The three nurseries that grew out of her mini-daycare centre, Jolly Tots, were among the most popular in the Reigate area where she lived, catering for some 150 children.Inevitably, the success of the nurseries caught the greedy eye of UK plc: big business, already investing in retirement homes, turned its attention to the nurseries.In 1996 Ms Edolls, like Mrs Craig, started receiving offers from Gatehouse, a subsidiary of Whitbread, which had already bought one privately owned nursery chain and was seeking to expand. Initially, both rebuffed the advances, but last year Ms Edolls sold Jolly Tots to Gatehouse, netting more than pounds 1m.Lesley Bennett, now 36, has also received, and refused, an offer from Gatehouse for her Cherry Group chain. All 40 places were taken up immediately.Her nurseries are located around Haslemere, Guildford and Midhurst in Surrey and West Sussex, the relocation choice of the thirtysomething City workers who leave their cramped flats in Chelsea and Battersea for the leafy dales around the A3, start a family, and then need care for their children.Although she did not know it at first, Mrs Craig was tapping a market as lucrative as that of the wine bars, sports-car dealers and leisurewear manufacturers."Once I'd started I became passionate about it," she said. "I continued to research into child development, and developed my own theories about the happiness and care of children." The sole owner of the business, she coped easily with the financial side: "I learnt to be a businesswoman, and I discovered parts of myself I would never have known I had."Mrs Craig said she had had no intention of turning into a tycoon: "I just wanted the best possible care for my children."About six years ago, Kate Edolls had a similar idea. After a search of the area, Mrs Craig decided she did not like the look of her local daycare centres. So she hired a couple of nannies to look after her two under-fives in her home, and the neighbours, also young professionals, sent their toddlers along and contributed to the cost. Now Mrs Craig, a research psychologist by training, is worth more than pounds 2m.

Her creche grew into a small day nursery then a large day nursery, and now she has a chain of day nurseries - Caring Daycare - across two counties. Her 80 staff look after about 200 children, their parents paying pounds 135 a week per child. She has a waiting list of almost 100.Mrs Craig is one of a new breed of millionaires, mothers who say they just wanted to do the best by their children and who have created an industry so lucrative they are being targeted for buyouts by Whitbread.When, at the end of 1989, Mrs Craig's front room became full - with seven children and two nannies - she bought an old manor house on the Surrey- Hampshire border and opened it up as a nursery. NINE YEARS ago, Veronica Craig, then 34, with four children, started looking for a nursery for her children near her home in Haslemere, Surrey. However, welfare spending should remain at European rather than US levels.The statutory pension age should be abolished in recognition of the fact that more Britons than ever before were retiring early or changing the way they worked."Civic culture", made up of small, local self-help groups, should be revived, while work practices should be made more family-friendly.. I hope such will not be the case."In the book, Professor Giddens calls for the welfare state to be modernised by the greater use of compulsory savings schemes, and voluntary and private sectors to provide care services.

There must be something solid behind the hype, otherwise the public see through the facade pretty quickly."If all New Labour had to offer were media savvy, its time on the political stage would be short. Anthony Giddens, director of the London School of Economics and the UK's leading advocate of the "Third Way", states in a book, published next week, that the Government should realise that image manipulation alone is not enough to keep it in power. Professor Giddens's book, Third Way, is the first detailed view of the political doctrine to be discussed by the Prime Minister and other left of centre western leaders at a conference in New York this month.The book suggests that both socialism and the unbridled free market have failed and should be replaced by a new approach that combines social justice and equality with individual responsibility.However, he stresses that unless Labour can adopt such ideas and identify concrete policies, it will find it difficult to remain in power."Many who praise the scale of the victory also see the New Labour project as an empty one. New Labour is widely seen as depending on media-oriented politics, and as creating `designer socialism'," he writes."Personal images, symbolic stagings, sound bites, visual gags, all count for more than issues, arguments, projects and the evaluation of campaign promises."A precept of successful advertising, however, is that image alone isn't enough. "I'd leave like a shot if I could - I feel terrified after what happened."Mohammed Rehman, 62, has lived next to 2A since 1971 "Some of my children are scared to go out.

My family are terrified that something like this could happen next door," he said.. NEW LABOUR must offer policies of substance and not just media hype if it is to stay in office, Tony Blair's favourite intellectual guru has warned. They even come back early if they have been out clubbing," he said.An elderly lady said she had lived on the street for a year. Two small bunches of flowers were wedged between a wall and a road sign.Mohammed Chune, 28, who lives two doors down, has become a taxi driver for his friends who are frightened of walking to work in the early morning "They are scared to be on their own. There is also no evidence to suggest that the three were heavily involved in drugs.Det Supt Davies said that the three victims appeared to have a "unique" relationship and had enjoyed each other's company.Yesterday, there was a solitary police officer on duty outside the end- of-terrace flat, which is yards from a busy dual carriageway Crash barriers and police tape surrounded 2a. For the police who went in, to find a scene like that is a harrowing experience."There was no sign of forced entry and no sign that the flat had been ransacked - suggesting that whoever carried out the killing knew his victims. Spurred on by complaints about the foul smell seeping out of, officers finally broke in at 7.59pm on 3 September.Detective Superintendent Trevor Davies, who is in charge of the inquiry, recalled: "There was a substantial amount of blood.