I think the Lex column in the Financial Times might want to invest in a functioning moral compass. Commenting on North Korea, Lex seems to sees the primary danger not in the lunatic regime's nuclear sabre-rattling, but in the prospect of political unification of the Korean peninsula:

YOU CAN tell when Fleet Street has had a bad month: the newspapers concentrate on the year-on-year figures. The Observer and Daily Mail reported year-on-year success, though both had a poor November, as indeed did virtually everyone, despite a flurry of big stories. (The Independent and The Mail on Sunday were the other papers who had year-on-year increases).

TONY BLAIR'S favourite union baron, Ken Jackson, heads a smaller than usual list of political honours announced today.

Sir: Nick Herbert of Business for Sterling accuses the CBI, not for the first time, of having ruled out a "completely random survey of business" last year (Right of Reply, 9 April). This is quite untrue.

Readers' Offer

To celebrate National Gallery Week, jointly sponsored by The Independent and the National Grid, the National Gallery is for tomorrow only offering readers exclusive free admission (usual cost pounds 6 a ticket) to its current major exhibition, Seurat and The Bathers (sponsored by Pearson plc).

WH Smith appointed its first female executive director yesterday when it named Beverley Hodson as managing director of the main WH Smith high street chain.

Albert Scardino, the American journalist, yesterday made a bid for Nottingham Forest valuing the club at pounds 20m. The offer is for 90 per cent of the shares with the remainder to be held by the club's 207 shareholders, writes Nigel Cope.

Sir: Your report "Exchange clamps down on leaks" (20 November) continues to suggest that the recent changes by the Stock Exchange to Listing Rule 16.7 were connected with Lord Stevens' interview with the Financial Times on 13 November. This is not the case:the changes were finalised some weeks before that date. United News & Media is advised that it has throughout acted within the rules, and it has not been approached by the Stock Exchange in connection with any inquiry into the interview.

Pearson, the media group which owns the Financial Times, announced a boardroom re-shuffle yesterday which paves the way for a three-way battle for the top job when the chief executive, Frank Barlow, retires.

NO ONE can deny the appeal of a simple David and Goliath yarn, but can I cast a pebble or two on behalf of Pearson plc at your lead diary item in Bunhill last week ("Little comment as small company battles for its identity")?

After a distinguished career in the service of his country first as a soldier, then in what he referred to always as the ``Foreign Office so called'' both during and after the Second World War, Alan Hare became chairman of the Financial Times in 1978, overseeing the paper's all-important decision to print in Frankfurt and become ``Europe's Business Paper''.

'A CONCERTED push to rebuild his political authority.' That was how the Financial Times billed John Major's speech on Friday, in which he attempted to relaunch 'back to basics' and regain a grip on his Government, writes Jojo Moyes.

THE ATMOSPHERE at the Financial Times's smoked glass office on Southwark Bridge was said to be one of 'dazed euphoria' after the unexpected departure of its long-serving chief executive David Palmer, who joined the paper straight from university as their yachting correspondent. He is thought to have cleared his desk after a meeting last Wednesday with Frank Barlow, managing director of parent company Pearson, revealed irreconcilable 'differences in management style'.