...for Tony Wright, Labour MP for Cannock Chase, who is leaving Parliament for health reasons after a distinguished career that began with his election in 1992. He has recently been chairman of a cross-party Commons committee looking into ways of reducing the powers of the party Whips and giving backbenchers more say in how parliament is run. On Thursday he had the satisfaction of seeing several of his Committee's proposals for strengthening Select Committees and giving backbenchers a role in the planning of parliamentary business approved by both government and opposition front benches.
A BIG BOO... ...for the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic who opened his defence against war crimes charges at The Hague by claiming that the crimes in question were only myths. His denial that the massacre of 8'000 Muslim Serbs at Srebrenica in 1992 ever took place was sickening. The largest mass murder in Europe since World War Two, it was witnessed by many people and the skeletons of the victims have subsequently been exposed. Karadzic has yet to be found guilty but his opening remarks were unacceptable.