T welve points behind with 15 matches to play: races have been won from Liverpool's

T welve points behind with 15 matches to play: races have been won from Liverpool's position, but they are usually followed by a stewards' inquiry and a dope test. A consensus is emerging that Newcastle can only blow it now. There are those who use such phrases in the hope of putting the Premiership leaders through the mental mangle. Others wonder, in the wake of recent cup defeats, whether Newcastle are quite the thoroughbreds their status suggests. They also point to a run-in that includes trips to Anfield, Highbury, Elland Road and Ewood Park. Roy Evans, the Liverpool manager, is not as practised as, say, Manchester United's Alex Ferguson in the art of the soundbite calculated to intensify the psychological pressure on a rival camp. A graduate of Bill Shankly's Boot Room, which is traditionally a bullshit-free zone, he evidently puts a low priority on media mind games.Evans' assessment of where Liverpool's 5-0 rout of Leeds United left them placed in the championship stakes was typically down-to-earth, far removed from the brash machismo of his predecessor, Graeme Souness "Newcastle are still in the driving seat," he said. "They've got to slip up and we have to keep going."Some argue that Newcastle lack the nous necessary to prevent their doing a Devon Loch.

In fact, the management team of Kevin Keegan and Terry McDermott have experience to spare, most of it gleaned at Anfield, while Liverpool, like Newcastle, fielded only one player with a winner's medal on Saturday.But there is another reason that may explain why Evans was not banging the drum for Liverpool's prospects Put simply, they are not yet the finished article. According to Whitehall sources, the two "divorced" groups working within the Home Office had not agreed basic regime standards before the first tenders went out and costs are now being revised upwards.It now looks certain that none of the five mini jails - a key component of the Home Secretary's 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act - will be built before a general election. HEATHER MILLS Home Affairs Correspondent The building of five child jails - Michael Howard's answer to out-of- control young offenders - appears doomed.A year after the first of the privately run secure training centres was supposed to be up and running, two are still bogged down in planning difficulties and no contract has been signed with any company to build or run the other three.In fact, tenders are having to be resubmitted to meet new specifications for daily regimes for the 12- to 14-year-old inmates. "I am not a spin doctor for the very good reason that we won't win by spin. We will win by getting our policies right," she declared.She went on, allegedly referring to Mr Campbell: "I don't come from the self- regarding media school which believes that press officers or communications specialists are terribly interesting people or that we deserve a profile at least as high as the politicians we serve."However, Mr Blair approved her appointment last year and she was for a time a trusted member of the inner circle.. Ms Johnson disagreed with Mr Campbell's attempt to bully the BBC by public fax into giving prominent coverage to Mr Blair's conference speech on the same day as the OJ Simpson verdict. While at the BBC, Ms Johnson was in charge of party conference coverage and she obviously thought she knew more about how to get a better response out of the corporation than Mr Campbell.Meanwhile, some of Mr Blair's allies were suspicious of Ms Johnson because, as a party member, she voted for Margaret Beckett in the 1994 leadership election.Her notes for the party's election conference guide were also read as coded attacks on Mr Blair's aides.

I didn't know whether to drive to the BBC office in Westminster and say, 'I'm back', or to Labour HQ," she said.She returned to Labour HQ, but stories began to surface of her conflicts. She is understood to be discussing a return to the BBC.Before coming to the Labour Party she had been a journalist for 16 years, first with ITN and then with the BBC, which she joined in 1990 as political news organiser before rising to political news editor.She took over as director of a merged campaigns, elections and media department at the Labour Party and was credited with completing a system of daily briefing by computer and fax for all Labour MPs and officials.She said that she realised she was in the wrong job last June, when she heard the news of John Redwood's resignation from the Cabinet to challenge John Major for the Tory leadership "A tremor went through my body. Friends of Ms Johnson, who took the job in February last year, said her disagreements were personality clashes rather than political disputes and she had never succeeded in shaking off the attractions of journalism."I see my own future in broadcasting, and that future is better secured by leaving now, rather than much closer to the election," said Ms Johnson, who will leave next month. When asked to explain the "gross disparity" of injuries sustained by the officers and Lapite, PC McCallum said he did not believe excessive force was used.The inquest continues today.. JOHN RENTOUL Political Correspondent The appearance of disarray in the Labour Party was strengthened last night by the resignation of Joy Johnson, director of campaigns, elections and media, to return to broadcasting.Her departure follows several months of tension in which she fell out semi-publicly with Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair's press secretary, and Peter Mandelson, the leader's close adviser.Some Labour MPs privately accuse "modernisers" of squeezing her out, and say her departure reveals the extent to which power is now concentrated in the leader's office. "I could not lessen his grip."I did try to move his hands but was unable to do so. He was a very, very strong man."PC McCallum said he "had let go, stood up and kicked Lapite in the head as hard as I could".When it was pointed out during cross-examination that kicking people in the head was not an approved method of restraint, PC McCallum said: "That's the method I used to prevent injury to myself and the death of my colleague."Ben Emmerson, counsel for Lapite's family, suggested that Lapite had actually been struggling for his life.

When they attempted to arrest him on suspicion of possession Lapite resisted and a fight broke out. During what both officers described as a "violent" struggle, PC Wright and Lapite had fallen to the ground.The court heard that at one point Lapite had put his hands around PC Wright's neck "He then started to strangle me I was in fear for my life and PC McCallum's," he said. Both officers said that the extreme strength of Lapite suggested that he had taken drugs.PC Wright said the two plain-clothes officers had stopped to question Lapite after they had seen him acting suspiciously after leaving a restaurant. PC Wright said that Lapite had dropped a quantity of drugs when he realised police were following him. There were no recorded injuries to PC Wright's neck, although he did sustain injuries to his arm.The other officer, PC Andrew McCallum, 24, who described Lapite as "the most violent man I've ever come across", sustained one minor hand injury.

Neither officer could explain the disparity.PC Paul Wright, 28, who told the court he had bitten Lapite after Lapite had bitten him, said he had employed a necklock on the Nigerian after Lapite had attempted to strangle him. The average person spends pounds 2.10 and the rich pay more than the less well off."I don't think there's any evidence that we are becoming a nation of gamblers any more than all those other countries in the world that have got lotteries - not many of them as successful as ours - have turned into a nation of gamblers."n In just over a year, the lottery has paid out over pounds 200m to the 19,000 ticket outlets.. Countries such as Germany and Holland, which had capped jackpots, had found substantially fewer people playing, she said.Mrs Bottomley disputed claims that massive jackpots encouraged poor people to spend more than they could afford. "It is a very carefully monitored lottery and a very carefully regulated lottery. She has agreed to meet church leaders to discuss their concerns that massive jackpots, such as this week's predicted pounds 40m double rollover, are creating a culture of greed. Apart from helping would-be sports stars, she envisaged money being used to support youngsters visiting the theatre and the arts, and for artists to visit schools.There was sufficient flexibility available for distributing bodies to take account of special circumstances in individual applications, she said."The lottery is a stunning opportunity for this country to invest in arts, sports and heritage as never before," she said.Mrs Bottomley insisted in an earlier GMTV interview that slashing lottery jackpots would only cut the cash available for good causes. In any case, she said, normally only two train operators were represented in the centre.Mr King, however, insisted that interlopers from five companies were always present, and that management had been made aware of the difficulties.The RMT believes similar problems could develop in larger control centres all over the network as companies insist on having their four penn'orth..