Mr Graffius was general secretary of the Movement for Christian Democracy until the start of this month, when he also left his job as assistant to David Alton, the "pro-life" Liberal Democrat MP for Liverpool Mossley Hill, whose seat is to disappear at the election. But Mr Graffius told The Independent the trust would not be specifically Christian, and would be nothing to do with "right-wing moral majority" politics."It will have no faith foundation, although the agenda will appeal to people of all faiths and none," he said. It would make sense to many "inspired by the Judaeo-Christian ethic", but equally to those inspired by Muslim and Hindu and Buddhist teaching. Mr Fayed is a Muslim, strongly opposed to abortion and keen to support an "ethical" dimension in British politics.Mr Graffius said he had been in touch with Mrs Lawrence, whose husband, Philip, was stabbed by 16-year-old Learco Chindamo when he intervened to defend one of his pupils outside his school in west London. "She has told us that she will support what we are doing, and has said she is happy to write for The People's Trust, but will hold no official position," he said.Mrs Lawrence published a manifesto last October which galvanised public opinion and forced politicians to follow her lead, he said "And yet nothing much has happened since then. But if there had been a group of politicians in parliament, properly supported, much could have been done." Mr Graffius said the trust would pursue the issues of screen violence, bans on handguns and combat knives, education and unemployment.It had two other interests: political honesty and constitutional reform.

It would demand a full declaration of candidates' financial interests before the election on the same basis that MPs will be required to make afterwards. The trust would also promote proportional representation as "the dynamo which will change our existing party system".He said that Mr Fayed, the Egyptian-born tycoon who has clashed with the government over his application for British citizenship, had provided pump-priming funding and temporary offices for the trust, but it was intended to become a membership-based organisation.It is believed that Mr Graffius's plans provoked unease among members of the Movement for Christian Democracy when they were discussed at a secret meeting last weekend. Yesterday, David Cairns, of the Christian Socialist Movement, said the body was in danger of sinking into the politics of the "Christian ghetto". He said: "Mr Fayed is making sure it's a very plush ghetto, but it is one nonetheless.". The international stars of Wasps rugby union club were hailed as heroes yesterday after risking their lives to rescue two men from a upturned car on a motorway sliproad as other vehicles sped past. The team members were returning from Bristol on Saturday evening, where victory took them to the top of the Courage League Division One, when a Range Rover in front of them swerved to miss a car which had pulled in front. The Range Rover hit the central barrier of the M25, swerved back across the motorway, ran down an embankment and ended up on its roof in the middle of the sliproad on to the M40 just outside London.The rugby players, including Engand flanker Lawrence Dallaglio and New Zealand's Va'aiga Tuigamala stopped the coach and jumped out to help.The club's director of rugby, ex-England scrum-half Nigel Melville, pulled one man out of the car, while British Lions star Damian Cronin and fellow second-row forward, Richard Kinsey, rescued the other.. Old Masters that once hung on the walls of 10 Downing Street and were snapped up by Catherine the Great of Russia in 1779 will return to London this month - on loan only.

Students of the lessons of history will find the "Houghton Hall" exhibition a rich seam. It tells how Britain's first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, built up one of the country's greatest art collections and how it was sold to pay off debts. Just as would happen today, the sale was discussed in the Commons and a plea was made to save the paintings for the nation. And just as inevitably Parliament, or the Treasury, was unmoved.The export of the collection to Russia was described at the time as "one of the most striking instances that can be produced of the decline of the empire of Great Britain".Of the 181 Old Masters acquired by Catherine, six will be in the exhibition which opens at Kenwood House, Hampstead, north London, on 23 January. Together with other Walpole paintings, sculpture, manuscripts and furniture, they are intended to evoke the splendour of the collection amassed at Houghton Hall, Norfolk.Walpole transferred the works to Houghton on his fall from power in 1742. The great Palladian mansion had been built to house the collection - saddling his heirs with debts.When Walpole died in 1747 the collection included 400 pictures and was rivalled only by that of the King. But the cream was lost to Britain when George, Walpole's grandson, sold the paintings in one of the greatest coups in art history.

Catherine acted with ruthless determination and for about pounds 40,000 acquired 181 of the finest pictures to stock her new pavilion, the Hermitage Collecting had become almost state policy for the empress. Informed by her adviser, Baron Friedrich-Melchior Grimm, that the Houghton collection was no longer available, she retorted: "The Walpole pictures are no longer to be had for the simple reason that your humble servant has already got her claws on them, and will no more let them go than a cat would a mouse."Works by Dutch and Flemish masters and from the French and Italian schools formed the bulk, many of which still enrich the walls of the Hermitage in St Petersburg. Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, Maratti and Poussin are among them. Three paintings direct from the Hermitage will be on display at Kenwood, including The Holy Family by Nicholas Poussin, and three acquired by Catherine, but then sold by the Soviet Union for hard currency. The latter trio includes an acclaimed portrait by Anthony van Dyck of his patron Lord Wharton, which is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.The six will be shown at Kenwood with works from Houghton, in the private collection of Walpole's descendant, the Marquess of Cholmondley, and other galleries. James Christie, founder of Christie's, valued the 181 paintings at pounds 40,455 though one source records that the empress paid only pounds 36,000.Whatever the precise figure, it was fairly hefty in 1779 and she had no serious competitor - certainly not the reformist MP, John Wilkes, whose plea to save the pictures and make Britain "a favourite abode of the polite arts" fell on deaf ears..

Government attempts to spark a "feelgood factor" about employment prospects is challenged today by Labour Party analysis of official figures and the findings of a leading employment agency. Reed Personnel Services records the first drop in demand for permanent staff for two years and Labour points to a higher redundancy rate among men. While the Reed Employment Index shows a record high in job offers to temporary staff - 63 per cent above the peak of the 1980s economic boom - demand for permanent staff is reported to be 40 per cent lower.Reed concedes that there is an underlying growth in permanent posts since 1992, but the number of jobs for temporary staff has risen at a much higher rate.And figures published in the latest edition of the Employment Gazette show that 143,000 men were made redundant in Great Britain in spring 1996 compared with 137,000 in the same period of 1995.The job prospects for both men and women who lost their jobs also deteriorated. The number finding jobs after redundancy fell from 87,000 to 74,000.Ian McCartney, Labour's chief employment spokesman, said the official statistics showed that ministers' claims about falling unemployment could not be trusted.Mr McCartney calculated that there were almost one million fewer jobs in Britain since John Major became Prime Minister. Men were becoming "economic cast-offs" with skilled full-time jobs disappearing and being replaced with insecure and temporary work.James Reed, chief operating officer for Reed Personnel Services, conceded that the current downturn in demand for permanent staff may be a "blip" in the figures.