The visit has been designed with a view to ensuring that Chinese leaders they

The visit has been designed with a view to ensuring that Chinese leaders they do not come into contact with potential protesters.As D-Day approaches, there is less and less effort to send out signals which might reassure the Hong Kong democrats or the rest of the world that tolerance will be the new watchword. Britain hoped the troops would behave "in a way we would regard as acceptable". The official reason given for the armed troops' early arrival was to allow the PLA "to perform its duties from Zero Hour on 1 July".The 509 soldiers will arrive in 39 vehicles and will be posted at four points in the territory, including the Prince of Wales barracks, close to where the handover ceremony will take place. Reuters new agency reported that early yesterday PLA troops earlier visited a Bank of China building in Hong Kong and after emerging with a stack of metal boxes about the right size to contain weapons, manhandled an American news photographer who happened to be at the scene. The photographer, working on the handover for the Far Eastern Economic Review magazine, said a PLA officer pounced on him when he raised his camera to shoot the mysterious operation.Once the deal on the PLA presence had been done, British officials were keen to put a brave face on it, saying the presence of the soldiers before midnight was "central to Chinese perceptions of the restoration of sovereignty". The 509 additional Chinese mainland troops - almost trip- ling the numbers - will be allow- ed to carry rifles and sidearms. There is enormous sensitivity on both sides about the Chinese entitlement (or lack of it) to carry weapons. If the Chancellor did not provide increased investment to prevent these cuts the Liberal Democrats would vote against the Budget, he said..

In this case, the Government's ideological enemies were not Lab- our councils, but utility bosses.By committing itself to the Conservatives' spending plans Labour had condemned teachers to the sack and hospital wards to closure. It had been paid in charges by the public and should be given back to them. The attack was the strongest yet by him on Labour's plans.Labour's focus on taxing the privatised utilities was similar to the Tory government's tactic of paying for income tax cuts by forcing council tax up and pinning the blame on local authorities, Mr Ashdown said. The Liberal Democrat leader told a party gathering at Westminster that the tax was "a gimmick, turned into a policy, made into a flagship". The money the Government planned to use to fund its Welfare-to-Work programme - around pounds 3bn - was not its to spend, he said.

Labour's windfall tax on privatised utilities will hit Britain's poorest citizens rather than the "fat cats", Paddy Ashdown said last night. This must not happen again, but what happens first of all is this," he said.Mr Redwood refused to be drawn into the row, though. He said he had removed his personal belongings from the foundation's Westminster office yesterday afternoon."They gave me a lot of support, but I am not offering to do anything for them at the moment," he said.. He is also rated highly for his spin doctoring skills and was the driving force behind the slick and skilful presentation of Mr Hague as a "fresh start".Acting as the go-between for the Conservative leader and his party chairman, Lord Parkinson, Mr Duncan, will play a crucial role in the shaping of the image of the new Tory party under Mr Hague, and the sharpening of its attack on Labour.Mr Hague also announced four other paid appointments to his private office, including two MPs who lost their seats at the election: Charles Hendry, the former Tory MP for High Peak, chief-of-staff; Sebastian Coe, former Tory MP for Falmouth and Camborne, as his deputy chief-of-staff; George Osborne, former political adviser to Douglas Hogg, as his political secretary; and Mark Fox, a former Central Office researcher as political office assistant.Meanwhile, new dissent broke out in the Conservative Party as the foundation that ran John Redwood's campaign office launched a full-frontal attack on the leadership.The row over the future of the Conservative 2000 think-tank blew up after weekend newspaper reports suggested that it would be closed down now that Mr Redwood had been offered a Shadow Cabinet post.Yesterday the director of the think-tank, Hywell Williams, accused Conservative Central Office of briefing against Mr Redwood through fear that he would build up an alternative power-base in his old office.A Sunday Express headline on a story about the foundation's demise claimed: "Hague gets tough in warning to plotters."Mr Williams said that as director of the organisation he intended to keep Conservative 2000 open."One of the things that divided the Tory party during the last period in government was the way in which the centre briefed against members of its own Cabinet.

The Conservatives' own "Peter Mandelson" figure, Alan Duncan, was rewarded yesterday for his success in running William Hague's campaign for the Tory party leadership with promotion to the Opposition Leader's office. In a series of appointments to his political office, Mr Hague rewarded Mr Duncan by making him his Parliamentary Political Secretary. It is an unpaid appointment, but like Mr Mandelson's post in the Labour Party, it carries untold influence.Mr Duncan will be in charge of trying to ensure that the party and the 164 Tory MPs stick to the agreed line on policy, raising fears among pro- European Tory MPs that it will mean enforcing opposition to the single European currency.Mr Duncan said that he would be "helping to ensure that the Conservative Party speaks with one voice".Like Tony Blair's minister without portfolio, Mr Duncan is regarded as a Machiavellian figure behind the leader of his party, who has made enemies for his razor-like ability with the parliamentary put-down. Bill Clinton -7;Lord Irvine - 7;Helmut Kohl - 7;The EU -7.Which Labour politicians have impressed most?1 Tony Blair 79;2 Gordon Brown 77;3 Robin Cook 54;4 John Prescott 14;5 Peter Mandelson 13;6 Mo Mowlam 11;7 David Blunkett 10;8 Frank Field 8;9 Margaret Beckett 7;10. Jack Cunningham 4.Opinion Leader Research asked 100 opinion-formers to name their top three in each category. He played a central role in Labour's election team and now sits on eight Cabinet committees and chairs three of them.