Each Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP is now "worth more" than Cristiano Ronaldo, a Scottish National Party MP has told the House of Commons.

Alison Thewliss made the remark as she questioned the Tory government about the £1bn deal they signed with the DUP.
But her comparison of the 10 DUP MPs with the world's third most expensive footballer led to roars of laughter.
"We're now in the slightly odd position where each DUP MP is worth more than Ronaldo," Ms Thewliss said.
"I don't know what it says about their footballing skills."
Under the deal announced on Monday, DUP MPs will support the government in exchange for extra public spending in Northern Ireland.
Ms Thewliss wanted to know how the Conservative government could act with impartiality between unionists and Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland, given its dependence on the support of the DUP.
The Glasgow Central MP addressed her concerns to Northern Ireland Secretary of State James Brokenshire during the first Northern Ireland Questions session of the new parliament.
"Does the secretary of state agree with Jonathan Powell that is it now impossible for the UK government to be even-handed in Northern Ireland?" she asked.
Mr Powell was intimately involved in the Northern Ireland peace process during his 10-year tenure as chief-of-staff to the former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mr Brokenshire, who had already answered several questions that raised the same concern about government impartiality, simply replied: "No I don't."
This week's agreement between the DUP and the Conservative Party was signed in Downing Street after 11 days of negotiations.
The extra spending was given a cautious welcome by parties in Northern Ireland.
However, the deal was criticised by senior politicians in Scotland, Wales and some English regions who argued that their jurisdictions would suffer as a result of preferential treatment given to Northern Ireland.
The Scottish National Party MP was not the first to cry foul with a football analogy.
Jim Pickard, chief political correspondent with the Financial Times, tweeted some record-breaking transfer fees on Monday, by way of comparison to the DUP price tag.
He pointed out that the almost £1bn committed by the government to secure the support of the party's 10 MPs works out at about £100m each.
Mr Pickard later added: "Did I mention they played on the right wing?"
Manchester United sold Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in 2009 for £80m, a record which has since been surpassed by transfer fees for Gareth Bale and Paul Pogba.


Campaigners opposed to the Scottish government's named person scheme claim ministers have refused to engage with them during a consultation on plans to reform the policy.

Education Secretary John Swinney launched the "intense" three month consultation last September.
But the group which mounted a legal challenge against the scheme said there had been no updates from ministers.
The government said it held more than 50 meetings during the consultation.
A spokesman said Mr Swinney would update parliament in "due course".
The named person policy, introduced as part of the Children and Young People Scotland Act of 2014, set out to appoint a single point of contact, such as a teacher or health visitor, to look out for the welfare of all children up to the age of 18.
The consultation was announced six weeks after the UK Supreme Court ruled elements of the policy to be "incompatible" with the right to privacy and family life, as set out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
Feedback from it was due to be collated by the government, with Mr Swinney intending to outline his next steps before the end of 2016.
But the No To Named Persons (NO2NP) group, which mounted the legal challenge, said they were not involved in the process.
Freedom of information requests by the group for details of the consultation discussions were rejected.
NO2NP spokesman Simon Calvert said: "The engagement period was really a sham consultation because Mr Swinney only wanted to deal with those who support the scheme and organisations mainly funded by the government.
"He refused to engage with us even though we represent an important cross-section of Scottish society, huge numbers of parents and more than 35,000 people who signed our petition.
"The three-month 'engagement' has long since ended. It looks like it could be more like six or seven months, March or April 2017, before we hear anything."
He added: "The Supreme Court agreed with us that the intrusive sharing of private information which was at the heart of the Named Person scheme was unlawful.
"The court granted our appeal, and ordered the Scottish government to pay all our costs. It was a total defeat for the Scottish government.
"The substantial delay in announcing their plans to try to navigate a way around the ruling indicates that reality is finally beginning to bite."
After the legal challenge, Mr Swinney was forced to act to halt the roll-out of the named person scheme, which has already been trialled in some parts of Scotland.
It had been due to be introduced across the country on August 31 2016, but Mr Swinney said he hoped the named person policy can now come into force a year on from that.
A Scottish government spokeswoman said: "The engagement involved more than 50 meetings with some 250 organisations and groups - and included around 700 young people, parents/carers, practitioners and professionals.
"This included leaders from health, education, local authorities, police, faith communities, charities, unions and professional bodies.
"The deputy first minister will update parliament in due course."


Former Wales rugby international Ian Gough says he witnessed medical staff being "bullied" by team coaches to keep players on the pitch.

He said they were "disgraceful scenes" and players may have suffered an injury as a result.
His comments come after a sports surgeon called for a review on the rate of injuries, saying it cannot continue.
Former Osprey Mr Gough, 38, said there is a moral responsibility to consider a player's welfare.
Speaking on the Jason Mohammad programme on BBC Radio Wales, he said: "I've seen team doctors bullied by coaches at times, absolutely bullied."
He said all team officials from coaches to physiotherapists and team doctors have a moral responsibility, not just to do what is right for "that win and for the next week's game".
"You're dealing with people's lives," added the 64-times capped second row.
"I think from age grade, everything from under eights up, coaches and parents should be taking that moral stand.
"It's just a game, much as we love this game, it's a game and people's lives are much more important."


A fresh search is due to get under way in France for the remains of one of Northern Ireland's Disappeared.

Seamus Ruddy, 32, was abducted in Paris by republican paramilitaries, the INLA, in 1985.
He was murdered and secretly buried in France.
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains said a fresh search would begin on Tuesday at a forest at Pont-de-l'Arche outside Rouen in northern France.
There have been three previous searches in the area, the most recent one was in 2008.
The Disappeared are those who were abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republicans during Northern Ireland's Troubles.
Mr Ruddy was originally from Newry and was teaching in Paris when he was murdered on 9 May 1985. His sister, Anne Morgan, was the last family member to see him alive.
She told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme the family was being careful not to get their hopes built up too high.
"We've been disappointed on so many occasions before," she said.
"I hope to travel to France this week and I will be there for a few days.
"I think it's important just to be in the forest, maybe at the beginning of the search, then I'll be posted by my phone for the next month."
Ms Morgan has been to the forest on two occasions before.
"I know the lay of the land and the area they will go to," she said.
"We have to put all the agony and the hurt away when we do visit the forest, we can't think about Seamus and his last moments there, we have to focus on the efforts to find him."
Geoff Knupfer who heads the team that found three other Disappeared, Brendan Megraw in 2014 and Kevin McKee and Seamus Wright in 2015, said that he was satisfied that the information they had was "as accurate as it can be, given the passage of time".
"I am convinced that there is a genuine desire on the part of those supplying the information to get this resolved by finding where Seamus is buried," he said.
"As in other cases, fresh information that refines what we already know is crucial. Everyone we have found to date has been in the area where we were told that they were. It is always a question of narrowing that down to a precise location.
"I really hope that we can do this again and find him".
Mr Knupfer said this was a more defined search area in a forest and was a much smaller search area than Oristown and Coghalson where Brendan Megraw, Kevin McKee and Seamus Wright were buried.
This should make the search faster.
Joint UK and Irish Commissioners Sir Ken Bloomfield and Frank Murray said that they hoped the search would be successful and that the remains of Seamus Ruddy would be returned to his family for Christian burial.
"We share the hopes and prayers of the family that we'll be successful. We know that the team led by Geoff are world leaders in this work and they will bring all their experience and commitment to try to bring this search to a successful conclusion," they said.
Seamus Ruddy is one of four people out of 16 whose bodies have never been found. The others are Columba McVeigh, Joe Lynskey and Captain Robert Nairac.


A letter sent to Aberdeen council tax payers was not designed to influence voting in the Scottish independence referendum, it has been claimed.

The claim was made towards the end of a Standards Commission hearing into the conduct of seven councillors.
The lawyer representing five Labour councillors said that her clients were not determined to publish propaganda.
The solicitor for the Commission said it was his view the code of conduct had been breached.
The three person panel will consider a verdict.
The letter stated the city would be better as part of the UK.


FC Halifax have signed defender Martin Riley on a one-year contract following his release by Wrexham.

Riley, 30, made 30 appearances as Wrexham finished 13th in the National League, but was let go at the end of the season.
The centre-back began his career at Wolves and has also played for Kidderminster, Mansfield and Tranmere.
He becomes Halifax's first signing since achieving promotion to the National League via the play-offs.


Hundreds of thousands of savers are still unable to book free guidance about forthcoming pensions changes, experts have warned.

