Sir Teddy Taylor MP for Southend said that the Home Secretary couldn't have been more helpful in every possible way

Sir Teddy Taylor, MP for Southend, said that the Home Secretary "couldn't have been more helpful in every possible way. We emerged from the meeting happy and we feel we made real progress".Mr Howard's decision to see the rebels - which he is believed to have cleared with Richard Ryder, the Chief Whip - is the first formal meeting between the MPs, who lost the whip for rebelling against the Government on a confidence motion in November, and a Cabinet minister. But there have been regular contacts between rebels and ministers on an informal basis.At the meeting with Mr Howard the rebels pressed their case that the Government's maintenance of British border controls rested on a "declaration" by European Union member states made during Margaret Thatcher's period as Prime Minster which they say has no validity in law.Mr Clarke said in a letter, sent last Thursday but not released by the rebels until yesterday, that John Major's speech in the Commons on 1 March had set out government policy on monetary union and had settled policy "for this parliament and beyond".The Chancellor said he "could not and would not want to" amplify the Prime Minister's statement. He added that Mr Major had rightly referred to the enormous gulf between the Government and Labour on Europe, adding: "I think our common priority now must be to devote all our energies to highlighting that gulf."Mr Howard agreed to send detailed answers to a series of points made by the rebels.

including, as the rebels put in a statement yesterday: "What on earth could the Government do if our own courts or a Euro-court stated that our frontier controls were unacceptable and if they declined to agree a Treaty amendment?"But Sir Teddy could not hide his anger at the Chancellor's refusal to meet them."I've been an MP for 31 years and I've never been refused a meeting by any minister, even a Labour minister when there was a Labour government. It seems astonishing at a time when we are trying to find solutions. It just seems staggering he's not willing to have a chat with us It's very disappointing.". Civilian assessors or juries could be introduced into military courts trying serious crimes, under reforms the Government yesterday pledged to consider.

In a rare example of "pluralist" politics, Roger Freeman, the Minister of Defence Procurement, also disclosed the Government's willingness to hold all-party talks to ensure that a satisfactory system was agreed. Courts-martial often try serious criminal cases abroad where no British judge or counsel is available.The pledge to Eric Martlew, Labour's defence spokesman, of a bipartisan approach came after a strong protest from George Galloway, Labour MP for Glasgow Hillhead, over the murder of Christine Menzies, a 16-year- old serviceman's daughter, in a military barracks in Germany.Speaking at defence questions, Mr Galloway told MPs: "The military police, who are just soldiers with military armbands, and miltary prosecutor, who is just a soldier in a wig, blundered the case."The murderer then walked free and is still at large and serving in Her Majesty's Services. It is about time we overhauled the archaic system of military justice, which is widely discredited," he said.The Ministry of Defence confirmed yesterday that use of civilian assessors, counsel or juries could be among the options considered.Mr Freeman said everyone understood the grief of Christine's parents, who were in the Strangers Gallery to hear the exchanges.. The cultural hit-rate of Stephen Dorrell, Secretary of State for National Heritage and one of the apparently few people in Britain not to have seen Four Weddings and a Funeral, is on the up, a Commons written answer last night suggests, writes Patricia Wynn Davies. The reply to Mark Fisher, a former Labour heritage spokesman, reveals that the minister has still not seen that movie, the subject of 14 Bafta nominations and a front-runner at this week's Oscars ceremony. But Mr Dorrell, who admitted in February that he could not remember the last time he saw a British film, managed to see The Madness of King George at London's Lumiere, a cinema within division bell distance of the Palace of Westminster, on 19 March.The reply to Mr Fisher, who asked what stage plays, concerts, operas, films and dance performances the minister had seen since 1 January, shows Mr Dorrell attending An Inspector Calls, The Knocky and "A Christmas Carol, the operas Otello and Cunning Little Vixen - but no concerts or dance performances. Seven museums, three galleries, 10 theatres, two art centres and two public libraries have also received Mr Dorrell's patronage.. A chastened Winnie Mandela headed home to lick her political wounds yesterday as it became clear that for now, at least, her much-feared support in disadvantaged black townships may have been overrated. By late yesterday Mrs Mandela had made no public comment on her sacking from the government of national unity by her estranged husband, President Nelson Mandela.

She had been deputy minister for arts, culture, science and technology. Her former press secretary, Alan Reynolds, said: "She will return to her constituency and remain a loyal member of ANC. Freed from duties as deputy minister, she will devote herself to her constituents."But as she leaves Cape Town's politics for her mansion in Soweto near Johannesburg, she faces her hardest fight yet out of public disgrace as the first minister of the African National Congress to be fired since it took power after last April's democratic elections.It is a paradox that while Mrs Mandela, 61, spent much of her energy railing against attacks on her by the media, the reality may be that it was the media that was sustaining her high profile all along.An ANC spokesman went so far as to claim that not one delegation or supporter was known to have called yesterday to protest at her dismissal at ANC headquarters in Johannesburg. A few small protests have been noted around the country, but they paled by comparison to the demonstrations when she was temporarily forced to resign her ANC posts in 1992 after a conviction for kidnapping."She does have support, but our leaders do not have blind support It is based on principles You lose it if you go astray," the ANC spokesman said. "So far, the indications are that all the structures have supported the President's decision."As President Mandela tightened the noose around her neck in the past week, steadily briefing all ANC organisations and allies in order to minimise grass roots protests, Mrs Mandela tried to rally her supporters. "We are the ANC," she shouted to crowds in black townships, flanked by members of a populist group that foreign diplomats like to call the ANC's "corrupt Africanist faction".