Sunday Express .sx Opinion .sx High Tory hopes for the holidays .sx FOR the first time since 1988 , Tory MPs are setting off on their holidays in better heart than their Labour counterparts .sx The party's optimism is justified .sx The recent rise in exports suggests that British industry is still in good shape despite the recession , while the increase in retail sales may well mark the beginning of the recovery .sx Ministers are entitled to a great deal of credit for this - and particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer , Mr Norman Lamont .sx Over the past few months , he has shown that he knows how to keep his nerve under fire .sx He has displayed his determination to bring down inflation so that the economy can return to the path of non-inflationary growth .sx He is succeeding - and interest rates are falling .sx But above all , the credit is John Major's .sx Since arriving in Number 10 , he has faced a succession of tests at home and abroad .sx He has come through them all triumphantly .sx Mr Major has also been able to display his party's human face .sx The Citizen's Charter may have been based on the new PM's own experience of inner-city poverty and of the inadequacy of public services .sx It was also a spectacular exercise in political clothes-stealing .sx The Labour Party was undoubtedly planning its own version of the Citizen's Charter as central plank in its next election manifesto .sx Now it is reduced to carping from the side-lines .sx But despite recent improvements in the Government's standing , despite Mr Major's triumph at the G7 , there is no reason for complacency .sx The recession is still hitting many households hard , particularly in the South and the Midlands .sx The Government still has to prove to some of its own supporters that it does care about the human consequences of recession .sx It may be that inflation could not have been tackled without an increase in unemployment .sx But the unemployed did not cause inflation .sx Ministers now have to demonstrate that even if they cannot give immediate help to the unemployed , they are determined to bring down interest rates further to encourage a new surge of private sector investment .sx Humanity dictates no less - so does politics .sx Over the next few months , the Tories' main task is to develop the right economic policies to re - establish their hold over their own natural supporters .sx If they can do that , the next general election is won - and won by a larger majority than seemed possible just a few months ago .sx Eighth time lucky ?sx WHO could suppress a smile at the news that Elizabeth Taylor is to marry for the eighth time - and to a labourer 20 years her junior ?sx Dr Johnson said that a second marriage represented the triumph of hope over experience .sx There is no telling what he would have made of an eighth .sx Yet isn't it something much more than cynicism which makes us smile ?sx For almost half a century , Liz Taylor has inspired a huge amount of love in millions of fans all over the world .sx With her public glamour and her private vulnerability she has touched something in all of us .sx When people smile at Liz Taylor's forthcoming marriage , it is not only because experience suggests that it will fail .sx It is because in matters of the heart no human being ever learns .sx And the hope triumphs in all of us that this time , at last , she will find happiness .sx Sunday Express .sx Opinion .sx Time to be tough with the bullies .sx ON THE very borders of the European Community , in a country best known as a venue for cheap summer holidays , a tragedy of world proportions is unfolding while the rest of the world wrings its hands .sx Only the most wide-eyed optimist can now believe that the savagery engulfing Yugoslavia is capable of being ended without external intervention .sx The hatred between Serbia and Croatia runs too deep , the toll in the dead and maimed is too high .sx Serbia with the backing of the federal army is intent on grabbing more territory by force of arms .sx Croatia insists on its independence without lifting a finger to reassure its own Serbian minority .sx The snarling-match between the two sides at yesterday's peace conference in the Hague only serves to underline the dangers .sx Yugoslavia is on the brink of a devastating civil war which could claim tens of thousands of lives .sx We cannot ignore that risk .sx The continent after all is full of countries which could fall apart if the Yugoslav example is followed .sx Czechs and Slovaks , ethnic Germans in Poland , Muslims in Bosnia and Albania , Austrians in Northern Italy .sx One principle is paramount .sx We dare not allow any European border to be changed by military force .sx To do so would invite disaster .sx The Serbian bullies must be told that the full force of European economic and diplomatic sanctions will be brought against them if they persist .sx The need for such a tough line could not be more urgent .sx For unless Serbian expansionism is stopped now we may find in weeks to come that the argument is not about the use of sanctions .sx It will be about how many troops we need to send to prevent a mass slaughter .sx Hypocrisy of France .sx EVEN by the low standards of French politics , President Francois Mitterrand - the man who was so slow to condemn the Soviet coup attempt - has plumbed new depths by wrecking European attempts to help the struggling peoples of Eastern Europe .sx All the other nations of the EC are ready to open their markets to products from Poland , Hungary and Czechoslovakia .sx Not France .sx In an astonishing demonstration of hypocrisy and selfishness , President Mitterrand has flatly refused to allow in a few hundred tons of beef from Poland in case it upsets his farmers .sx By that one act he has derailed hopes of a comprehensive aid and trade package .sx French politicians such as M. Mitterrand and Jacques Delors are always lecturing Britain on the need to promote the European ideal .sx But their words are meaningless .sx Once again France stands exposed as a nation always ready to preach co-operation and never willing to modify its own