FreeView from the editors at i

David Candler worked directly for Harold Wilson as a press officer during his days as Prime Minister at No 10, representing the Labour Party's interests as the government pushed policies which caused schisms among Party members.

Jamaica's two main political parties are in a neck-and-neck race to capture a majority of the country's 63 parliamentary seats and win control of the government for the next five years.

Sinn Fein's president, Gerry Adams, is to resign his West Belfast seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and at Westminster to contest the next general election south of the Irish border. He plans to defend the Co Louth seat being vacated by Arthur Morgan. Sinn Fein is hoping for a breakthrough in the Republic where it has always struggled to gain a significant presence.

Northern Ireland's devolved government emerged from five months of suspended political animation yesterday with the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein resuming their seats around the cabinet table.

The Sheffield Wednesday striker Steve MacLean emphasised the value of patience as the resurgent Championship side deservedly earned a second crack at their Premier League opponents on a day on which the grand old Hillsborough ground summoned up an atmosphere to recall Cup ties past.

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL, the Prime Minister's press secretary, has ordered the word "socialist" to be expunged from a Labour Party television broadcast to be screened during its annual conference next week.

FORTY-FOUR Labour MPs have openly challenged Tony Blair by signing a declaration that Labour must remain a "democratic socialist party" and reject a centre-left coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Sir: The objections to Sinn Fein keeping Semtex under the negotiating table are petty when compared with the massive violence Nato has threatened if it does not get its way in the Paris "negotiations" over Kosovo.

Removing the right of the membership to select candidates could set a precedent for Westminster

THE RETURN of Sinn Fein to the cross-party talks on Ulster offers "the best prospect for peace" in Ireland, Tony Blair will tell Gerry Adams today when the two men meet at 10 Downing Street.

Downing Street last night damped down hopes by the Irish government and Sinn Fein leaders, who met Tony Blair yesterday, of an early apology over Bloody Sunday and a fresh public inquiry.

Betty Boothroyd, the Speaker of the Commons, is to meet the Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein party leader, Martin McGuinness over their demands for an office at Westminster.

As delegates converge on Brighton this weekend for new Labour's annual conference, deep in the South Wales valleys, the centenary of the birth of one of the giants of the movement is being celebrated.