18June

At the Amsterdam summit of EU leaders, the new French government declined to sign a stability pact for monetary union. The first ballot of Conservative MPs was topped by Mr. Clarke (49 votes), ahead of Mr. Hague (41) and Mr. Redwood (27). Mr. Howaerd (23) and Mr. Lilley (24) withdrew; the second ballot will take place next Tuesday, a third ballot would follow two days later. In a speech entitled Short Shrift to Short Termism, finance minister Gordon Brown announced plans to make the Bank of England accountable. The Law Lords ruled that former interior minister Michael Howaerd broke the law when he increased the minimum sentences for James Bulger's killers. Argentine president Carlos Menem said he hoped to take sovereignty over the Falklands by 2000.

Pop singer Mark Morrison was jailed for 14 days after smashing a photographer's camera; he had previously been sentenced to three months for an unrelated offence, and asked for sales of 600,000 criminal records to be taken into consideration. 400m runner Phylis Smith announced her retirement, after she was given an insulting annual stipend of just £2000 by The Lottery Corp. Miss Smith had won a Commonwealth gold in 1994, and secured a bronze medal as part of the GB 4x400m squard at the 1992 Barcelona games. Princess Diana of Wales repeated her call to outlaw landmines. Yorkshire-Tyne Tees began merger talks with Granada Television, proposing a single television contractor broadcasting From The North. Division I side Wimbledon FC was sold to two Norwegian fishing millionaires. British Airways began replacing the Union Flag on its tailfin with abstract designs. The Co-op stopped selling alcopops.

Channel 4's Wanted had its most famous exchange, when tracker Paul Denchfield bet his left eyebrow that he would find his runners in a pub car park. There was no telephone box there, and the false lead allowed the runners to escape by seconds. Other television highlights this week included the first episode of Driving School, the start of the second series of Airport, and the first in the final series of Mastermind, featuring a round on Formula One Since 1970.

Another slackening in the pace of releases allowed a bit of relief for some of the long-runners - five records climbed the chart, another five held station, and a handful of March's hits returned. New in the lower end this week were Prodigy spin-off group Empirion (75), David Devant and his Spirit Wife (61), and Shades of Rhythm (57). Gorky's Zygotic Mynci made it in at 49 with Young girls and happy endings, their third release to just miss the 40. Ariel's Deep (I'm falling deeper) entered at 47; one place ahead was Mary Kiani's With or without you - we don't believe that this was a dance cover of the U2 song. Cathy Dennis's last solo single was rather apposite - When dreams turn to dust limped in at 43, and she's made her living writing songs for other people.

Fourteen new entries into the top 40; just making it in are Hysteric Ego's Ministry of love, Mint Condition performing What kind of man would I be?, and Huff and Puff's rendition of Help me make it through the night. Aerosmith lifted a second single off their rather decent Nine Lives album, Hole in my soul made it in at 29. Lisa Stansfield's career pulled into the station marked Dumperville as Never never gonna give you up stalled at 25 despite saturation radio play. Del Amitri put Not where it's at in at 21, which is just unfortunate.

More dance nonsense from The Pron Kings, whose Amour (C'mon) debuted at 17. Finley Quaye made his debut at 16 with Sunday shining, which sampled an old Bob Marley number. The Bee Gees followed up the very remarkable success of Alone with the very pedestrian I could not love you more, a number 14 hit. From last week's top ten, the Smashing Pumpkins dropped twenty places to 30, Radiohead came down from 9 to 22, Jon Bon Jovi plummeted from 4 to 15, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers went 7-13.

All that leaves an unusual, and possibly unique, top 12, in which no record moves down. The Rembrants begin the list with a non-mover. Savage Garden come in at 11 performing I want you. The duo - Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones - had already put this song to number 2 in their native Australia, and would go on to success across the planet. The group's biggest hits were two soppy ballads - 1998's Truly madly deeply and 2000's suspiciously similar I knew I loved you - but we remember them best for their pacy songs. 2000's Affirmation was a laundry list song, detailing everything that Mr. Hayes believed was wrong with the world. 1999's Animal Song contained one of the more common mis-hearings, I want to live like cannonballs, but we reckon I want you was their career peak. Just to confuse, the song was re-issued in late 1998, after the success of Truly... and To the moon and back, peaking at number 12 and being the subject of a pisspoor Chris Moyles cover. The group split in 2001, and Darren Hayes has since had very moderate success as a solo performer.

New at 10 came Supergrass, Sun hits the sky was the last in a run of top ten hits stretching back almost two years. Foxy Brown's I'll be came in at 9, providing one of the first appearances of the Tony Slattery of the rap world, Jay Zed. There's no move at number 8 for Mr President, and lovers of German kitsch will not be pleased that we're not including this song. Az Yet entered at 7 with Hard to say I'm sorry, based upon the Chicago song of the same name. This was the second hit in three months for the soul group, but turned out to be their final hit in the UK.

Highest new entry honours went to the Charlatans, How high came in at 6. How depressing. How tedious. How the hell did so many people buy this tat. The top five would all become sing-a-long favourites, though - Rosie Gaines' Closer than close moves back up one to 5 in its fourth week, Ultra Nate's Free climbs one to 4 in its second week. Five weeks on release for Brightman and Bocelli, and Time to say goodbye holds at 3, the song has been no lower than number 4. Third week in the runner-up spot for I wanna be the only one from Eternal and Bebe Winans, which leaves Hanson's Mmmbop holding the top spot for a third and final week.

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