They are likely to be received warmly by the Foreign Secretary Robin Cook

They are likely to be received warmly by the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, who is President of the Foreign Policy Centre, because Labour has already pledged to review Britain's relationship with its former colonies.Mr Leonard believes reform is long overdue. "If the Government is serious about turning Britain into a country that's proud to be multicultural and modern, we need to turn the Commonwealth into something that is more than just a hangover from the Empire," he said.The report sets out the parameters for a full inquiry into the role of the Commonwealth, to be conducted by the Foreign Policy Centre over the next six months. The results will be published shortly before the next Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, in South Africa in November.The link between the monarch and the Commonwealth will form a central part of the investigation. The report argues that this is central to the image of colonialism and should be severed. "If you have got the British head of state as head of the Commonwealth then that looks like a continuation of the Empire," Mr Leonard said.Although the Foreign Policy Centre stresses that the Queen has done a good job as head of the organisation, the proposal is certain to fuel republican instincts in Commonwealth countries around the world.

A referendum on the role of the monarch is pending in Australia.The investigation follows growing concern at the Foreign Office that the Commonwealth is misunderstood and widely seen as irrelevant. In a recent survey, 43 per cent of people said they did not know what the point of the Commonwealth was - despite the fact that two-thirds of schoolchildren have a relative in one of the member countries. There is also resentment among some Commonwealth states that although the body represents 1.6 billion people - a quarter of the world's population - it is still run entirely from London.The report recommends that the Commonwealth Secretariat should be based in another country, possibly moving round the world on a rotating basis. It says that there should be a working president, elected by other heads of state, in a system similar to that used to choose the president of the European Union. And it urges the Government to appoint a Commonwealth "enforcer", who would be responsible for ensuring that all countries abided by common values on democratic elections and human rights..

IT IS the ultimate "wind farm". Britain's first commercial cow dung-fired power station has been given the go-ahead to produce electricity for the National Grid and hot water for a town of 3,000 people. In a project with distinct echoes of the series The Good Life, in which eco-enthusiasts Tom and Barbara Good once made electricity from pig slurry, a north Devon market town is to make a virtue out of one of the area's most unlimited resources. A pounds 7m bio-gas plant will be built on the outskirts of the small town of Holsworthy, using methane gas formed by the breakdown of cow and other animal slurry to run an electricity generator. In addition, heat from the plant will be used to provide hot water for parts of the town. Work is due to start on the site next month, with completion by late 2000. It will create six full-time jobs.So far, 50 farmers - who between them own 3,500 cattle - have agreed to supply cow dung for the project, which has a pounds 1.5m grant from the European Union and the further backing of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.The farmers will deliver their cow dung - 300 tonnes a day - to two "digesters" at the plant, where it will be heated to 55C over 14 days to release the methane, which will be siphoned off to power two spark-gas engines to produce electricity. Farmers will then return to collect their "degraded" manure, now a nitrate-rich compost 60 per cent less toxic than untreated animal slurry, to lay on their fields.Cow dung, along with pig and chicken slurry, will make up 80 per cent of the "raw fuel".

Fish waste, along with surplus pastry, chosen for its high fat content, from pie factories in Launceston and Camelford in Cornwall, will make up the remaining 20 per cent in an effort to improve the yield of methane. Human waste is excluded, not on ethical grounds, but because it contains too many heavy metals and hormones to work efficiently.Water from the plant will be piped to the town where it will supply the local hospital, two schools, a sports centre, including the swimming pool, and 300 homes. Charles Clarke, project director and local farmer, says the factory will produce two megawatts of electricity for the National Grid each year, earning pounds 750,000 annually.The project was inspired by similar large-scale plants in Denmark and by a handful of single farm projects around the UK where cow waste has been recycled to be used on site. "The sheer number of cows around here means this is a green and renewable energy source," said Mr Clarke. "This is the first of its kind in the country and we're certain it can work."The local council in Holsworthy voted unanimously for the project. "It has to smell better than just chucking unreconstructed cow dung on your fields," said Peter Huggins, clerk to the council. "Holsworthy is primarily an agricultural area and we're surrounded by heaps and heaps of cattle shit." Aware of the marketing potential of the plant, the council has plans for a visitor centre and associated tourist attractions.But some residents of Holsworthy, fearful of smell pollution, are not so enthusiastic.

More than 300 people signed a petition against the scheme.Peter Southgate, who led a demonstration when the project finally received local authority planning consent last week, said: "I'm worried about the cross-contamination of disease because the process of heating the dung to produce methane won't kill off any pathogens. All this slurry will be mixed up and then given back to the farmers, so one cow's TB may end up on another farmer's field.". GET-RICH-QUICK "carpetbaggers" have failed in their attempt to turn the Bradford & Bingley building society into a bank. Their defeat, to be announced tomorrow, is a massive setback for the campaign, led by freelance butler Michael Harden, to force building societies to "convert" and issue windfall shares. Last week he abandoned his attempt to win a seat on the board of the Britannia building society. In a third blow to Mr Harden the Nationwide, Britain's largest society, has announced on legal advice that his attempt to force another conversion vote is invalid.