The Government has promised impartial advice sessions on the reforms, which will be introduced on 6 April.
The phone line to book sessions to help over-55s decide whether to cash in their pensions savings or keep an annuity is not yet open.
The Treasury says the staged rollout of the services is "entirely on schedule".
A spokesman said: "We have been piloting sessions of the Pension Wise service and gathered feedback from users and guidance specialists in order to ensure it is as good as possible for when the pension changes come into force in April.
"People will be able to begin booking their telephone and face-to-face appointments in the next few days.
"People should remember, though, that 6 April is not a deadline; they have plenty of time to seek the right guidance and advice of these important decisions."
Under the changes people will be able to access the entirety of their pension pots.  Up to now, most people retiring have bought an annuity, which gives an income for life - even though that has not been compulsory for several years.
All of the advisers needed have not yet been recruited.
Citizens Advice, which is one of the three organisations that will be providing the Pensions Wise service, acknowledged "there is still a small amount of recruitment to do."
The radical pensions shake up is one of the coalition government's biggest reforms, allowing people who have saved for a pension to do what they want with their money.
The changes have been welcomed in principle but pensions experts have been concerned for some time about the practice.
Many pension companies have said they are not yet ready to allow people to cash in their pensions because it brings extra costs to schemes as well as risk.
Over half of occupational schemes are still undecided about whether to offer access to the new freedoms, and 15% say they definitely will not, according to pension consultants Xafinity.
Despite government assurances that they will be ready for "pensions freedom day" on 6 April, there are  anxieties being voiced in the pensions industry.
One consumer group says that while it broadly welcomes the flexibility of the government's reforms, it also has concerns.
Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which? said: "People approaching retirement are not going to turn into financial experts overnight and so, with more options on the table, it is vital people take their time to make the new freedoms work for them."
Any lump sum of cash withdrawn from a pension will be treated as income and will have income tax implications.
Large amounts could push individuals into a higher income tax bracket, taking a big chunk out of their lump sum.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) cautioned against rushing into a decision.
Huw Evans, director general of the ABI said: "Don't be tempted to dash for the cash, but take time to consider carefully your options - especially as rising life expectancy means we can expect a longer retirement"


Poundland could face a takeover bid after South African company Steinhoff said it was considering making an offer for the UK discount retailer.

Shares in Poundland rose 2% after having surged 24% on Monday on takeover speculation.
The UK retailer told its investors to take no action as there was no certainty an offer would be made.
Under UK takeover rules, Steinhoff has until 13 July to announce a firm intention to bid for Poundland.
Steinhoff, which owns the furniture chain Harvey's in the UK, makes most of its products in developing countries, and sells its furniture across Europe.
Earlier this year, Steinhoff pulled out of a takeover battle for Argos owner Home Retail Group. leaving the way clear for supermarket chain Sainsbury's.
The South African company also failed to take over French retailer Darty.
Steinhoff International Holdings is worth $22bn (£16bn) while Poundland is valued at more than £500m.
Since 1990, Poundland has opened about 600 shops in the UK, Ireland and Spain, and has plans to open 16 new shops a year for the next two years in the UK and Ireland.
The retailer sells everything at the single price point of £1 in its UK stores. It also has operations in Ireland and Spain under the name of Dealz.
In September 2015, Poundland took over rival 99p Stores but has since seen a slowdown in sales.


The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution to "redouble" action against Islamic State, following last week's deadly attacks in Paris.

The French-drafted document urges UN members to "take all necessary measures" in the fight against IS.
IS said it carried out the Paris attacks, in which 130 people died.
It also claimed deadly bombings in Lebanon this month, while an IS-linked group said it downed a Russian passenger plane in October.
The UN resolution 2249 also condemns recent attacks in Sousse, Tunisia, and Ankara, Turkey.
Special report: In-depth coverage of the attacks and their aftermath
It came as the Belgian authorities raised the terror alert to its highest level in the capital, Brussels, warning of an "imminent threat".
The city's metro system and other underground train lines have been closed until at least Sunday, and the public has been warned to avoid crowds, including shopping centres and concerts.
Belgium, and especially Brussels, have been at the centre of investigations into the militants behind the Paris attacks.
One of those being sought, Salah Abdeslam, is believed to have gone back to Belgium.
The Belgian authorities also announced that a suspect had been charged with involvement in the attacks, bringing the number of people charged there to three.
On Friday evening, large crowds converged at the scenes of the attacks across the French capital at 21:20 (20:20 GMT) to hold vigils at the time the attacks started a week ago.
The UN Security Council called on member states to "eradicate the safe haven" IS and other militant groups had established over parts of Iraq and Syria.
The document also stresses that nations should "redouble and co-ordinate their efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist attacks".
However, it does not invoke the UN's Chapter VII, which gives specific legal authorisation for the use of force.
France and Russia have argued that military action is already justifiable because of the right of countries to self-defence.
Earlier, French officials said the cousin of the presumed ringleader of the 13 November attacks in Paris did not blow herself up in Wednesday's police raid in Saint-Denis as previously thought.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC, a member of the police assault team involved in the raid said Hasna Ait Boulahcen, 26, was "trying to say she was not linked to the terrorists, that she had nothing to do with them and wanted to surrender".
But he said that due to prior intelligence, "we knew that she was trying to manipulate us".
Officials said the suicide bomber was a man, who - alongside with alleged ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud - was also killed.
In a separate development, French prosecutors said that a second suicide bomber from the Stade de France attack passed through Greece on his way to France.
The prosecutors had previously said one of the other attackers had come on the same route, via the Greek island of Leros. The men may have been posing as Syrian refugees.
Hundreds of people were wounded in the near-simultaneous attacks on Paris bars and restaurants, a concert hall and sports stadium.
Islamic State (IS) said it was behind the attacks - the worst in Europe since the 2004 Madrid bombings.
IS is a notoriously violent Islamist group which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq. It has declared its territory a caliphate - a state governed in accordance with Islamic law - under its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
IS demands allegiance from all Muslims, rejects national borders and seeks to expand its territory. It follows its own extreme version of Sunni Islam and regards non-believers as deserving of death.
IS projects a powerful image, partly through propaganda and sheer brutality, and is the world's richest insurgent group. It has about 30,000 fighters but is facing daily bombing by a US-led multi-national coalition, which has vowed to destroy it.
More on Islamic State


Sebastian Vettel hung on to win a tense Hungarian Grand Prix despite problems with his Ferrari and a valiant attack by title rival Lewis Hamilton.

In a nail-biting finish, Vettel had his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen behind complaining that he could go faster but being used by the team as a buffer against Hamilton.
The Mercedes driver closed in but was unable to overcome the problems created by losing grip in the wake of another car.
And he let team-mate Valtteri Bottas past into third place, honouring a promise he made earlier in the race when the Finn moved aside to let Hamilton attack the Ferraris.
Vettel's victory with Hamilton in fourth extended his championship lead to 14 points as Formula 1 heads into its four-week summer break.
Hamilton's challenge for victory was unexpected after a weekend in which he and his Mercedes team had struggled for pace compared to Ferrari.
Vettel and Raikkonen dominated the first half of the race, in which it was already clear that the German was managing some form of handling problem and that the Finn was being asked to hold station behind.
It emerged that his steering was not working properly in left-handed corners.
The switch to harder tyres at the pit stops changed the complexion of the race and gave Mercedes the pace to challenge.
Hamilton had suffered with radio problems in the first part of the race, unable to consistently hear his team.
It righted itself after the pit stops as Hamilton was closing on Valtteri Bottas as the Finn was doing the same to the Ferraris.
Hamilton asked to be allowed past his team-mate to attack the Ferraris, saying: "OK, man. I've got a lot of pace. You've got to let me use it. And this radio rubbish sucks."
Hamilton pledged that he would allow Bottas back past him if he could not overtake a Ferrari.
Bottas complied and Hamilton set about the Ferraris, but although he closed on Raikkonen he was unable to pass, his car's aerodynamics too badly affected by the wake of the Ferrari on this tight and twisty track for him to get on to Raikkonen's tail.
Raikkonen complained that he was "uncomfortable" with the situation but he played his role perfectly, with Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne watching from the pits.
It affirmed Raikkonen's position as a team player and will only make it more likely that he will be retained for next year as long as Vettel also stays.
Verstappen will have some explaining to do after the race following the first-lap incident in which he took out team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
The Australian had passed Verstappen on the outside on the run to Turn Two, after the Dutchman was forced wide by Bottas on the exit of Turn One.
But although Ricciardo was clearly ahead, Verstappen left his braking too late on the inside, and slid into his team-mate, smashing his radiator. Ricciardo spun into retirement on fluids from his own car at Turn Three, bringing out the safety car.
Ricciardo said: "It's frustrating. It's not even an overtaking move. It's an emotional response - sees me pass him, wants to make it back and messed it up.
"I don't really know… in that moment I expect (the team) to say sorry and they will speak to Max and that's what they said. I don't know.
"Look, the way Max handles it, more than the way I handle it, will dictate how it goes in the future. For sure I can go and call him names but if he acts like the age he is, or if he acts like a man and admits the mistake."
Verstappen's move earned him a 10-second penalty, served at his pit stop, which made it more difficult for him to challenge the Mercedes at the end.
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Vettel: "I am over the moon. It was a really difficult race. I had my hands full from three to four laps after the safety car, the steering started to go sideways and it started to get worse. It wasn't easy but it didn't do a favour to Kimi who could obviously go faster.
"You go down the straight and it's not straight. In right-handers it was OK, but in left-handers you had to go further than your head is telling you you should.
"I tried to hang in there as much as possible. The race felt very long."
On extending his championship lead, Vettel said: "I don't mind. It's OK. Could be worse."
Bottas said: "For sure in the end I was getting little bit worried because I was losing ground with all the backmarkers. So really thanks to Lewis for keeping his word."
An honourable mention, too, to Fernando Alonso, for his battling sixth place, forced to overtake Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz on track after being passed off the line, by far McLaren's best result of the season. He celebrated by posing on an image of his famous 'deckchair' moment from Brazil a couple of years ago that was painted on the pit lane.
The teams are forced to take two weeks off work during the four-week break. The next race, the Belgian Grand Prix, should be very much a Mercedes track, and a chance for Hamilton to close up again on Vettel in the championship.


Sir Bradley Wiggins says there have been times when he wishes he had never won the Tour de France and Olympic gold in 2012 that brought him national fame.

