I therefore find it incredible that they have not acted on the basis of this unprecedented intervention.”Mr Trimble, who has been briefed on the latest IRA text, said yesterday: “It is a draft and drafts of course are seldom static. I have seen a draft statement, and the weak points were on the question of whether there was going to be an end of paramilitary activity.”And then, was there a willingness to see paramilitary organisations cease to exist, as such, cease to be a private army? There were weaknesses on that point too.” He said the text was a slight improvement “but we need a considerable amount of additional improvement. If the Government can get that, well and good.”Yesterday was another day of frantic behind-the-scenes efforts involving republicans, Unionists, the two governments and the US special envoy Richard Haass. Mr Blair spoke on the telephone to Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach.Paul Murphy, the Northern Ireland Secretary, told the House of Commons yesterday that the IRA statement demonstrated a clear desire to make the peace process work.. Firefighters today defied their union leaders and rejected a pay deal designed to end their long–running dispute.

Union General Secretary Andy Gilchrist argued that the offer was the best available in the current political climate.The Government has threatened to impose a settlement if the two sidescannot reach an agreement.. Gordon Brown was accused last night of creating a “dependency culture” by putting up to 25 million people on means-tested benefits. Michael Howard, the shadow Chancellor, bitterly attacked Mr Brown for increasing income-dependent benefits. He said: “Doesn’t this rise in means-testing send out loud and clear the signal: the more you save the less you’ll get.”

Gordon Brown was accused last night of creating a “dependency culture” by putting up to 25 million people on means-tested benefits. “The Chancellor is determined to make us a means-tested nation, to create a dependency culture, in which all the way up the income scale, right up to £66,000 a year, people are dependent on the Chancellor’s largesse.”Mr Howard said Mr Brown had degraded himself and his office by exaggerating the scale of the global downturn, and accused him of making “misleading claims” about Britain’s performance compared to its major competitors.The shadow Chancellor attacked the decision to adopt a new measure of inflation, saying it would cost pensioners millions of pounds by limiting increases in pension payments to cover price rises. Mr Howard said: “Can the Chancellor confirm that, on the basis of his own inflation forecast, pensioners would find themselves almost £1 as week worse off in 2006-07 if he were to make such a change?”He accused ministers of increasing the overall tax burden by 50 per cent since 1997 He said: “No longer is there any pretence of jam tomorrow.

We are now on the road to higher taxes for the duration of this government however long or short that may be. How does the Chancellor ever expect people to trust him on tax again?”Opening the debate, Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, said: “In the past, when the world economy slowed, Britain’s economy crashed; first into recessions, last out Not now. Thanks to the tough decisions we took in the first term, Britain now has the lowest inflation for 30 years, the lowest interest rates for 40 years and faster growth than any other major European economy. We will do nothing to jeopardise those stable economic foundations, now tested in bad times as well as good.”. Ian McCartney, the new Labour Party chairman, published its local election manifesto yesterday and admitted the party faced a difficult fight in next month’s polls. Every Government suffers mid-term.”The party’s manifesto, launched in Birmingham, concentrates on the record of Labour local authorities across Britain.