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His close personal oversight of the project went down to composing the grammar textbook for use in the school at Ipswich

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His close personal oversight of the project went down to composing the grammar textbook for use in the school at Ipswich.Tom's and Derry's legal wriggling were – and are – essential to their success.Derry was asked by a Labour leftie in committee: "You say that patronage offends you, yet you yourself are a creature of patronage."Derry turned his big, bovine eyes on the fellow and said with real interest: "In what way?" The MP shifted in his seat, he hadn't expected this, and stuttered that Derry would be nowhere without the prime minister's patronage. Tom founded an Oxford college and then a system of feeder schools for it. Both sets of reforms – Tom's of the Church and Derry's of the law – were highly centralising.Tom showed the same talent for the micro-management we laugh at today in Derry's government. He's head of an independent judiciary while being a member of the Cabinet at the same time. His daily procession to Westminster was, for Lord Cavendish, a panorama of transient worldly glory.Tom's power was helped by his dual status in Church and State; so is Derry's.

Tom's income, pumped up by benefices, political office and legatine jurisdiction, was £30,000 a year – a sum unheard of in England. When he was merely the king's Almoner Wolsey's tent was half as large again as the army's second-in-command.Wolsey's choir was bigger than the king's at one stage, and so much better that Henry swiped the best boy in it. In a year, Tom went from being a Dean to an Archbishop; one minute Derry was a mere lawyer in his own set of chambers, the next he had the highest judicial office in the land.We've heard about Derry's taste for opulence – the art collection, the sophisticated palate, the astonishing capacity (for work, as well), we know about the wallpaper.As with Derry, so with Tom. Derry had the Sixties and, latterly, Cool Britannia.As Tom and the young king were comrades in arms against England's ancient enemy (the French) so Derry and the young Blair fought the great enemy of the Labour party (socialists) The careers of both Tom and Derry went off like rockets.

Both came to prominence in a new sort of culture – Tom thrived in the new humanistic learning that was sweeping Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. Both were educated in a state system where the highest standards were possible to attain. So here we are, the Tom and Derry column.Both came from the working class (Wolsey was the son of a butcher, Derry of a roofer). His cancelled pay rise. Back in the early days of New Labour, Lord Irvine of Lairg likened himself to Thomas Wolsey; Derry was going to be to the prime minister as Wolsey was to Henry VIII, a guiding spirit for the young leader. Here he is, back in the headlines on account of his pay rise His deferred pay rise.

It's always nice to see the Lord Chancellor. At the end of July, as I informed Independent readers, the Labour whips were talking about 50 rebels, mainly drawn from the usual suspects plus a couple of marginal ministers That now seems like a serious underestimate More from Bruce Anderson. War without a resolution could break Mr Blair's hold on his party. But the best that Mr Blair can hope for is a resolution in general terms; it is hardly likely to urge the allies on to war.War even under a vague resolution would cause widespread Labour dismay. As America is determined to act anyway, there will probably be a new UN resolution; most Security Council members will see no point in giving gratuitous offence to the US. He will tell us that he and President Bush would like a new resolution to enhance their international legitimacy, but most of his thoughts are on his legitimacy within the Labour Party. The Saudis and others are desperate to persuade Saddam to leave Iraq, but it seems unlikely that he will reconcile himself to spending the rest of his days under Saudi supervision in the Idi Amin guesthouse for redundant mass murderers.Mr Blair is still hoping that the Saudis succeed, with the UN as a fallback position.

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