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The 34-year-old aims to win his first Commonwealth Games gold medal on Thursday, two years after those feats.
"It was nice people saying 'it changed my life' and hearing things like 'the Wiggo effect'; that was a positive.
"From a personal point of view, there's been times I wish I'd never done all that," he told BBC Sport.
"I left for the Tour de France that year relatively unknown in the general public's eyes. When I came back, for a week or so I felt like the most famous man in the country.
"It's quite hard that level of fame, when you just want to do normal stuff with the children, things like that. That was hard but I think you learn to deal with it."
In an exclusive interview, the 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year, who competes for England in the team pursuit in Glasgow, also revealed that:
Just 10 days after becoming the first British rider to win the Tour de France, Wiggins won his fourth Olympic gold medal, and a then British record seventh medal in all, in the time trial in London.
"You can plan physically to try to win the Tour but I could never plan for what was going to happen after it," he recalled.
"It just went mad for a bit. Looking back now you don't fully appreciate it at the time, you just try to take it in your stride… and drinking and stuff to try to ease your way through it.
"It was massive really. I can't really put it into words how much it changed everything.
"Talking to people like Chris Hoy really helped, because he went through a similar thing after [the 2008 Olympics in] Beijing. You realise that it's not just you."
Wiggins, who says his son Ben "loves Mark Cavendish and is really inspired by him", only decided to compete on the track at the Commonwealth Games once his omission from Team Sky's Tour de France line-up was confirmed in early July.
"I was always going to do the Commonwealths, but I was only going to do the time trial [originally] after the Tour de France," said Wiggins.
He says Team Sky boss Sir Dave Brailsford suggested reverting to the track as an alternative.
"As soon as he said it, I thought that was the next best thing really," added Wiggins. "I got straight back in the velodrome and training with the guys.
"The last six or seven weeks since I've been back on the track have just been really refreshing and a good distraction from all of that Tour de France nonsense.
"It's given me another focus rather than just lolling about at home feeling miserable."
Wiggins will be competing at his third Commonwealth Games, having won silver in the team pursuit at the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur, aged just 18, then claimed silver in both the team pursuit and individual pursuit at Manchester in 2002.
"It's one of the few things missing from my collection," he said. "Being in Scotland, it's almost a home Games and there's always a nice feeling with that.
"So it'd be nice to come away with a gold and put that with the rest of them, 16 years on from the first one."
But it is at the Olympics and on the road that he has enjoyed most of his success.
He won team pursuit gold at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, after which he began to concentrate on road racing, albeit with a brief return to the velodrome for the 2010 World Track Championships in Manchester.
His main career goal now is to win a fifth Olympic gold medal - which would equal Sir Steve Redgrave's British record - in Rio de Janeiro, as well as the prestigious Paris-Roubaix one-day classic, in which he finished ninth in April.
"I'd love to win Paris-Roubaix," he said. "Then it'll be a nice way to end my career in Rio on the track, the way it all began for me.
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"The track was always something I was going to come back to. It was my first love.
"I feel like I was born to ride the track. My dad was a professional track racer. It's in my genes and my first memories as a baby were in a velodrome.
"If I am to compete with this team in Rio - which is what I want - I'm going to have to give it the time necessary. The guys have got so fast and the event's moved on.
"I didn't want to take it for granted that I could just come back in with a couple of weeks of preparation and be able to do it. This gives me a chance to see where I'm at and see what I have to work on."
With the end of his career in sight, Wiggins says further success is merely "a bonus" having surpassed his own expectations at an early age.
"I'm pretty content with what I've achieved," he said. "I never imagined years ago I'd achieve all of this. Cycling's given me everything and if I had to stop tomorrow I'd be content.
"I remember when I got my first [Olympic] medal in Sydney in 2000. We got bronze, I was 19, and I walked away from there thinking 'if I never do anything else, I've always got an Olympic medal'. Everything else is a bonus really."


Before each All-Ireland final - football or hurling - the champions from 25 years before the fixture are given an on-field reception at Croke Park in Dublin.

This year will be the turn of the Down football team of 1991.
By that year, no Ulster side had won the Sam Maguire Cup since Down themselves had in 1968.
It was a drought that coincided roughly with Northern Ireland's Troubles.
In the intervening 23 years, an Ulster side had managed to make the final just twice - being well beaten on both occasions.
Down's '91 team ended the wait, unlocking the gates of glory for subsequent victories by Ulster counties.
For me, and for most other nine-year-olds I knew at the time, the Down players were my heroes.
And they gave me, sitting beside my dad in the Cusack Stand, one of my fondest childhood memories.
I have my late father Dominic to blame for my Down GAA fanaticism.
I had been brought up on stories of the Down team from the '60s - contemporaries of my father - who made history by bringing the Sam Maguire Cup across the border for the first time.
What made them winners was their belief, their ability, their character, their courage.
All of those things were required in very large measure to beat Meath that day.
We were against a very hardened, experienced and durable team with some marvellous footballers.
All the qualities they had as players and as people were tested to the full that day in what was a brilliant game.
Heart-stopping stuff!
But for me they were distant men from another time.
The men of 1991 were in front of me, vividly blazing their own trail.
That heady summer began with a horrible match played in horrible conditions against Armagh in the so-called Marshes in Newry.
A penalty from Mickey Linden saw Down through to the next round.
I remember hearing someone remark as we filed, sodden, out of the ground: "The pick of those two teams couldn't win an All-Ireland."
I thought: "I'd pick the fifteen in red and black."
The hallmark of a great team is that when the gun is put to their head on the biggest day in September they are able to produce a game of quality and skill.
Down played better football on the day and they had a very exciting, skillful team.
They had great forwards - Mickey Linden, Greg Blaney, James McCartan - and they bored holes in us.
Pete McGrath had them in the shape of their lives, and the thing that distinguishes any great teams is that they peak on the right day.
They were worthy winners, a marvellous football team and they will be remembered as such.
Down beat Derry, after a replay, and won the Ulster title roundly beating reigning champions Donegal.
I had the serious business of an All-Ireland semi-final to look forward to.
In August 1991 my brother got married.
He and his new wife honeymooned in Kerry, the county that would be Down's opponents in the All-Ireland semi-final.
The newlyweds took a trip to a hotel in Waterville and got talking to the owner, Mick O'Dwyer.
In GAA terms, the word legend probably doesn't do Micko justice - a multiple All-Ireland winner as a player and manager with Kerry, he had tussled with the Down teams of the '60s.
I was sent a letter from Kerry that August in the run up to the semi-final. It included an autograph from Micko, with the advice: "Watch Down."
It was advice the Kerry team might have found useful.
I was in the Hogan Stand as Down tore the giants of gaelic football apart.
I remember bright sunshine, two goals from Peter Withnell, the Kingdom humbled and Down fans celebrating on the pitch.
That was capped off with a knickerbocker glory ice cream, a luxury my father had discovered following the Down teams of the '60s.
Then there was the realisation that I was going to see a Down team in an All-Ireland final.
My big stress in life - I was nine, remember - was whether I was going to watch it on TV or get a ticket.
Talk of tickets dominated late August and early September that year.
In the week before the game, I remember a meeting of my local GAA club - there was to be a raffle.
The formula was simple - if your name was called you would be allocated tickets.
I was hoisted up on to a windowsill, condensation running down the glass, and told to be quiet.
The tension was brutal. But the news was good and I knew I would be at the All-Ireland final.
Meath were the opponents, a superb side filled with players who had featured in the previous year's final and won titles in '87 and '88.
They had come through a bruising four-game encounter with Dublin earlier in the year and became known as "the team who couldn't be beaten".
Not too many gave Down much of a chance.
After all, Ulster counties didn't "do" All-Ireland finals.
And the last Ulster win had been a generation before.
The Down players did not seem to have received that memo, as they opened up a huge lead and survived an impressive comeback to win my county's fourth All-Ireland title.
I remember a sea of red and black on Hill 16, thinking my brothers were in there somewhere.
I remember the sheer pandemonium among Down fans when Barry Breen scored his goal, the nerves as Meath mounted their comeback.
I remember the final whistle and my dad grabbing my arms, leaping and celebrating, as giddy and elated as his nine-year-old son.
And I remember another knickerbocker glory ice cream.


Fourteen contestants have entered the Big Brother house for the 11th and final series of the Channel 4 show.

