First, there is the question of whether the much-vaunted boom really is on the way. And those who inherit property find themselves richer than they had dreamt of.For the rest the story is less clear. Certainly, for a few, a price boom can be seen as unadulterated good news – especially those who least need the windfall.For those selling up and moving to a smaller property, an increase in house prices is like winning the lottery. Lenders are confident things are going in the right direction.
Halifax talks of a “house-price rebound” after months of stagnation, and others have been similarly upbeat.
Yet none of this makes much difference to the vast majority of house owners. There is talk of London house prices rising by 30 to 40 per cent within five years. Surveillance teams have also been deployed.Mr Grieve believes Knight and Dobson were probably not involved in the murder and his team is looking at a number of new suspects.Asked whether he was hopeful of achieving results, he said: “I wouldn’t be doing this job if I didn’t think it possible to bring Stephen’s killers to justice.”. IT MUST be spring. The sun is out; the tulips are in bloom; there are reports of the first cuckoo.
And newspapers blossom with headlines of an imminent boom in house prices. The collapse in interest rates means mortgages are more affordable than for many years. It has already achieved some high-profile results, most notably in arresting three men for the murder of Michael Menson, the black musician who died after being set alight in north London.Mr Grieve is taking a fresh look at the evidence in theLawrence case, gathered during three police investigations. Girlfriends change, friends change, people change their behaviour. There are some interesting things to discover yet about the jigsaw puzzle that makes up Stephen’s murder.”Mr Grieve’s team, codenamed Athena, comprises 15 detectives at Scotland Yard and units based in north and south London. “Six years down the line we can do things with what is occurring at the moment, and we would like to hear from people who have direct knowledge,”he said.”We know that conversations are taking place, we know they continue to take place.
Tell us what you know – trust us.”He said the passage of time could sometimes be helpful to police “Allegiances change. The other three were acquitted at the Old Bailey in 1996 after the Lawrence family mounted a private prosecution.Mr Grieve, who heads the Metropolitan Police’s specialist taskforce on racial and violent crime, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that information given to police now could still prove vital. Mr Grieve said that the interviews, conducted by Martin Bashir for the ITV current affairs programme Tonight With Trevor McDonald, had yielded one new line of inquiry to pursue “It’s one more piece of the jigsaw puzzle. It’s not a crucial piece of evidence.”The new line is thought to be the disclosure by Norris that he was at his girlfriend’s house in Eltham, south-east London, on the night Stephen was murdered by a racist gang in April 1993. Norris had previously said he could not recall his whereabouts; the revelation places him half a mile from the murder scene.Norris and Jamie Acourt have never stood trial for the killing and could thus, theoretically, still face prosecution. An appeal for information, made after the interviews were screened on Thursday, prompted a huge public response.
John Grieve, Deputy Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Lawrence case, said: “Our switchboard lit up like the Spanish City [entertainment arcades] in Whitley Bay.”We have never seen anything like it, and out of it we got two more nuggets of gold.”Police sources said he was referring to two witnesses who approached police after watching the interviews of Neil Acourt, Jamie Acourt, David Norris, Luke Knight and Gary Dobson. I am sure the next time the Premiership rights are sold in 2001, they will be sold on a broader platform.”.
TWO WITNESSES came forward with potentially crucial information about the Stephen Lawrence case after television interviews were broadcast with the five murder suspects, police sources said yesterday. Our clubs are now at a disadvantage in terms of European competition and securing the best players for the English game.”Mark Booth, BSkyB’s chief executive, said he felt the ruling set “an unfortunate precedent for other British clubs and companies”.Jeff Farmer, head of sports production for ITV, said: “This helps to make sure there is a level playing field. This one-off decision is half-baked – it leaves everyone unsure of how sport and the media can develop together.”David Chidgey, the Liberal Democrat trade and industry spokesman, said: “This is a long-overdue signal from the MMC that News International’s predatory ambitions must be curbed.”Vic Wakeling, managing director of Sky Sports, said on Sky News: “It is a blow, I believe, to football, because football clubs in this country are facing increasing competition from clubs in Europe, who are allowed partnerships of this type… “The Government still owes the media industry and the sporting world an explanation about what it wants to happen next. We need to know how clubs can profit from their valuable media rights as they are an important source of money to develop the game.”We need to know if this means that the Government is to allow clubs to negotiate individually with TV companies, and the media needs to know what kind of promotional links it can develop in the sporting world. All those media conglomerates who’ve been planning to take over clubs will have to go back to the drawing board.”Ray Eckersley, a member of Imusa and a shareholder, called for Martin Edwards, the club’s chief executive, to resign.
