Following more than 15 hours of deadlock 400 members of the Royal Black Preceptory led

Following more than 15 hours of deadlock, 400 members of the Royal Black Preceptory, led by a single band, marched along the village’s main street to the local Orange hall.
Rows of police in full riot gear stood by, together with crowds of local nationalists, as the parade was halted before it reached a mainly Catholic section of the village.Afterwards, both marchers and Catholic residents laid claim to a moral victory, while the RUC described the outcome as a victory for commonsense. Cultured audiences of Monteverdi’s time would doubtless have been puzzled by today’s concert presentation of Renaissance madrigals, in which po- faced performers remain rooted to the spot, even in pieces based on the funkiest Baroque dance rhythms or coloured by the most gut-wrenching of harmonies.A new collaboration between the Mark Morris Dance Group and Concerto Italiano aims to rekindle the lost spirit of music and gesture with a choreographed programme of Monteverdi madrigals, commissioned to celebrate the Edinburgh Festival’s 50th season. An anthology of works from the composer’s years in control of the music at St Mark’s in Venice, I Don’t Want to Love includes the emotionally charged “Lamento della Ninfa”, “Zefiro torna”, one of the most seductive of all dance songs, and the intensely passionate “Soave libertate”.Having established a considerable international reputation through their award-winning recordings on the Opus 111 label, Concerto Italiano and their director Rinaldo Alessandrini are now generating a renewed pride back home in the nation’s “antique” music and encouraging other Italian groups to explore the rich repertoire of Renaissance and Baroque vocal music that has lately been colonised by performers from overseas. In English, last year, a grade C in the most difficult paper required 65 per cent.George Turnbull, a spokesman for the group, said: “There is no magic raw mark which says that you have a grade C or B. If the exam is easier this year than last year, more people would get 50 per cent.”A spokesman for the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority said: “We shall be scrutinising this year’s results … and checking that the Southern Examining Group’s results are comparable in standard to those of other boards.”The official UCAS listings of places available this year through clearing will appear exclusively in ‘The Independent’ starting on Monday, 19 August..

An overnight parade stand off in the Co. Londonderry village of Bellaghy ended peacefully yesterday morning, when loyalist marchers and Catholic residents compromised on a curtailed route. In addition, the mark required to achieve each grade varied from subject to subject. GCSE results are out next week.The examining group pointed out that changing the mark required to achieve different grades was common practice.

The aim was to ensure that candidates were not penalised if a paper had been more difficult than in previous years Marks for a grade might change but standards did not. Ministers have yet to decide whether to request an inquiry into the marking of the paper.The dispute is bound to fuel the controversy about exam standards which will intensify on Thursday with the publication of this year’s A-level results The pass rate is expected to rise again. The School Curriculum and Assessment Authority insisted that the original exam was changed because it was not hard enough. The authority has asked for a report from one of its officials who was an assessor at the meeting at which the decision to lower the grade C mark was taken. One report said an internal MoD memo had stated “the brakes are off” spending.

But a statement said any repairs were within the budget already allocated.The preferred bidder may be chosen this week with the final decision expected in early September Four rival groups are in contention.. Exam-board officials said yesterday that reports of candidates who scored 14 per cent being awarded C grades at GCSE were wrong – the true percentage grade was much higher. Officials at the Southern Examining Group refused to give the percentage needed for a grade C, the equivalent of a pass in the old O-level exam, but said it was “nowhere near” the figure being quoted.
Mathematics papers are divided into three levels of difficulty, and the paper in question was the most difficult. It is understood that the true figure corresponds closely to last year’s grade C passmark for the hardest level in several subjects: 38 per cent in double science and 42 per cent in biology.The board says that the mark for grade C in the most demanding maths exam was lowered this year, because candidates had found the paper so difficult. But Mr Clarke’s friends believe that Mr Portillo, as a Thatcherite, should be expected to follow his principles by reducing his own budget.Mr Portillo is arguing that he has gone ahead with the sale of married quarters homes, in the teeth of fierce opposition from Tory MPs, to give the Treasury has an additional pounds 1.6bn for tax cuts.The MoD denied it was spending millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money upgrading and refurbishing the homes before they are sold. Tory MPs have already warned Mr Clarke that defence has been cut to the bone in recent years, and there is no more fat left. They fear that further cuts will result in a reduction in Britain’s defence capability.The MPs are planning to press their demands for spending to be protected in a full-scale defence debate in the week the Commons returns after the summer recess.