First in was financial sales rep Josie, 25, from Bristol.
"I don't feel like any cameras are watching me, do you?" she asked second contestant, ex-serviceman Steve, 40, of Leicester, as he entered the house.
Presenter Davina McCall told viewers at the start of the show: "Don't be sad because over the next 13 weeks we're going to go out with an almighty bang."
The contestants entered the house from a shortlist of more than 80 hopefuls who were at the Big Brother studios.
They only found out they were going into the house when their names were read out live on air.
Steve, who lost both of his legs and an eye when he was injured by a bomb while on patrol in Belfast, said he had found entering the house "totally surreal".
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Self-proclaimed "posh boy" Ben, a 30-year-old broadcaster and writer, meanwhile, said: "Abandon hope all ye who enter here. It feels very strange."
Fourth in was professional Beyonce lookalike Rachel, 23, from Nottingham, who also works as a hairstylist.
"I am a bit lazy when it comes to cooking," she said on her recorded introduction. "If I never learn then people will do it for me."
Twenty-five-year-old "Jack the lad" Nathan, a trainee joiner from Bingley, West Yorkshire, told McCall he had "the finest 'monobrow' in the western hemisphere".
Christian minister David, 39, from Pontypool - who was wearing monk's clothing - was booed as he entered the house.
"I'm not out to convert everyone to Christianity, I just am who I am," he said.
Seventh housemate Caoimhe, a 22-year-old student from Dublin, was also booed, while voluntary worker Govan was cheered by the crowd as his name was announced.
The 21-year-old ran straight to the toilet as soon as he entered the house.
Film-maker Shabby, real name Keeley, was also booed as she sprinted in.
The 24-year-old, who lives in squats in London, screamed: "This is nuts, get me a drink."
Tenth contestant Ife, 25, a professional dancer from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, who has worked with Cheryl Cole, was followed in by 24-year-old vehicle body builder John, from Melbourne in Australia.
"I guess they like what I look like," John said when asked what women liked about him.
Sunshine - real name Yvette - said in her recording: "I told my dad my car had broken down so he would buy me a new one and he did."
The medical student, 24, from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, struck a pose as she entered the house before kicking her shoes off.
Retail assistant Corin, 29, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, who says she looks like model Katie Price, rejected the crowd's boos saying: "I don't care. I'm going in. I'm buzzing."
The inevitable twist came towards the end of the show when a final name from the pool of possible contestants was picked out in a tombola.
Unemployed 28-year-old Mario, from Essex, was selected by McCall and was told to put on a giant mole costume.
As the Big Brother mole, he will be asked to perform "a series of dastardly deeds" against the other housemates.
If they guess he is behind any of the deeds, he will be evicted.
The new housemates have been confronted by a brightly decorated, circus-themed compound, where there will be less privacy than ever before.
It was announced earlier that, after the winner of Big Brother 11 is decided, he or she will be joined by a number of ex-contestants for a further two weeks.


Head coach Aitor Karanka has said Middlesbrough did not have the same "desire" as Rotherham as his side lost 1-0 to the Millers on Tuesday night.

Boro dominated the first half with David Nugent and Gaston Ramirez both guilty of missing gilt-edged chances, before Lee Frecklington struck late on.
"We didn't play the same way they did," Karanka told BBC Tees.
"They were fighting for every ball as if they were fighting for their lives and we haven't had the same desire."
Middlesbrough are now four points behind Championship leaders Burnley and just two points ahead of third-placed Brighton, but have a game in hand over both sides.
Despite the loss, Karanka refused to be too downbeat and believes his side can learn from their mistakes.
"We could have won by four or five goals but instead we lost," he added.
"The main thing is that we created chances but we have to learn from this."


British astronaut Tim Peake says he's "definitely ready" for his first space flight, finally fulfilling a childhood ambition after two and a half years of intensive training.

The former military test-pilot has just passed his final practical exams and is due to blast off to the International Space Station on 15 December.
Along with Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko and Nasa astronaut Tim Kopra, he will spend 170 days in orbit, conducting scientific experiments and carrying out maintenance work on the vast flying laboratory.
"The launch, re-entry, the whole experience of being in weightlessness, if I get the opportunity to do a spacewalk - these are all absolute highlights of the mission," Mr Peake told the BBC at a Russian facility deep in a snowy forest on the edge of Moscow. It's where Yuri Gagarin also trained over half a century ago to be the first man in space.
Mr Peake will be the first British astronaut on the ISS, flying from the European Space Agency. Since the US space shuttle programme was ended, the Russian spacecraft has been the only way up.
So last week, the main three-man crew and their back-up team were put through two days of gruelling practical tests, including several hours squeezed inside a replica of the Soyuz capsule they'll travel in.
Fully kitted-out in their space suits, the astronauts flew a simulation of the six-hour journey, tackling multiple malfunctions on their way.
"There are emergency drills to see how to act to save themselves and the spacecraft," trainer Georgy Pirogov explained, keeping an eye on the crew via a bank of video screens in a mini mission control.
"It could be a fire, loss of pressure or an emergency landing," he said. "But in reality, most of it is automatic and ideally they should just sit and fly!"
The intense training programme has included living in a cave and deep under the sea. Yet of all things, Tim Peake says that it is learning Russian that has been "a struggle".
Now fully qualified, he says he has "no worries whatsoever" about his first ever spaceflight.
"Flown astronauts have given me lots of advice," he says, equating the experience to learning to dive or to ski.
He says there are plenty of mishaps as you adjust to a life in zero gravity, where you have to tether yourself to the wall to sleep, and to the toilet.
"After about two weeks they say you get into a pattern - how to eat, wash, use the loo - all the normal things we take for granted in our 1G [gravity] environment," he has been assured.
The crew will undertake a full scientific programme on the ISS, conducting more than 250 experiments over their six-month mission - many on their own bodies. They include research on the human immune system and the ageing process.
Some of the crew's baggage allowance will be taken up by that research kit. But as well as family photographs, Tim Peake says he'll be taking some personal items to be "flown in space", that he plans to give to his sons when they turn 18.
And on the advice of former astronauts, he'll also make space for one vital item: sticky-tape.
"They say if you leave anything, you turn around and it won't be there," he laughed, recalling the top tip for life 400km (248 miles) above Earth.
The final "graduation" ceremony at Star City takes place next week, attended by the astronauts' families. Then it's into the obligatory quarantine, ahead of the launch.
"The whole experience is a huge privilege," the British spaceman reflects, unruffled as ever. "But seeing that first view of planet Earth from space is probably going to be the most exciting moment."


A possible sighting of a Scottish wildcat has been made by a gamekeeper on a grouse moor in the Angus Glens.

Bruce Cooper, a member of Angus Glens Moorland Group, was checking CCTV when he saw the cat's distinctive markings.
The Scottish wildcat is on the edge of extinction and the glens are one of six priority areas for its conservation.
Scottish Wildcat Action project officers will now carefully examine the images to establish whether it is one of the endangered creatures.
Mr Cooper set up the camera as part of the project's drive to conserve the species.
He said: "The trail cameras were installed in the new year and I was checking the film for the second time when I saw the cat.
"It came to a bait of rabbit and it looks like the real deal, although that will have to be established now."
Hebe Carus, Scottish Wildcat Action officer, said: "Reliable identification requires having a variety of different views of the cat and having the time to look for the seven main defining features.
"Only after analysing the pictures Bruce has sent can I confirm whether the cat displays all the defining features of a genuine Scottish wildcat."
Ms Carus said she hopes a scented post beside the camera will capture hair for DNA analysis if the animal returns.
The main threat to the wildcat is interbreeding with domestic cats, which also spreads disease.
In order to protect the remaining wildcats, the project team aims to trap, neuter and vaccinate unowned domestic cats and obvious hybrids before re-releasing them into the wild under licence from Scottish Natural Heritage.


A head teacher who snooped on pupils and staff in his school toilets filmed more adults than first thought.

Ashley Yates, 45, used a spy pen to record images of pupils and staff at The Tynings Primary School in Staple Hill, South Gloucestershire.
On Tuesday, at Bristol Crown Court, he admitted charges of making indecent images of children and voyeurism.
In a letter to parents the school said "additional adult victims have been identified" which the police confirmed.
On Tuesday the court heard Yates, of Filton, who is married with children, and had been in post as head at the school for eight years, filmed six girls, one boy and two members of staff.
It also heard Yates had handed over passwords to computers that would assist with the continuing police investigation.
A police spokesman said: "Enquiries are ongoing and we will not be commenting until sentencing."
But the letter to parents on the school's website says: "Police have confirmed that additional adult victims have been identified.
"These victims came to light after items were seized by police during the course of the investigation.
"The additional victims are all adult victims who have been contacted.
"They have also been offered support from police and the local authority.
"If any further victims are identified during the course of the investigation they will be notified immediately."
The school said it was working closely with the police and South Gloucestershire Council and would be disclosing as much information as possible without prejudicing the continuing legal proceedings.
In a letter to families, the acting head also thanked parents for their "patience and co-operation during this difficult time".
Yates has been remanded in custody until his next court hearing at Bristol Crown Court on 9 August.


Telecoms giant BT is turning off its dial-up internet access service today.

The company said it was taking the step because only a "tiny number" of its customers still went online using a dial-up modem.
It added that the vast majority of its 6.8 million broadband customers had switched to much faster connections.
However, a small number of people in rural areas where broadband will not work will struggle to get online after the change.
Dial-up customers were first informed about the impending closure in May and June this year, BT said, adding that most of these people would be able to migrate to a broadband service.
The company said that the shut-down meant about 1,000 people who lived in remote areas would not be able to move to broadband as their phone line was incapable of supporting the technology.
These people were likely to be living in some of the most remote parts of the UK, said Oliver Johnson, chief executive of broadband consultancy Point Topic.
"They will be too far from the telephone exchange to get any meaningful broadband. The distance means that the broadband signal degrades," he said.
Those who had to stick with dial-up would still be able to get such services from BT via its Plusnet subsidiary.
"No-one is being left without the option of an alternative service," said a BT spokesman.
Sebastian Lahtinen, from the Think Broadband news site, said the closure was a sign of the times.
"It's a statement of how mainstream broadband services have become, with entry-level broadband being cheaper than the dial-up plans BT is closing down," he said.
Dial-up, or narrowband, was the technology that most Britons used to go online before home broadband became affordable.
It involves modems sending data over lines more typically used for voice calls.
The best dial-up modems despatched data along telephone lines at speeds of up to 56 kilobits per second, although compression could be used to improve this top speed.
By contrast most broadband technologies work in the megabits-per-second range.
About 800,000 people still used dial-up in 2010, the last year for which figures were available, said an Ofcom spokesman.
"The number has now fallen so low nationally that it's quite difficult to get any accurate figures from a survey sample," he said.
"We think it's in the very low hundreds of thousands but we cannot be any more confident than that."
With the vast majority of exchanges equipped to use broadband technologies such as DSL there was little reason to stick to dial-up, he said.


Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that he intends to retake "the whole country" from rebel forces.

In a rare interview, he told AFP news agency that defeating the groups ranged against him could take some time due to the involvement of regional powers.
World powers have agreed to push for a cessation of hostilities in a week's time.
The UN says it hopes to start delivering aid to some besieged areas in Syria within the next 24 hours.
Mr Assad expressed support for peace talks but said negotiations did not mean "we stop fighting terrorism".
More than 250,000 people have been killed and some 11 million displaced in almost five years of fighting in Syria.
Some Syrian cities have been cut off from humanitarian aid for over a year because of fighting. About 13.5 million people are in need of aid, the UN says.
How Putin is succeeding in Syria
World media on Syria plan
Mr Assad was speaking in Damascus on Thursday, ahead of the deal on the cessation of hostilities that was agreed in Munich late on Thursday night.
In a wide-ranging interview, President Assad spoke about:
He said government forces would try to retake all of Syria "without any hesitation", but that the involvement of regional powers meant that "the solution will take a long time and will incur a heavy price".
Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, have almost encircled rebels in parts of the northern city of Aleppo and cut off their main supply route from the Turkish border.
Mr Assad told AFP that if all rebel supply routes from Turkey, Jordan and Iraq were cut, the country's "problem" could be solved in less than a year.
Mr Assad rejected recent accusations by the UN that his government was guilty of war crimes.
Earlier this month, UN human rights investigators said the Syrian government had carried out a state policy of extermination against thousands of detainees.
In a report for the UN Human Rights Council, they accused the Syrian government of crimes against humanity. The report also said government and rebel forces had committed possible war crimes.
But Mr Assad called the accusations "politicised" and said the investigators had provided no evidence.
Tentative peace talks were held in Geneva earlier this month and have been "paused" until 25 February.
Mr Assad said he "fully believed in negotiations and in political action since the beginning of the crisis."
"However, if we negotiate, it does not mean that we stop fighting terrorism. The two tracks are inevitable in Syria," he said.
He also told AFP he believed there was a risk that Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which both back Syrian rebel forces, would intervene militarily in Syria.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting around Aleppo, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis.
Many have headed to the Turkish border but have not been allowed to cross. Instead, Turkey says it will support the refugees on the Syrian side of the border.
Both Turkey and the European Union fear those displaced could add to the hundreds of thousands making the often perilous journey to Europe to seek asylum.
Mr Assad said European governments had caused the migration crisis "by giving cover to terrorists in the beginning and through sanctions imposed on Syria".
"I would like to ask every person who left Syria to come back," he said. "They would ask 'why should I come back? Has terrorism stopped?'."
Meanwhile, a new UN task force set up to co-ordinate aid distributions is expected to convene in Geneva later on Friday.
"The UN system has been geared to deliver this aid all along, especially to besieged areas, and that's precisely what's going to be discussed today: how to start, and when to start," UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.
"We hope to start as early as tomorrow, immediately after the meeting, decisions will be taken to roll the aid in, especially to besieged areas that need it", he added.
Riad Hijab, co-ordinator of Syria's main opposition bloc, told the BBC's Newsnight programme that to announce a cessation of hostilities before making progress in the political process "is not realistic, objective or logical".
"It only satisfies the Russian demand to preserve gains by Russian and Iranian forces through their scorched-earth policy against rebels in territories under their control," he said.
Why is there a war in Syria?
Anti-government protests developed into a civil war that, four years on, has ground to a stalemate, with the Assad government, Islamic State, an array of Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters all holding territory.
Who is fighting whom?
Government forces concentrated in Damascus and the centre and west of Syria are fighting the jihadists of Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, as well as less numerous so-called "moderate" rebel groups, who are strongest in the north and east. These groups are also battling each other.
How has the world reacted?
Iran, Russia and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement are propping up the Alawite-led Assad government, while Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar back the more moderate Sunni-dominated opposition, along with the US, UK and France. Hezbollah and Iran are believed to have troops and officers on the ground, while a Western-led coalition and Russia are carrying out air strikes.


David Cameron says the UK will take in more unaccompanied Syrian refugee children from Europe, although it has not committed to a specific figure.

Ministers will talk to councils before deciding how many can be resettled.
The UK currently takes children from refugee camps in Syria and its neighbours but there has been pressure to take some who are already in the EU.
Labour said the announcement, made at Prime Minister's Questions, did not go far enough and more action was needed.
The government agreed in January to take some lone child refugees directly from North Africa and Middle East - but rejected calls to accept 3,000 children who had made it to Europe because it did not want to encourage others to make the "lethal" journey.
Now, in a change of heart, children registered in Greece, Italy or France before 20 March - when the EU struck its refugee deal with Turkey - will be eligible for resettlement in the UK.
The government said the retrospective nature of the scheme would avoid creating a "perverse incentive" for families to entrust their children to people traffickers.
It would mean the UK can focus on the "most vulnerable children already in Europe without encouraging more to make the journey", Downing Street said.
Mr Cameron, who has been facing the threat of a Conservative backbench rebellion in a vote next week over the issue, said he had accepted a revised amendment to the Immigration Bill put forward by Labour peer Lord Dubs.
He told MPs: "I am also talking to Save the Children to see what we can do more, particularly about children who came here before the EU-Turkey deal was signed.
"What I don't want us to do is to take steps that will encourage people to make this dangerous journey because otherwise our actions, however well-meaning they will be, could result in more people dying than more people getting a good life."
Ministers get irritated when critics suggest the government's not done enough to help Syrian refugees.
They point to the thousands already promised help through resettlement programmes and billions of pounds of aid from the UK. But a majority of MPs demanded more action to help unaccompanied children.
David Cameron has always insisted that nothing must be done to encourage refugees to make the dangerous journey to Europe so now ministers have found a compromise.
It's a political solution to avoid a defeat in the Commons but Tory MPs and several charities have called it "tremendous".
The implementation of the programme now depends on local authorities who have to make sure they have the funding, school places and social service support that many of these traumatised children will require.
Downing Street hasn't put a figure on how many might be helped, but the expectation is that it will be thousands and Conservative MPs have promised to keep up the campaigning.
There does remain some concern though, that what's been announced won't help the most vulnerable, who might not have registered and who've disappeared from the system altogether.
The SNP's leader at Westminster, Angus Robertson, who pressed Mr Cameron on the issue, said he welcomed what he said appeared to be the "beginning of a U-turn".
Mr Cameron has been under pressure to accept 3,000 child refugees who have made it into Europe unaccompanied.
But the government says the number will depend on what councils can cope with.
Funding will be made available from central government for those councils willing to take in unaccompanied child migrants, said a source.
Immigration minister James Brokenshire told a meeting of Conservative MPs he was going to write to all local councils and ask them to gauge capacity - but warn them they should expect at least as many unaccompanied children as the UK took last year.
Local authorities will be expected to share responsibility because some had been overburdened, he told the MPs.
The Local Government Association said councils were ready to "play their part" but wanted more clarity on long-term funding and how the national dispersal mechanism will work.
Save the Children said Mr Cameron had "offered a lifeline to these vulnerable children," adding: "This announcement echoes Britain's proud history of offering safety at times of great crisis and we want to thank the members of parliament who have led the way in championing this cause, as well as the British public who have opened their hearts to refugee children."
Conservative MP Heidi Allen - who had said she was prepared to vote against the government and support an amendment calling on the government to accept more unaccompanied children -  described the announcement as "tremendous news".
But a spokesman for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mr Cameron had not gone far enough - and they wanted to see "greater action and more generosity".
Labour MP Yvette Coooper, who chairs the party's refugee taskforce, said more detail was needed about what Mr Cameron is planning.
"He was wrong to claim last week that child refugees alone in Europe don't need help, so I hope he will be clear about that now and set out what the government will do next," she said.
In a letter to David Cameron, Sir Erich Reich, chairman of Kindertransport-Association of Jewish Refugees, had called on the PM to do more to help "the most vulnerable victims" of the Syrian conflict.
He said it was "incumbent on us to provide sanctuary to those in need".
Mr Cameron rejected comparisons with the "Kindertransport" scheme that helped Jewish children escape from the Nazis, at Prime Minister's Questions.
"To say that the Kindertransport is taking today children from France or Germany or Italy, safe countries that are democracies, I think that is an insult to those countries," he told MPs.
But he added: "We're going to go round the local authorities and see what more we can do, but let's stick to the principle we should not be taking in new arrivals to Europe."
In September 2015 the government said the UK would accept up to 20,000 refugees from Syria over the next five years.
And last month the government said it would accept up to 3,000 more refugees, mostly vulnerable children, from the Middle East and North Africa by 2020.
In his letter, Sir Erich, who was among thousands of Jewish children rescued from Nazi Germany, said he had learned of the rejection of the resettlement proposal "with great sadness".
He added: "I strongly urge you and your colleagues to reconsider how we can intervene to help some of the most vulnerable victims of an internecine conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands of people and displaced millions.
"The echoes of the past haunt many of my fellow Kinder and I whose fate similarly rested with members of the British parliament.
"I feel it is incumbent on us to once again demonstrate our compassion and human-kindness to provide sanctuary to those in need."


Ex-Labour health minister Lord Warner has said the party doesn't have a "hope in hell" of winning power under Jeremy Corbyn after he resigned the whip in protest at the party's direction.

