The only excuse for putting on concerts of local music at the Edinburgh International Festival is that

The only excuse for putting on concerts of local music at the Edinburgh International Festival is that your performances are of absolutely guaranteed star quality. The Bank's original Directors were in it for the money, of course. Ernest Marples, of course, was the Transport Minister in the Sixties who managed to combine dictating Britain's motorway policy with running a large construction company, thus ensuring that what was good for British roads was good for his pocket - which is said by some experts to be as near as the Tory party has come to a real transport policy. In the mass market, Vauxhall has continued to close the gap on Ford, the market leader, increasing market share from 16.1 to 17.7 per cent, while Ford slipped from 22.8 to 22.2 per cent.

It's as though Aldeburgh refuses to mourn or even to acknowledge their passing. As one Nordic diplomat in Brussels noted: 'The decision-making here is not entirely rational.'THE repeated denunciations of British policy on Hong Kong by Sir Percy Cradock, the former foreign affairs adviser to two prime ministers, have had his successors in the Foreign Office biting their tongues for quite some time. Westland, however, cannot resist painting a mouth-watering picture for potential orders and deliveries, which could boost sales by up to a further pounds 250m a year. Everything is on again.'I suspect there are two reasons for the inertia. The real worry is the poor recovery prospects for this year, and even for 1995. Higher social security and oil taxes this month are expected to depress activity in the first quarter before the forces of recovery begin to gain the upper hand.

An American group, EDS, has won the contract to run the Inland Revenue computer.Mr Brooke said he had been invited to explain his concerns to some of the country's largest companies, including Marks & Spencer, British Gas and Thorn EMI, which together employ more than 150,000.A spokeswoman for the Inland Revenue said the same standards of confidentiality would be maintained 'We treat our taxpayers with the same level of care. The town's Conservative mayor, Aldine Horrigan, has written to John Major saying that Mr Yeo has 'lied and cheated' to his wife and children. It still pays 3 per cent commission to advisers selling the plans.A Guinness Flight spokesman says: 'Pricing strategy alone cannot sell the products.'To my knowledge the only encashments have been people who have died, and we don't impose an exit charge on them.'. Ian Chappell might not agree with every last facet of our format but he is unlikely to quibble with the result. Bernard Matthews, the publicly quoted company, has bought its rival, Turners Turkeys, from Unigate for approximately pounds 18m. Since so many MPs have private matters, not affecting public office, that they wish to keep private, calling on a minister to resign whenever such a thing comes out puts the government in the power of the tabloid press, which can expose the person whenever it suits them. Driving out of Wales is free.Many haulage companies, working to tight margins, are now looking for free trunk routes avoiding the Severn tolls.