greed .sx Farewell to a friend .sx ALWAYS ruthlessly honest and down-to-earth , always outspoken , Daily Express columnist Jean Rook wrote exactly what she thought - whether her readers liked it or not .sx For the most part , they adored it .sx Many tried to imitate the columnist they called the First Lady of Fleet Street .sx None had a hope of succeeding .sx For she truly was a one-off .sx Though she mixed with royalty and celebrities , she always remained utterly true to herself and to her readers .sx And when she died last week after her courageous battle against cancer , millions lost an irreplaceable friend .sx Sunday Express .sx Opinion .sx A vital role for Mr Gorbachev .sx TIRED , defeated , abandoned by most of his former colleagues , Mr Mikhail Gorbachev seems finally to have accepted the ruin of all his hopes .sx " The main part of my life's work is probably complete , " he says .sx It can now be only a matter of time before he resigns .sx The new Commonwealth of Soviet republics has found other stars to follow .sx To them Gorbachev is an irrelevance .sx They are in danger of throwing away a priceless asset .sx After all those decades of Communist misrule the old USSR is on the verge of economic collapse .sx There is a threat of famine this winter .sx Inflation is rampant .sx There are whispers of another military coup and fears of civil war .sx Such is the scale of the crisis that only a vast international effort can now stave off calamity .sx The new Soviet Commonwealth desperately needs a figure capable of summoning up that effort , a representative sufficiently trusted and respected to inspire more aid and trade and money before it is too late .sx Mikhail Gorbachev would fill that role with distinction .sx He could be a major asset to the UN .sx He could be a roving ambassador for his country .sx Nobody would be more effective than he on the American lecture circuit .sx It would be a tragedy to waste such outstanding ability .sx Mr Gorbachev should think again .sx Whatever his present mood , his life's work is far from finished yet .sx Free for Christmas ?sx IT IS becoming increasingly clear that Judith Ward may have been innocent of the M62 coach bombing for which she was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1974 .sx Ex-Home Secretary Mr Merlyn Rees yesterday condemned her conviction as seriously flawed .sx And former police chief Mr John Stalker says that hers was one of the most unsatisfactory cases he had ever dealt with .sx " I don't know of any police officer involved in the case who had the instinct and the feeling that we'd got the right person , " he said .sx Yet Ward remains in Holloway Prison while prosecution lawyers drag their feet , delaying the appeal and her expected release .sx The case must be heard immediately .sx If Ward is indeed innocent , let British justice at least have the decency and the mercy to allow her home for Christmas .sx As dim as dolphins .sx FREDDIE the bottle-nosed dolphin does not have the slightest idea that the size , shape and flexibility of his sexual organs were at the centre of a court case in Newcastle last week .sx Nor does he know of the embarrassment suffered by his regular swimming companion Mr Alan Cooper , who has just been cleared of indecent behaviour with Freddie - largely because what may look like naughty behaviour in a dolphin is in fact perfectly innocent .sx The only achievement in this strangest of strange prosecutions , which has cost the taxpayer over pounds33,000 , is that the public now knows more about what makes dolphins tick .sx One of the points which has emerged in the wake of that case is that contrary to popular myth , dolphins are not particularly intelligent .sx Indeed they seem to be not much brighter than the prosecuting authorities of Newcastle .sx Sunday Express .sx Opinion .sx Making it easy for terrorists .sx AT four of Britain's eight military hospitals last week there was no defence at all against the threat of a terrorist attack .sx There was no security at the entrances , no check on the identity of visitors , no attempt to search bags or parcels .sx At Catterick , Aldershot , Portsmouth and in London they might as well have laid out a welcome mat for the IRA .sx It beggars belief .sx According to a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence , military hospitals on the mainland are considered in a different category from those in Northern Ireland .sx It would be comforting to believe that the bombers share that cosy assumption .sx But nobody in his senses can believe any such thing .sx What has become evident in the latest round of atrocities is that the terrorists are savagely indiscriminate in their assault .sx The people who planted that bomb at the Musgrave Park hospital in Belfast or who destroyed a school and a Catholic church in Craigavon are beyond the reach of conscience .sx The people who planted those incendiary devices in the shops of Blackpool , Manchester and London do not care who they maim or kill .sx Their only concern is to get away without being caught .sx And we are making it easy for them .sx Perhaps those policemen who have so rightly warned the public to be vigilant should concentrate their attentions now on those bureaucrats in Whitehall who have failed to take the point .sx It may not be possible to guard every potential target .sx It is certainly possible to be wary and to be alert .sx We had better learn the lesson now before we are taught it the hard way .sx In another preventable tragedy .sx The real Christmas .sx ACCORDING to the Archbishop of Canterbury the real message of Christmas is in danger of being buried beneath a torrent of toys and tinsel .sx " There's a kind of Disneyland , Victorian Charles Dickens Christmas which is being overlaid on the real one about the manger , about the birth of Jesus Christ , " Dr Carey declared .sx The Archbishop's concern may be understandable .sx Yet need he really worry ?sx From time out of mind there have been complaints about the commercialisation of Christmas , complaints about the frenzy of giving and getting , complaints about greed and over-indulgence .sx