The peer told the BBC Labour faced an "existential threat" and was "anything other than a government in waiting".
He also took a swipe at the system used to elect Mr Corbyn, describing it as "bizarre and unacceptable".
Lord Warner has insisted he will not defect to another party.
Labour sources told BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg the resignation was "ego-driven" and Lord Prescott said Lord Warner was "no great loss".
Lord Warner served in Tony Blair's government and was made health minister in 2003, before leaving government in 2007.
In his resignation letter to Mr Corbyn, first reported in the Guardian, he wrote that he had resigned the Labour whip in the Lords and cancelled his party membership after concluding Mr Corbyn was "highly unlikely" to win back lost Labour voters.
"I have watched for some time the declining quality of the Labour Party's leadership but had not expected the calamitous decline achieved in 2015," he wrote.
In a direct attack on Mr Corbyn, who won an overwhelming victory in the Labour leadership contest after the party's general election defeat, he added: "The approach of those around you and your own approach and policies is highly likely to worsen the decline in the Labour Party's credibility."
He said he feared for Labour's future if Mr Corbyn's "supporting activists secure ever greater control of the party's apparatus and processes".
Lord Warner added: "Labour will only win another election with a policy approach that wins back people who have moved to voting Conservative and UKIP, as well as to the Greens and SNP. Your approach is highly unlikely to achieve this shift."
Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, Lord Warner suggested Labour could be out of power for 15 years without a change in direction.
"If it doesn't change itself very rapidly indeed, it hasn't a hope in hell of winning an election in 2020 or indeed in 2025," he said.
"It has to understand why a large number of people chose to vote for four other parties on 7 May. It hasn't done that re-examination. I want to try and push it to do that and I think the best way I can do that is to make a stand and leave the party."
He said he was not encouraging others to leave the party, was not joining any other party and would continue to be a "traditional, centre left" politician.
On Twitter, former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott said Lord Warner had in the past proposed charging people to use the NHS, adding: "No credibility. No great loss."
And shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith suggested the peer had "been leaving us for quite a while".
"He voted with the Tories a couple of years ago, under the last Labour leadership, to privatise parts of the NHS," he told BBC 2's Newsnight. "He is somebody who has advocated charging for the NHS, charging to stay overnight....I'm not sure we will miss him too much."


Joe Jackson, the father of late singer Michael Jackson, has suffered a stroke, according to a Brazilian hospital.

The Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo said Jackson was admitted on Sunday afternoon and is being treated in the intensive care unit.
A statement from the hospital also said he was suffering from an irregular heartbeat.
Jackson is in Brazil to celebrate his 87th birthday.
According to local media, he was absent from his own party because he was already in the hospital.
Photos from his official website show him dining in Sao Paulo restaurants.
Jackson managed his sons' musical group in the early 1960s, first working with his three eldest sons, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine and then younger sons Marlon and Michael, forming the Jackson 5.
Although they would go on to achieve huge commercial success, it was reported that he was often abusive towards his family.
In a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson said that during his childhood, he would sometimes get sick or vomit with nerves upon seeing his father.
In a 2003 interview with Louis Theroux, Jackson admitted whipping his pop singer son as a child.
"I whipped him with a switch and a belt. I never beat him. You beat someone with a stick."
Michael, who went on to become a phenomenally successful pop star, died from an overdose of sedatives on 25 June, 2009 at the age of 50.


Wales centre Jamie Roberts has admitted to "a few sleepless nights" after his display in the 32-8 loss to Australia.

The 30-year-old was dropped to the bench for the first time since 2009 after coach Rob Howley said his defence was "not good enough".
Roberts has been restored to the starting XV to face Japan on Saturday, but remains his own fiercest critic.
"I can think of a few expletives to describe my defensive performance against Australia," he said.
"I just have to make sure that performance was an anomaly, and nothing more and nothing less than a bad day at the office.
"I've done a bit of soul searching and certainly there have been a few sleepless nights and you learn from it and I'm raring to go this weekend."
The British and Irish Lions centre will make his 85th appearance for Wales when he runs out against Japan in Cardiff and for the 46th time alongside co-centre Jonathan Davies.
It is that track record and his previously unassailable position as the go-to 12 for Wales that made his omission the biggest shock among the six changes for the 24-20 win against Argentina after the drubbing by Australia.
Roberts had no complaints about Howley's decision to leave him out.
"I walked off the pitch against Australia and I had a big inkling I wouldn't be in the team the following week because I knew I'd made mistakes and they're mistakes I don't normally make," added Roberts.
"I certainly didn't deserve to play last weekend and having spoken to Rob after the Australia game I fully respected his decision.
"It's a competitive squad here and you know if you don't perform you don't deserve to keep the jersey and that's been the way it was.
"As soon as I had the chat with Rob my responsibility was to help the team prepare and it's a bit of an alien feeling but one I've learned a hell of an amount from."
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The Harlequins player says he is happy to have a chance to play against Japan and is keen to confine to history a display against Australia he describes as a blip.
"I'm ready to go this weekend and again and stake my claim for that 12 jersey and try and keep hold of it," he said.
"It's not so much redemption but just to prove to myself that it was an anomaly.
"Quite a few of us didn't play well that day against Australia and I didn't deserve to keep the jersey.
"But it's not a shot at redemption, that would be selfish of me to say that. It's about Wales winning this weekend and it about playing my part in that."
Roberts' selection is one of 10 changes Howley has made for the visit of Japan, who beat Wales the last time the teams met in 2013.
The centre missed that match as he was part of the victorious Lions team in Australia - scoring a try in the decisive third Test victory against the Wallabies as the tourists claimed a 2-1 series win.
He is among a group of experienced players including captain Sam Warburton and Alun Wyn Jones, but the inclusion of uncapped 18-year-old Ospreys wing Keelan Giles on the bench has drawn as much attention as the starting XV. Roberts is a fan of the young prospect.
"I can't remember a player as evasive as Keelan since Shane Williams," he said.
"We've had a drill in training where they put us up against Keelan one-on-one and it's quite embarrassing actually, and he's a frightening prospect.
"His pace is frightening, he's very agile and he's got his head screwed on and he's very switched on and he's got potential to cause carnage and I hope he gets the chance."


A man has been charged with murder after the body of a 52-year-old man was found at a hostel in Birmingham.

Nine people were arrested after the man was found dead at the hostel in Durham Road, Sparkhill, on Sunday morning.
Damien Borowiec, 21, of Durham Road, was charged with his murder on Monday night and appeared at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
He has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Birmingham Crown Court on 7 April.
Two other people were bailed as inquiries continued. The remainder were released without charge.
For more news from Birmingham and the Black Country


Doctor Who boss Steven Moffat is taking special care to protect the secrets of the programme's 50th anniversary story.

"One length I've gone to which is a really good security measure - I make sure I don't get a script, because I will lose it," said Moffat, the show's lead writer.
"I forbid people to hand me one. It's on my computer under lock and key."
Actor Matt Smith promised fans they "will not be disappointed" by the story.
"I read it and I clapped at the end. I think it's hilarious, it's epic and it's vast," he said at a Doctor Who series launch last week.
"It manages to pay homage to everything - and look forward."
The first story of Doctor Who's 2013 run, The Bells of Saint John, will be screened on Easter Saturday, 30 March.
Described by Moffat as a "proper London thriller", it sees the Doctor and new companion Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) battling an evil entity in the world's wifi networks.
Future episodes see the return of the Cybermen and old enemy the Ice Warriors, who last appeared during the Jon Pertwee era in 1974.
"It's going to be the biggest and best and most inventive and most exciting year for the show," Matt Smith said.
The 50th anniversary special, due to begin filming in April, will be broadcast in 3D around the show's birthday in November.
Matt Smith told the BBC News website that during his time as the Doctor he had cultivated the habit of giving nothing away.
"You're sat on all this information and people are genuinely intrigued. It's one of the responsibilities of being in this show you have to be discreet about what you tell people."
The first ever episode of Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child, with William Hartnell as the Doctor, was broadcast on 23 November 1963.
As part of the anniversary events, the BBC will also broadcast An Adventure in Space and Time - a one-off drama looking at how the sci-fi show came to be made.


An Irish Consulate in the US has bid a poetic farewell as the last of the Irish students critically injured in a balcony collapse flew home to Ireland.

Hannah Waters was one of 13 people on the balcony in Berkeley, California, when the structure gave way on 16 June.
Five Irish students and one Irish-American died in the accident.  Seven other Irish students, including Ms Waters, were critically injured.
Consulate staff tweeted a Seamus Heaney poem, along with a photo of her plane.
Quoting the final line of the poem, they wrote: "A postscript for Berkeley as the last of our students heads home. Our hearts caught off guard and blown open. Godspeed."
The work of the Consulate General of Ireland, based in San Francisco, extends across the western United States and includes California, where the accident took place.
It has been assisting the Irish students affected by the tragedy, who had travelled to the US as part of a work exchange programme.
The friends were holding a 21st birthday party in the apartment when the balcony collapsed.
The critically injured students spent time in US hospitals before they were considered well enough to fly home.
All seven received part of their medical treatment in San Francisco.
Some of them have sustained life-changing injuries.


A man has been arrested as part of a murder investigation into the death of a man in Port Talbot.

South Wales Police said the 37-year-old man was found with serious injuries in Dalton Road, Sandfields, in the early hours of Monday and later died.
The force said his death is being treated as "suspicious" with part of Dalton Road cordoned off while investigations continue.
A 33-year-old man has been arrested and is currently in police custody.
Det Supt Richard Jones, of the forces' major crime investigations team said: "The death is being treated as murder and a full investigation into what happened is underway.
"I would appeal to anyone who saw or heard anything suspicious in the Dalton Road area between 1am and 2.30am on Monday morning to contact police."
South Wales Police said it had set up an incident room at Sandfields Police Station.


