A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We are actively considering measures to relieve the pressure on Kent and the South East of unaccompanied minors.”The proposals were criticised by the Refugee Council. Terry Smith, head of the organisation’s children’s section, said: “Policy should be driven by what is in the best interests of the child.”Further measures reportedly under consideration include the re-imposition of fines on lorry drivers who bring in illegal immigrants, despite the government being defeated in the courts over the issue.Tony Blair’s determination to tackle illegal immigration was underlined this month when he was reported to be considering plans to use warships to intercept people traffickers. The French and British governments also admitted last week that they were in discussions about the future of the controversial Sangatte refugee centre.A leaked Downing Street memo called for fresh legal advice on the option of returning asylum-seekers to France. The memo proposed tying British and European aid to commitments to take back rejected asylum-seekers but Clare Short, the Secretary of State for International Development, was resisting the move.David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, will meet his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozi, next month, with Sangatte at the top of the agenda.. The British Museum is investigating whether four of its Old Master drawings were looted by the Nazis. An interest in cavemen is a form of secular piety.
In a world without gods, we look to the earliest humans as our great representatives. In a world without creation myths, the original members of our species are key figures. The stone age is a heroic age, full of great inaugural deeds We’re cheered by our beginnings, and we cheer back. We applaud our remote ancestors every step of the way along the road to becoming recognisably like ourselves Their remains are not only evidence of achievements They’re trophies of the tremendous success story
An interest in cavemen is a form of secular piety. They’re trophies of the tremendous success story.
The oldest things in the British Museum are some roundish bits of rock, about the size of cricket balls, found in Tanzania in 1931.
They wouldn’t catch your eye if you came across them on a beach They aren’t obviously shaped They don’t have human hand written all over them. But they are hand-sized, and if you take a closer look you can see that they’ve been sharpened This was done around 1.8 million years ago A new thing in the world: an artefact. Hurrah!These three pieces of quartzite and lava are among the exhibits in Prehistory: Objects of Power, a new permanent display at the museum. It’s an early, early show, featuring tools, vessels, weapons, ornaments, images, totems and objects of obscure design.
The story starts in Africa, but the catchment area is mainly Europe. The time span covered is boggling, from 1.8 million years ago right up to about 1200BC – from chipped rocks to cast bronze and beaten gold. But 1200BC is getting a bit late for really heroic earliness The human race is by then a fully established enterprise. The pioneer spirit has passed.But the beautiful flint Acheulian hand-axe, shaped like a teardrop – this is more like it. It’s also a milestone in archaeology, in the modern understanding of just how old things could be.