While Jospin fought a campaign almost copybook in its awfulness that wasn’t his biggest problem

While Jospin fought a campaign almost copybook in its awfulness, that wasn’t his biggest problem. He failed because, in trying defensively to reconcile too many irreconcilable interests – from the unions to the anti-globalisers – he failed to have a mission that exploited modern France’s outstanding ability to cope with a changed world in the way that the Blair government, for all its faults, has done in Britain. Even as Mr Blair incenses European socialists by his needless schmoozing with Silvio Berlusconi, it is his Labour Party, its exportable credibility bolstered not a moment too soon by Gordon Brown’s genuinely social demoratic budget, that still looks like a winner, while they fall like dominoes.d.macintyre independent.co.uk
More from Donald Macintyre. Jimmy White, nicknamed the ‘Whirlwind’ due to his speed at the table, had his opening session of this year’s Embassy World Championship ended early yesterday – because the match was too slow. Murphy, from Northamptonshire, who won four qualifying matches to secure his Crucible debut, had given himself a lifeline by winning the last two frames of the opening session to trail 6-3.But Hendry put himself on the brink of the last 16 when he moved 9-3 ahead before Murphy ensured there would be an interval by taking the next but in frame 14 missed a long pot and split open the reds, leaving Hendry to knock in a run of 111 – his second century of the match – to wrap up his success.Hendry was pleased he had progressed in straightforward fashion against an opponent he expects to have a bright future.”Shaun’s got a lot of talent and strikes the ball very well.

But you need more than just talent to get to the top,” said 33-year-old Hendry, who will face Alan McManus or Anthony Davies on Saturday.Murphy thoroughly enjoyed his first Crucible appearance and admitted he was eager to return.”I was nervous when I walked through the famous curtain into the arena. But playing at the Crucible is like visiting a nice restaurant – you have a good meal and you want to go back.”The seventh seed Peter Ebdon held a 5-4 lead over Ireland’s Michael Judge in a match which was due to be played to a finish last night.. Of the many shameful aspects of the ongoing fiasco of Audley Harrison’s £1m contract with the BBC, nothing is worse than the compromising of one of the greatest fighters of the 20th century, Marvellous Marvin Hagler. But the involvement of Hagler, sheepishly mouthing euphemisms which scandalise a superb career which was shaped partly in the old, relentless school of the Philadelphia ring, seems like some ultimate insult to the tradition of a game which so far has been mocked on each of the four times Harrison has stepped into the ring as a professional.Someone at the BBC should have the guts to recognise the scale of the disaster..

The only certain winners that racing ever provides were on the alert last night following the announcement that Michael Kinane and his lawyers are to appeal against a seven-day suspension in an effort to free the jockey for the ride on Johannesburg in the Kentucky Derby. He was found guilty of irresponsible riding of a major nature by the local stewards. The last day of the ban would rule him out of the Run For The Roses.Kinane is not about to give up that prospect lightly and has set in motion a process similar to that which allowed him to successfully contest the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes last summer.On that occasion, the Irishman picked up a two-day suspension which would have removed him from the seat on Galileo. But he first went to appeal and then to the High Court in Dublin for an injunction after a mistake in procedure. A stalling of the ban allowed Kinane’s part in victory at Ascot and his ultimate punishment after the penalty was confirmed was a £200 forfeit of his appeal money and absenteeism from two days at Tralee. He may have considered it had all been worth it.Now the law-keepers of the Jockey Club will have to ensure they play everything by the book when team Kinane sweeps into Portman Square for a 9.30am appeal on Friday. “As far as our process is concerned this is his one shot at it,” John Maxse, the Jockey Club spokesman, said yesterday.

“The further appeal board is open only for a limited number of offences or penalties. The one he received at Newmarket does not fit into that category.”Racing’s marshals are aware that a further High Court option remains for Kinane. “But in order for them to repeat that over here they will have to show straight off in front of a judge that there had been a miscarriage,” Maxse added. “The courts have previously tried to steer a pretty clear path from getting involved in sporting disciplinary processes because of the problems it would bring were they to open the floodgates. The only cases that have really got through is when it has been shown that a fair and proper hearing has not been given, almost irrespective of what the actual finding was.”Also this week, Ad Hoc will try to complete an altogether more laudable double when he goes for a repeat win in the event formerly known as the Whitbread Gold Cup.