Great Britain have been knocked out of the men's table tennis team event in the quarter-finals by reigning Olympic champions China.

Liam Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall each lost in the singles and Drinkhall and Sam Walker were beaten in the doubles as China progressed 3-0.
Great Britain won bronze at the World Team Championships in March.
China, winners of 24 of the 28 Olympic table tennis golds ever awarded, play in Monday's semi-finals at 19:00 BST.
"Our results as a team are on the up so I think table tennis in Britain is in a great place. Hopefully we can keep building on that," said Drinkhall.
"We're definitely looking at Tokyo 2020. It was a tough draw here against China but I think we all believe that if that happens again in Tokyo then we'll go to beat them.
"As a team we've got great team spirit and individually we're improving a lot. I think we've got the best team spirit in table tennis."
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In the week the sunshine never ends, the UK is close to matching a sizzling June run not seen in two decades.

If Wednesday's temperature tops 30C - and forecasters confidently predict it will - that will be five days in a row.
The last June that we sweltered for so long was 1995, when the heat affected us so much Robson and Jerome stayed at number one for the entire month.
And if Wednesday reaches 33.9C, it will be the warmest day in any June since 1976 - the classic long hot summer.
BBC Weather says it is "very likely" that these temperatures will be reached this week.
The Met Office has issued an amber Level 3 heat warning until Thursday.
It has advised people to stay out of the sun and to show awareness for people who may be vulnerable people, such as the elderly.
Weather Watchers' picture gallery
Tuesday is the fourth consecutive day where the temperatures have exceeded 30C somewhere in the UK.
Monday was the UK's hottest day of the year so far, with 32.5C being reached at Hampton Water Works in Greater London.
Of course, not all of the UK has seen particularly high temperatures - Edinburgh hovered around 18C on Tuesday, while Belfast was about 19C.
However, by early afternoon on Tuesday it was 27C in Bristol, 30C in Chivenor and 30C in Hampton Water Works.
And excessive heat should be seen in its proper context. While these temperatures are high for the temperate climate of the UK, they are lower than many parts of the world usually experience.
For countries like Portugal where fires are currently raging and people have died, heat can be particularly deadly, while heat waves in India can also prove fatal.
And even in the UK, the heat can be problematic for older people, leading to bodies like the NHS, the charity Age UK, and the Royal Voluntary Service all issuing advice for the elderly when the temperatures rise.
These include:
Also the RSPCA regularly issues warnings about the dangers of leaving dogs in hot cars.
And for those (human) Britons simply trying to get a good night's rest, there's the #TooHotToSleep hashtag on Twitter.
But the British obsession with its recent temperatures has given rise to the rolling of eyes in other parts of the world, especially places like Australia.
The news.com.au website has written a story about Brits not coping with our temperatures "as high as, hmm, 32C".
Suffice to say, some of the reaction to this story on Facebook has not been sympathetic.
"You sure wouldn't want to be in Australia in the middle of summer. Walk outside and you'll look like a shrimp on the Barbie," writes Julie Rae, while Mark Whiting scoffs that Britons "need to get out more".
He also mentions how the town of Birdsville "nudges the 50C mark".
However, a few people commenting on that same story have offered a more understanding point of view.
Lawton Rose points out that "the UK is just not built for this sort of weather", while Australian Daniel Richardson also posted that hot weather feels like "a different kind of heat when you live in an old city designed to mostly just handle cold".
Perhaps those Aussies with scathing views of Brits sweltering in the heat are grumpy because it's their winter right now. Just take a look at Bondi Beach.
Meanwhile, in much of the UK...


One of India's most popular and powerful politicians, J Jayalalitha, remains in a critical condition after suffering a heart attack on Sunday night, the hospital treating her said.

Thousands of people are standing vigil outside the hospital in Chennai.
Ms Jayalalitha, 68, has been receiving treatment for months and was last seen in public in September.
The former film star has been Tamil Nadu chief minister four times and is revered by many in the state.
With the extreme devotion she inspires among her supporters, many of whom refer to her as "Amma" (mother), there are concerns that a serious deterioration in her condition could spark unrest.
Police have been put on alert across Tamil Nadu and outside her official residence in Chennai (Madras).
There have already been scuffles outside the hospital, following incorrect reports of her death in Indian media. The reports have since been retracted, and a flag flying at half-mast over her party's headquarters has been hoisted once more.
News of her health over the last few months has been closely monitored and guarded, and in a sign of the sensitivity around the issue two people were arrested for spreading rumours about her health in October.
Profile: Jayaram Jayalalitha
Why Jayalalitha's health has an entire state on edge
The photograph 'ruling' an Indian state
The women who rule India
The latest statement from the Apollo Hospital added that Ms Jayalalitha was being "closely monitored by a team of experts" and she was still on life support systems.
On Sunday evening, the hospital had asked the public to "pray for her speedy recovery".
Leaders, including President Pranab Mukherjee have tweeted, expressing concern about her health.
Last month a letter released by her party seemed to hint at a recovery for the politician saying she had been "reborn" thanks to prayers from her supporters.
As it also urged people to vote for her party at upcoming by-elections, critics said it could have also been an attempt to quell fears about the extent of her illness and mobilise her supporters.


Adam Wheater's career-best unbeaten 204 ensured Hampshire remained on top against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

The wicketkeeper, who was dropped two Championship matches ago, hit 27 fours and three sixes en route to his maiden double century off 226 balls.
On a flat pitch, Hampshire inexplicably lost their final five wickets for nine runs as they were bowled out for 531.
The hosts then fell to 11-2, but Jonathan Trott's 59 not out, helped them to 131-3 at the close.
Resuming on 89, Wheater played and missed at a fuller Rikki Clarke delivery in the first over of the day but it was to be his only false shot of the innings.
Wheater's redemption, following criticism from coach Dale Benkenstien about his energy levels behind the stumps this season, came full circle as the 26-year-old played with guile, precision and tidy feet to move past three figures.
Assisted by nightwatchman Mason Crane (22) and Sean Ervine (75), Wheater accelerated - taking just 79 balls to move from 100 to 200.
Warwickshire captain Ian Bell's decision to then bring back Josh Poysden proved to be a good one, as the young leg-spinner wrapped up the tail to finish with a career best 4-85.
The hosts response began badly as Andrew Umeed left a straight one from Gareth Andrew and was bowled for nought before fellow opening bowler Gareth Berg sent Bell's stumps flying.
Trott though remained untroubled as he reached his fifth half-century of the season to keep the hosts in the game.
Warwickshire spinner Josh Poysden told BBC WM:
"Losing Boyd Rankin through injury was tough but, even when Hampshire were going well, we kept going and to get the last five wickets for nine runs was really nice, as we finally got what we deserved.
"On days one and two in first-class cricket you are not really expecting it to spin so I knew they were going to come quite hard at me when I bowled. But that gives me a chance to get wickets so I never mind that.
"You are not going to win every toss in cricket and sometimes you are put in hard situations and that is when you show your character. At Guildford last week everything went in our favour. Now we have got the other side of the coin."
Hampshire's double centurion Adam Wheater told BBC Solent:
"It helped that they had a depleted attack and a lot of overs in the bowlers' legs but it was nice to keep going whereas in previous years I might have had some fun a little bit earlier.
"Being in Division One you know there could be a couple of low scores just around the corner so it was good to cash in. There have been a few doubles around this year and it's nice to be in that bracket.
"When I was on 164 Sean Ervine asked me what my highest score was and I said: 'This is it now'. Then I got a single so that was nice."


Wearing warm clothing has been suggested as way council staff could help reduce the need to turn up heating where they work.

The idea is one of a number aimed at helping Highland Council to cut carbon emissions and save money in a report sent to councillors.
Officers said the local authority could "promote use of warm clothing rather than supplementary heating".
A council spokesperson said it was not suggesting turning heating off.
"There are legal minimum temperatures for working conditions," the spokesperson said.
"We are not suggesting we reduce heating below the legal minimum. However, we often heat our buildings by several degrees warmer than this.
"By reviewing our practices, we could save thousands of pounds and, in the light of the budget savings required, we cannot afford to ignore this potential saving."
Highland Council has been working for several years to reduce its carbon footprint by trying to use less electricity and fuel.
Other suggestions in the new report include switching off computers when they are not in use, turning lights off where they are not needed and changing to more energy efficient LED lighting.


Almost £1m of public money will be needed to repair the facade of the Metropolitan Arts Centre (MAC) in Belfast, MLAs have been told.

