unions, and he added: 'The same editors and journalists who were poodles to Lady Thatcher for 10 years now solemnly assert that any measures that are brought in to civilise the press will turn it into poodles of the Government. Gadgetry too, she regretted, had contributed to reducing acting skills to a minimum in raucous Bollywood productions, as Bombay studios are popularly known.Devi's fame and gentle personality endeared her to people like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, the Pathan leader, all involved in the freedom struggle against the British.She was also friendly with Krishna Menon, free India's first High Commissioner to London, and at his request sang 'Amander Yatra Holo Suru' ('Our Journey Has Just Begun') at the High Commission in Holborn, at the time of India's independence in August 1947.A die-hard Calcuttan - all are fanatically attached to their neighbourhoods, however destitute - Devi refused to shift from her spacious home during the Naxalite or Maoist uprising in Bengal in the Seventies when armed youngsters brought armed revolution to the streets, killing whoever they whimsically deemed privileged. And, with his steadily improving batting, he might even have the potential to challenge Chris Lewis for the all-rounder's role.Caddick sent down eight overs without success before ending a violent innings of 44 - including eight fours and a six - from Dave Joseph, bowling him via an inside edge. She wasn't ready for the responsibility and she wanted her independence and her career.

THE COMMONERS of Crosby Ravensworth fell in Cumbria have been asked to take the first step in a national plan that will eventually save the Government millions of pounds in subsidies to hill farmers. 'Funky Black Shorts may only be six 10-minute, low-budget films, but for the company it's a real breakthrough,' he says 'We've never done a series before. Whether this a realistic possibility at anything above twice book value is a moot point But keep on coming it will. Instead, two blades fit down the side of the cork and the neck of the bottle and you pull the handle to get the cork out.This was rated as one of the easiest mechanisms to understand and as the corkscrew with the most attractive design (it comes in a wooden case).

Nobody had stripped away the old wood, or brightened the curtains, or introduced spotlights so that you could admire the walls more. Most want an independent Kurdish state, but provided Saddam Hussein is removed from power, they are ready to co-operate in some federal way with Iraq, especially if oil wealth starts pouring in again.Do Turks oppress Kurds as much as the Iraqis do?Since the 1920s, Turkey has pursued slow, crude methods of assimilation, including the bloody suppression of rebellions in 1925 and the late 1930s. AT&T, if thwarted in its desire for an international UK licence, may not be keen to forge ahead with a UK domestic service. The 21-year-old Republic of Ireland international had been expected to announce a move to Blackburn before his trip to Lithuania, where his country won a World Cup tie on Wednesday.

Joshua says he remembers the Taj Mahal.' His other memory today is of the beggars 'The poverty is unbelievable,' says Suzman 'You stop giving, eventually. It is designed to help the employed and self-employed and estimates contributions for pensions up to pounds 25,000 a year. The Pension Check wheel is available free to Independent readers from Pension Check, Abbey National, Department 9006, Milton Keynes, MK6 1HQ.. BRIEF, uncomplicated, sometimes casual, the appetiser not the meal: kisses have a few things in common with hit singles. Scuffles are breaking out at ports and airports as passengers, most of them British, fail to grasp the subtleties of a duty-free Europe. There are, however, cheaper hotels that are entirely satisfactory, among them the Savigny ( pounds 64), close to Ku'damm, the Atrium and - my choice - Riehmers Hofgarten ( pounds 84), near Tempelhof airport in Kreuzberg, the Latin Quarter of Berlin. No one, however, cried out that the Church was in danger when George I succeeded - divorced and a wife-abuser - in 1714. Those who are determined to be bad are as preoccupied with the issue of goodness as everyone else.How are we to become good? Goodness requires above all realism, and realism requires the proper use of imagination, which 'is in part a moral discipline'.