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delivered in a terrorist manner by people travelling through the area …”Do remember we are dealing with a very brutal, even psychopathic regime. In the last two months, they decided that their prisons were overcrowded. They solved that by taking out every prisoner with over 15 years of a sentence, and shooting them … A government that behaves with that kind of brutality in its own country is not a government you can leave in possession of these terror weapons.”The comments of Mr Cook, and of Madeleine Albright, his US colleague, show that the rhetoric offensive against Iraq is gearing up.

“Will it be substantial, will it be sustained, will it be heavy?” a television interviewer asked the US Secretary of State yesterday. “It will be all those things,” she responded.The military preparation is also escalating. Western defence sources in Kuwait said that British support aircraft had started arriving in Kuwait on Saturday with spare parts and support equipment for eight British Tornado bombers which are due to deploy in Kuwait today. Six US F-117A stealth bombers are also due in Kuwait which has agreed in principle to allow Western aircraft to operate from its territory.But there are serious doubts about support outside London and Washington for any attacks.Ms Albright said she was confident of support from Saudi Arabia. “I have confidence and trust that the Saudi government will support us if force is necessary,” she said. But the Arab News quoted Prince Sultan, the Saudi Defence Minister, as saying that his country was much more critical of the move: “We’ll not agree and we are against striking Iraq as a people and as a nation.”William Cohen, the US Defense Secretary, is due to meet King Fahd this week during a tour of six Gulf states.Mr Cook said the statement of Saudi opposition would be studied with care.

“We are not asking Saudi Arabia for the capacity to mount strike aircraft from Saudi Arabia,” the Foreign Secretary said. “I don’t know that there’s that much difference in principle between us,” he added. “I mean, I don’t want to strike Iraq; I want an outcome which enables inspectors to get on with their vital job of stopping Saddam developing these arsenals of terror.”Tony Benn, the former Labour Cabinet minister, said yesterday that any massive air attack on Iraq would isolate London and Washington from the majority of world opinion, and would have the gravest consequences.”Despite all that has been said about attempts to find a diplomatic solution,” he said, “no American, or British minister has gone to Baghdad, unlike the Russian, French, Turkish and other governments, who have sent senior ministers for talks there.” Mr Benn himself yesterday sent an appeal to Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, asking him to explore possible solutions to the crisis.He asked whether, if all UN sanctions, except for military equipment, were lifted at once, Iraq could immediately agree to allow UN inspectors to operate freely in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution.The US has given no time limit for Saddam Hussein to comply with its demands, though The Independent reported last week that 17 February was a likely date. He refused an invitation to dinner with the Master because he was too busy.

He kept fit by walking each evening from Trinity to Cambridge railway station and back – a round trip of about an hour. During the Cambridge years, however, two enormous interests became part of his life, and influenced him thereafter.The first was A.E Housman. He dined in hall only when college regulations required him to. His parents, however, united to persuade him not to pursue his early ambition of a career in music. Instead he won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, and, in his first year, won all the main classical prizes open to undergraduates: this achievement was, and remains, unique.What he did during his Cambridge years he did by means of intense self- denial A former pupil of his school once asked him to tea Powell replied “No”. His relaxations were few: he exercised regularly in the school gymnasium because “it was desirable to keep fit” and he played the clarinet because “it was the only instrument common to both the brass band and the orchestra”. “My childhood,” Powell later wrote, “is very much my mother.” Having taught herself classical Greek, she passed her knowledge on to her son.