A letter from a Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL) official to a Stormont committee puts the exact cost of the repairs at £938,731.
The Arts Council has asked for extra money from DCAL to pay for the work.
MLAs were also told that an aluminium panel had fallen from the roof of the building on Friday.
However, a spokesperson for the MAC said it remained open for business as usual.
Problems with the cladding on the MAC's exterior were first noticed at the end of 2014, and netting was put on the building to prevent any risk to users and pedestrians in St Anne's Square.
Scaffolding was then erected on the building in November 2015.
At that time the culture, arts and leisure committee was told that the repair work would cost around £600,000.
However, the letter from DCAL now says that: "the MAC has calculated costs of undertaking work, including replacement of the stone facade and sought approval and support for these from the arts council".
"A business case has been approved which sets out costs totalling £938,731," it adds.
The letter also says that the MAC has engaged a firm of solicitors to investigate liability for the repairs, but that "the process identifying and/or pursuing liability is likely to be lengthy".
It further says that an aluminium panel fell off the roof of the building during high winds on Friday 29 January and was blown into St Anne's Square.
"No-one was injured and MAC took immediate action to inspect and secure the roof."
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was informed of the incident.
MLAs on the culture, arts and leisure committee expressed concern at the cost of the repairs.
NI21 MLA Basil McCrea questioned why public money was being used to pay the bill for the repairs.
"There is a discussion about who is liable, and if it wasn't urgent you wouldn't pay it now," he said.
"But with the big winds last week, and other concerns, you have to make sure that this building is safe."
A spokesperson for the MAC said: "We acknowledge and welcome the approval of the business case which will help us to provide a full and final solution to this issue, and we will continue to work with ACNI (Arts Council of Northern Ireland) and DCAL to complete the necessary works.
"In the meantime the MAC remains open for business as usual as we come out of a very busy Christmas period and look towards an exciting 2016."
The building opened in 2012, and cost more than £17m.


Steven Pressley is eager to return to working in football but insists he has to be "more strategic" with his next move.

Scot Pressley, 43, has turned down offers to manage in Scotland since leaving Fleetwood Town last year.
He previously managed Falkirk and Coventry City.
"I have a real, real burning desire to manage at the very top," the former Hearts defender told BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound.
"It's not an arrogance. If you look at my career as a manager and you want to actually look at it, scratch beneath the surface and look at the aspects that I've had to deal with, I think I've dealt with them exceptionally well.
"I've travelled to Spain, I've travelled in England to watch the top coaches work and I know that I can coach at the very top level because of that. I've watched them in action.
"But there's a certain pathway to get there and you have to sometimes take certain steps to achieve your goal and I understand that some people can call it an arrogance - it's not an arrogance.
"I am hugely respectful and I am hugely appreciative of the offers that I've received.
"I wouldn't have knocked them back because I think I'm above that. That's nothing to do with it. It's how I get to where I want to be, that's the only reason."
Pressley also played as a defender for Rangers, Coventry, Dundee United, Celtic, Randers and Falkirk and earned 32 Scotland caps.
He was promoted from assistant to manager at the Bairns in 2010 and, although Falkirk were relegated from the top flight soon after his appointment, he stayed with the club until taking over at Coventry in 2013, winning the Challenge Cup in 2012.
During his time at the Sky Blues, Coventry entered administration, but he kept them in League One at the end of his first season in charge.
"When I arrived, the budget was £4.6m and, within a year, I had to reduce it to £2.2m," he explained.
"I had to deal with two 10-point deductions, I had to deal with transfer embargoes, I had to deal with playing out of Northampton - incredible circumstances that we had to deal with and I was really, really proud of the job we actually did there."
With Coventry having fallen into the relegation zone during the second half of season 2014-15, Pressley was sacked before having a nine-month spell in charge of Fleetwood, who also stayed in League One during his tenure.
"I want to take a club where I feel that we share the same values, where we share the same goals, where I believe I can go in and make an impact that allows me then to eventually go to the next step," Pressley added.
"That step might be for me not being a manager. That step might be to coach at the right club at a higher level where eventually they have a succession plan or that allows me to move with that coach to another club.
"Might be going abroad to manage or to coach. I'm looking at all different opportunities and I think I'll know when it's the right opportunity.
"I need to be, which I haven't been thus far, more strategic in my steps to get there."
Steven Pressley's interview can be heard of Sportsound on BBC Radio Scotland at 18:30 BST.


England Test captain Alastair Cook has signed a one-year contract extension with Essex, keeping him with the Division Two champions until the end of the 2018 season.

Despite also playing seven Tests this summer, Cook, 31, played seven Championship matches for Essex in 2016.
He scored 643 runs at an average of 91.86 to help the county win promotion.
"I love coming back to the club when I can and contributing to a title-winning season meant a great deal," Cook said.
Cook, who has been capped 133 times and scored 10,599 runs at Test level with England, remains centrally contracted by the national side.
He made his first-class debut for Essex in 2003 after coming through the county's academy.
England are touring Bangladesh and India this winter, before home Test series against South Africa and West Indies next summer, but Essex head coach Chris Silverwood is optimistic Cook will score runs for the county next term.
"Hopefully, at the start of next summer, he can be about a bit more and contribute to stabilising our position in County Championship Division One," Silverwood said.


A veteran republican accused of involvement in the murder of Jean McConville is suffering from dementia and could not participate fully in his own trial, a court has been told.

Ivor Bell, 79, from Ramoan Gardens, west Belfast, denies two charges connected to the murder of the mother-of-ten.
The IRA kidnapped Mrs McConville from her home in Divis flats in 1972.
She became known as one of the "disappeared".
These were people who were abducted, murdered and buried at secret locations by republicans during the Northern Ireland Troubles.
Mr Bell did not appear at the pre-trial hearing at Belfast's Crown Court on Monday. His barrister told the judge:  "He suffers from dementia which has a cardiovascular cause and he wouldn't be able to properly follow the course of proceedings."
A prosecution lawyer suggested that he would commission a psychiatrist to examine the defendant. He also requested full access to Mr Bell's medical files.
The case was adjourned until 16 December.
Mr Bell faces two counts of soliciting Mrs McConville's murder, both of which he denies.
Mrs McConville's remains were found on Shelling Hill beach in County Louth by a member of the public in August 2003. Nobody has been convicted of her murder.
The case against Mr Bell is based on the content of tapes police secured from an oral history archive collated by Boston College in the United States.


Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has announced that he will submit his government's resignation later this week because of a disagreement with Finance Minister Andrej Babis.

Mr Sobotka is unhappy about alleged unexplained business dealings of Mr Babis, a billionaire businessman.
The announcement comes less than six months before parliamentary elections.
Mr Sobotka has said he will meet the president in the coming days to formally submit the resignations.
The BBC's Rob Cameron in Prague says that Czechs have have had more than three years of more or less stable coalition government under Mr Sobotka, a mild-mannered social democrat.
But that stability has now come to an end because of the bitter rivalry between him and Mr Babis.
Their dispute came to a head over claims Mr Babis had avoided paying taxes on bonds issued by his own company.
Mr Sobotka argues that it is unacceptable for Mr Babis to remain as finance minister.
Mr Babis's centrist ANO party is far ahead of Mr Sobotka's centre-left CSSD in the opinion polls, our correspondent says, and this act of brinksmanship will be seen very much as pre-election manoeuvring.


A signed copy of Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities bearing a personal inscription to fellow author George Eliot has gone on sale for £275,000.

Dated December 1859, the dedication expresses "high admiration and regard" for Eliot - real name Mary Ann Evans.
It is being sold by rare book dealer Peter Harrington and is currently on show at its central London bookshop.
If it reaches its asking price, the book will be among the most expensive Dickens works ever purchased.
According to Peter Harrington, the edition of A Tale of Two Cities is "the best Dickens presentation copy to have come to market in a generation".
The most fetched by a Charles Dickens work at auction is believed to be the $290,500 (£174,610) achieved in New York in 2009 when Christie's sold a pre-publication presentation copy of A Christmas Carol.
Dickens was an admirer of Eliot's 1857 short story The Sad Fortunes of Reverend Amos Barton and wrote to its author to express his admiration for the "womanly touches" he detected within it.
Unbeknownst to the author of Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, he and Eliot had originally met in 1852, before Mary Ann Evans began writing under her male pseudonym.
A Tale of Two Cities is believed to be the best-selling novel of all time, having sold more than 200 million copies.
The classic tale first appeared in All the Year Round, a literary periodical to which Dickens was keen to have Evans/Eliot contribute.


Romania has been criticised over its lack of commitment to tackling domestic violence in a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

The court fined the country after it failed to hold to account a man who attacked his wife eight times.
Officials went so far as to accuse the victim, Angelica Balșan, of provoking the assaults, the court noted.
Official statistics suggest most Romanians think domestic violence is normal, it said.
In certain circumstances, 60% of Romanians see it as justified, it said.
Such attitudes, which were even more deeply entrenched during the period of communist rule, are slowly beginning to shift and the government has adopted new laws to combat such abuse.
But "the overall unresponsiveness of the judicial system and the impunity enjoyed by aggressors, as found in Ms Balșan's case, indicated that there had been insufficient commitment" to enforcing them, the court noted.
It found Romania had violated articles of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting inhuman and degrading treatment and discrimination based on gender.
Angelica Balșan married her husband in 1979 and told the court her husband had been violent to her and their four children throughout their marriage.
But the violence intensified during their divorce proceedings in 2007, she testified.
She sustained injuries that required between two and 10 days' medical care.
She requested protection through emergency calls, petitions to the head of police and criminal complaints, saying she feared for her life.
In some cases authorities decided not to press charges in the belief that she had provoked the attacks. In other cases her husband was acquitted in court.
Finding against Romania, the court ordered it pay Ms Balșan €9,800 (£8,480; $11,000) in damages.
The verdict can be challenged and referred to the Court's Grand Chamber.
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League Two side Blackpool have signed Plymouth right-back Kelvin Mellor.

The former Crewe player, who was out of contract with Argyle after making 93 appearances, has agreed a one-year deal with the option of a further 12 months.
The 25-year-old told Blackpool's website: "I can't wait to get started now. I hope to bring a lot of energy and determination to the team.
"I love to win so let's make that happen. Hopefully we can do something this season."
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