If necessary, his Lordship would be prepared to hold that it was now time that this ancient rule should be given its quietus in so far as it operated to require the court to assume something that was known to be untrue.However, it was sufficient to say that the rule could not be allowed to operate so that, by piling one fiction upon another, a statutory instrument modifying primary legislation was to be construed in such a manner as to render it prima facie ultra vires.If Parliament had intended that the interest of a deceased debtor in property held jointly should be treated as forming part of his estate for the purposes of its administration in bankruptcy, it could have expressly so provided.LORD JUSTICE EVANS, concurring, said that the time had come to say that the fiction that a judicial act was effective from the first moment of the day on which it took place should have no place when the true facts were known, at least in cases where the court's jurisdiction was concerned.The trustee's case involved adding the common law fiction that the insolvency administration order was made at the earliest moment of the day to which the statutory fiction applied, and therefore whilst Mr Palmer was alive.Mr Palmer did not die bankrupt, nor was the deceased person whose estate became insolvent necessarily insolvent when he died. But the impending revolt has prompted Mr Howard to summon Lord Ackner for a discussion.Mr Howard has already warned the Lords that they risk bordering on the unconstitutional by seeking to unpick a Bill which MPs have already scrutinised in detail.The amendment will not be pressed to a vote on Monday but it will be reactivated at the Bill's report stage if the Government does not offer a concession.. But that is the daily experience for anyone going to see one of the films in competition.And they expect us all to dress up in a black tie. 'If I can go around looking a bit more relaxed it is because I can afford to be because my players are so relaxed and in control.

Sir: BBC Radio has no intention of neglecting Stephen Quinn or other 30- to 50-year-olds (letter, 18 July). Although that failed to satisfy the player, he remains hopeful of keeping him.As a principle, he is convinced that setting strict limits is the correct course of action and that the game will eventually be grateful for Wigan's stand. The Frenchman was at his most incisive and outrageous, mixing flicks with finely judged through balls. At present, the domestic economy has more slack in it than it has had at any time since the war, and the full effects on the inflation rate have not yet been felt. Yet the church's present situation suggests that it derives its authority from the temporal rather than the spiritual world.

McCormack already has the Australians, the world champions, on his books, although how successful he has been in that venture is uncertain. Like 'bloke' (1), the word is too male, too connected with the sodalities of the splash-bath and the saloon bar, to sound convincing in a woman's mouth. His wife Julie, who gave birth to their third child last Thursday, was leaving hospital yesterday, having watched her husband on television from the maternity ward of Basildon General Hospital.There are also financial matters to be sorted to Martin's advantage. Bruce Millan, the British commissioner for regional policy, was outflanked by the member states, each desperate for a bigger slice of the 141 billion ecu pie. I am sure the French understand these decisions.'The expulsions came after a few months of rounding up suspected supporters of the outlawed Algerian Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in France and members of the Kurdish People's Party (PKK). Following the critical success of grim and gritty television series such as Cracker and Between the Lines, a BBC adaptation of his books, to be shown later this year, may change all that. Raymond's detective works in a department called 'Unexplained Deaths', out of a police station in Soho (the Factory). The barrels may rot and be patched, but they will at least be rotted by Glendronach organisms.What would 'troubleshooter' Sir John Harvey-Jones do with this little bit of unchanging Scotland? 'Close us down probably,' says Mr Massie.(Photograph omitted).