“All her family have done well and are living fulfilled lives and I think she simply felt they did not need the money,” Mr Atherton said. “She had seen lives ruined by people over-indulging in money. Although she made sure her family had enough, she believed they did not need any more.”Mrs Robinson, he said, had travelled widely. She died in a nursing home at Wincanton, Somerset, last December, leaving a total of pounds 1,358,805 to the Methodist Missionary Society, the National Children’s Home, the Friends of Tewkesbury Abbey, and the Canon Collins Educational Trust for Southern Africa.Details of individual bequests are not generally known, but the Methodist Society confirmed she left it pounds 400,000.Mrs Robinson met her husband, Joseph, on a blind date. In the 1930s they set up Rediffusion and Radio Rentals with pounds 100 capital. Some 30 years later the family shared the proceeds of the pounds 6m sale of Radio Rentals to Thorn.

She and her husband divorced in 1960.t A pensioner who lived in a modest flat and shuffled around in old waterproof trousers has left more than pounds 1m in his will. Neighbours in Bristol knew John Chapman as a man who carried tatty plastic shopping bags and dined on a bowl of tinned soup every day. The former bank manager lived for more than 30 years in a two-bedroom flat worth pounds 53,000. Mr Chapman had no family but left an estate of pounds 1,207,278, Lloyds Bank Trustees confirmed..

LEGISLATION TO speed up the abolition of Britain’s most arcane regulations is being drawn up by the Government in a new drive to slash red tape for businesses and the public. Ministers are determined to overhaul the 1994 Deregulation Act after it emerged that the number of outdated laws scrapped by Parliament had hit a record low.
To reduce the amount of unnecessary European regulations, ministers also hope to set up a new Deregulation Unit within the European Commission as part of this summer’s reforms of Brussels bureaucracy.Everything from 85-year-old pub licensing laws to restrictions on advertisements for bingo clubs have been in the sights of the Cabinet Office’s regulatory impact unit. But just seven Deregulation Orders were laid before the Commons in 1997-98, the lowest number since the Act was introduced. Peter Kilfoyle, the Public Service minister, believes that progress has been hampered by the cumbersome parliamentary machinery.Under the Act, both the Commons and Lords Deregulation Committees have a minimum of 60 days’ scrutiny of any plans to scrap old laws Mr Kilfoyle aims to end this and streamline procedures. A draft Bill could be included in the Queen’s Speech this year..

LEGISLATION TO speed up the abolition of Britain’s most arcane regulations is being drawn up by the Government in a new drive to slash red tape for businesses and the public. Ministers are determined to overhaul the 1994 Deregulation Act after it emerged that the number of outdated laws scrapped by Parliament had hit a record low.
To reduce the amount of unnecessary European regulations, ministers also hope to set up a new Deregulation Unit within the European Commission as part of this summer’s reforms of Brussels bureaucracy.Everything from the 85-year-old pub licensing laws to restrictions on advertisements for bingo clubs have been in the sights of the Cabinet Office’s regulatory impact unit.But just seven Deregulation Orders were laid before the House of Commons in 1997/8, the lowest number since the act was introduced.The orders are the quickest means Parliament has of abolishing the thousands of obscure and redundant 100-year-old regulations that continue to dog private individuals and businesses alike.Peter Kilfoyle, the Public Service minister, has identified hundreds of rules and regulations to be axed but believes that progress has been hampered by the cumbersome parliamentary machinery.Under the current Act, both the Commons and House of Lords Deregulation Committees have a minimum of 60 days’ scrutiny of any plans to scrap old laws.Mr Kilfoyle aims to end the 60-day delay and streamline procedures so that regulations can be abolished speedily if the issues are non-controversial.The new powers, which will also extend for the first time to European legislation, will spearhead moves to modernise large areas of regulation.If the Government can gain a cross-party consensus on the proposals, a draft Bill overhauling the process is likely to be included in the Queen’s Speech this year.The 1994 Act was supposed to slow the rate of home-grown regulation and curb the Whitehall practice of “gold-plating” or toughening up European directives.Since it was introduced by the last Tory government, just 41 deregulation orders have been successfully placed on the statute book. By contrast, hundreds of new regulations were laid down.However, some MPs are already worried that the 1994 Act made it easier to scrap laws without having them discussed on the floor of the House of Commons.Peter Pike, chairman of the Commons Deregulation Committee, said that he had some reservations about radical change, but agreed that some modifications were needed.”The incoming government has had so many priorities that perhaps this one has not been given quite as much attention as perhaps it should have been,” he said.”People think there has not been enough done in this line as they would like to see.”The Conservatives claim that the Government’s attempts to deregulate have been “farcical” to date and warn that the main battle will be to stop the scores of EU directives that come out of Brussels every year.. DONALD FINDLAY, the Scottish QC who has resigned as vice-chairman of Rangers Football Club after being videoed singing sectarian songs, returned to court yesterday.

At the High Court in Glasgow Mr Findlay was representing Kim Galbraith, 30, who is accused of murdering her husband, a police officer. He declined to comment on his resignation when he arrived, saying: “I’ve got a client to defend.”
The allegations against Mr Findlay are highly inflammatory in a city still riven with tensions between Catholic and Protestant football fans Rangers are considered Glasgow’s “Protestant” team. Tensions have been high since the last match of the season saw Rangers seize the championship from their rivals in an Old Firm derby which left the referee injured by a flying coin and saw three players sent off.However, Celtic and Rangers were supposed to have joined forces in an effort to clampdown on sectarian bigotry between fans.Mr Findlay’s singing followed Rangers securing of the treble on Saturday with a 1-0 victory over Celtic in the Scottish Cup final. After that match, Thomas McFadden, a 16-year Celtic fan, was stabbed to death.