TOO MANY children are being excluded from school and often for trivial offences, the Office for Standards in Education said yesterday, writes Diana Hinds. His is, like John Major's, a more collegiate style, which can give the impression of weakness. On an independent central bank, he said: 'If we are moving towards Economic and Monetary Union, it will happen.'The gathering for readers of the Independent, attended by business people, bankers, civil servants, economists, academics and local government leaders, heard several calls for higher taxes to fund investment in public services andinfrastructure.There were also calls to focus housing resources on helping the homeless, as well as strong backing for an independent central bank to take monetary policy out of the hands of politicians. They can be bought in 'weed and feed' combinations or simply as weedkillers.

Every country wants to provide the surface that suits their players. VICTIMS of the BCCI fraud say the Bingham report supports their demands for compensation from the Government. Local councillors with Nazi sympathies, drunken Tory MPs interrupting important debates with moronic homophobic abuse, terrifying assaults on Asians in the East End of London. America 'has become conscious of its history, and is approaching the moment of truth'; no action can last 'unless it goes in history's direction and at history's pace'; 'civilization is the longest story of all'. The signs are that it will not be very busy.David delivered nine babies, six of them by Caesarean section, during one continuous 50 hour- stretch, earlier this month - all on three-and-a-half hours sleep That was busy.

But it was just as fiercely defended by other contributors like Woodrow Wyatt and Ralph Vaughan Williams. And far from distancing himself from the bureaucrats and the hated LDP, he has found himself doing deals with both to pass legislation that has been opposed by the Socialists and other intransigent members of his seven-party coalition.In Japan, too, disillusionment is starting to set in. Parts of the pounds 12bn roads programme will be delayed, and the European Fighter Aircraft could be cut from the Defence budget.One ministerial source explained: 'We had a bilateral with Mr Portillo. Their unprecedented anger, which has led to calls for a test boycott, follows victories for the right in reducing the proportion of coursework at GCSE and in securing a review of the English national curriculum which is expected to lead to greater emphasis on spelling, grammar and handwriting.Teachers argue that the tests with compulsory Shakespeare, a prescribed anthology and an emphasis on short, timed questions are a return to the days of O-level when pupils memorised and regurgitated facts for the examiner.There will be no chance, they say, for pupils to show they have read widely, can redraft work after discussion with teachers and other pupils, or display sophisticated reading skills. Mara Hinnie skilfully switches from hospital victim to roly-poly schoolgirl while the wry, self-mocking Stephen Docherty charts his own character's growing self-confidence through their reminiscences.

On Wednesday evening he was every inch the prudent Chancellor. Some may be disappointed in the ending: others will find it hits the perfect pitch of cruelty Either way, this classic film noir must be seen Hard Target (18, CIC, out Fri). But the missionaries had not asked for protection; they did not want to be regarded as Imperialists but wanted to identify with the people whom they had come to serve, and they wore Chinese clothes to express this. Securely underpinning this effect of improvisatory freshness, though, is a lot of original thought about how to give a tighter, more expressive shape to Ibsen's sprawling story.