There were no objections, however, to pictures of the proud parents.Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, chose to have Leo christened in the Catholic church of St John Fisher, in the PM’s constituency of Sedgefield.Only 24 per cent of infants are christened today, compared with 65 per cent in the days of Harold Macmillan and Harold Wilson. The British people, whose approval is Mr Blair’s obsession, are sliding into a benign secularism, and no longer regard the reception of their children into the church as a key rite of passage.The Blairs disagree. So at tea-time yesterday, in bright sunshine under the fond, but respectful gaze of the people of Sedgefield, young Leo became an apprentice member of the Most Holy and Apostolic Church.Although Mr Blair remains nominally Anglican, his wife is Catholic. Leo was the fourth Blair child to be christened in the tiny redbrick church. The private ceremony was attended only by family, close friends and a few selected political colleagues.Outside an enthusiastic crowd, made up almost exclusively of locals, waved and cheered – and as Leo made his appearance wrapped in a christening shawl, there was a discernible “Aaahh”. The suited Prime Minister smiled for the cameras, followed by Cherie in a broad-brimmed hat and long lavender coat.The couple’s three other children were led into the building by 16-year-old Euan, sporting a button-hole on the lapel of his black suit.Afterwards, several newspapers were approached with photographs that showed baby Leo in his father’s arms. In a statement to the Press Association the Prime Minister made it clear he believed there could be no justification for their publication The Independent on Sunday has chosen to respect that view..

Child protection groups and offenders’ organisations are to meet with the News of the World this week in a bid to convince the paper to stop its controversial campaign to “name and shame” child sex offenders. Child protection groups and offenders’ organisations are to meet with the News of the World this week in a bid to convince the paper to stop its controversial campaign to “name and shame” child sex offenders.
The photographs and details of another 34 paedophiles were printed today in the paper as it continued to fulfill its pledge to identify Britain’s 110,000 convicted sex offenders.The paper also asked readers to sign a petition calling on Home Secretary Jack Straw to introduce new legislation giving the public the right to see a register of convicted paedophiles.But the petition was launched on the day that senior probation officers warned that paedophiles are changing address, altering their appearance and breaking all contact with the probation service since the name and shame campaign began.The Association of Chief Officers of Probation said it had collected evidence of convicted child sex offenders going “underground” after they were threatened with violence.Among the signatories to the call to bring in “Sarah’s Law” – which would be similar to Megan’s Law in the United States, named after paedophile victim Megan Kanka – were the parents of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne.Michael and Sara Payne called for offenders to get longer sentences. Mr Payne said: “It’s no good to take a child’s life and then get out in eight years.”His wife appealed to people not take the law into their own hands: “Anyone who decides on vigilante action – you are hurting the campaign more. You are teaching kids that violence is OK, and it’s not.”More pressure to introduce a “Sarah’s Law” was piled on the Government as relatives of murdered and abused children met in the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Garden to back the campaign.But the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (Nacro), the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and Diana Lamplugh of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust – whose estate agent daughter disappeared 14 years ago – will meet with senior executives from the newspaper, including editor Rebekah Wade, on Tuesday to ask them to call off the campaign to publicly identify paedophiles.A Nacro spokeswoman said they were hoping to convince the paper that the way they were trying to protect children would do more damage than good.She said longer sentences for paedophiles, preventing them from being released while still a threat, was the answer.

A “Sarah’s Law” would be counterproductive, driving paedophiles underground and making it harder to keep track of them, she added.Representatives from the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Chief Officers of Probation (Acop) may also attend the meeting.Acop has complained in writing to the News of the World’s over its “misjudged” campaign, a spokesman said.In the letter, which has been passed to the Press Complaints Commission, Acop complained that the newspaper has hindered its statutory work to supervise offenders by driving them underground, risks identifying innocent relatives of offenders, many of whom are victims, and encourages violence.The News of the World today defended its campaign to “name and shame” paedophiles and its call for new legislation giving the public the right to see registers of child sex offenders in their area.A spokesman said: “We are ready and very willing to meet these important organisations. We will of course listen with the greatest care to everything they have to say. At the same time, we will clearly explain our position and restate if necessary our defined objectives.”The News of the World believes everybody has the right to know the identity and whereabouts of a convicted child sex offender living in their area, he said.Home Office Minister Paul Boateng said that existing laws allow schools, local authorities and parents to be notified if offenders who pose a risk are released in their area.Mr Boateng, writing in the Observer, said that the decision to name offenders should only be taken by the police and probation services and not by a newspaper.. Overheard, the RAF and the Luftwaffe were struggling for mastery of the skies. Britain, after the “miracle” of Dunkirk, was fighting for its life. Overheard, the RAF and the Luftwaffe were struggling for mastery of the skies. Britain, after the “miracle” of Dunkirk, was fighting for its life.
But the conflict was not confined to the armed forces.

Britain’s premier security service, MI5, was hard at work protecting the citizenry from Nazi subversion. Or was it?According to an extraordinary report, released after 60 years in Whitehall’s secret archives, MI5 in the opening phase of the war was a shambles. Its director, after 31 years in the job, had no idea what was going on His successor was little better. Most astonishing, the deputy director, William Crocker, was a Nazi sympathiser opposed to the war with Hitler.Had Neville Chamberlain remained at Downing Street, it is possible that nothing would have changed. As it was, Churchill, newly installed as Prime Minister, realised immediately that something was wrong and called in Sir David Petrie, a colonial intelligence specialist, to stop the rot.Petrie’s report was devastating. MI5, he said, was obsessed with Communism, anti-Labour and under the influence of people opposed to the very concept of war with Germany.The content of Petrie’s report has been the source of speculation by historians for years. Although not scheduled for release until 2020, it was apparently released under the early review system several weeks ago.Petrie concluded that MI5 staff were “dispirited from a variety of causes, including breakdown, lack of direction, pressure of work, disorganisation, complaints of delay and alleged interference from outside”.