Thousands of people who were victims, as children, of horrific physical and sexual abuse as a result of a secret policy pursued by successive British governments are going to receive a formal apology from the prime minister, Gordon Brown.

He is notorious for his reluctance to say sorry for anything but it is easier to grovel, of course, when you are not personally responsible. Brown will be apologising for the forcible deportation of some 10,000 children, mostly to Australia, where the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, will be issuing a formal apology today.

It sounds like something from Hitler's Germany but during a period of almost 40 years, ending only in 1967, it was official UK government policy to conceal the truth from the children's parents and to lie to the children, who were in orphanages and care homes, themselves about the allegedly better life they would soon enjoy down under. When they arrived, brothers and sisters were separated and the abuse began.

Brown himself was forced to apologise last week to the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan after she enlisted the campaigning power of 'The Sun' to denounce him for sending her a scrawled, misspelt scrap of a letter of condolence.

The recording of the 13-minute conversation in which Brown tried to placate the mother in question, Jacqui Janes, is an extraordinary piece of reality politics in which she vividly conveyed her disgust at the way he has deprived the troops of the equipment they need and described to him the brutal consequences: "I know every injury that my child sustained that day. I know that my son could have survived but my son bled to death. My son had no legs from the knee down. My son lost his right hand. My son had to have his face reconstructed. Do you understand, Mr Brown, lack of equipment?"

The Conservatives have been celebrating the decision by 'The Sun' to switch support to them after 12 years of backing Labour but its assault on Brown was so over the top that he started to gain some sympathy support among voters.

Rupert Murdoch controls both 'The Sun' and 'The Times', both of whose newly appointed political editors, coincidentally, went to the same public school -- Eton -- as the Conservative leader, David Cameron.

Murdoch said last week in Australia that Brown has been "an unlucky man" and that after 13 years of one-party rule, a change is "probably a good thing".

The opinion polls continue to point to just such a change in the general election next year, but Labour did better than expected in a by-election in Glasgow last week and a modest revival in the housing market has given a boost to the feelgood factor and to retail sales.

Realistically, the best that Brown could hope for is a hung parliament and some Conservatives are nervous that that could be the outcome. The former chancellor, Kenneth Clarke, who likes to disconcert his shadow cabinet colleagues by saying what he thinks, told the media that a Labour victory would be better than a hung parliament because of the need for effective decision-making during the economic crisis.

The queen will be outlining Brown's plans for the economy in her speech at the opening of the new session of parliament on Wednesday. The challenge for the chancellor, Alistair Darling, will be to try to sustain the signs of recovery after January 1, when VAT is scheduled to go back up from 15pc to 17.5pc. He may be tempted to delay the increase until after the election, even though the Treasury needs every penny it can get hold of.

One man whose finances have improved dramatically in the past two years is Tony Blair. If, against the odds, he emerges as the first new-style president of Europe this week, it will be an expensive return to the political scene for him because he would have to give up his lucrative consultancy work.

Someone parks a red Ferrari opposite Blair's home in central London almost every day. Its number plate is 1 RAO but, because of a screw head on the plate, it looks at a casual glance as though it says 'IRAQ'.

It's a constant reminder to Blair that, had it not been for his support of George Bush in the invasion, he would now be the odds-on favourite to become Europe's first global leader.

Instead, he is now preparing to give evidence early in new year to the official inquiry into the invasion, which will start its hearings on November 25. The final conclusions will probably not be published until late next year or early in 2011.

David Miliband, the foreign secretary, will be in Kabul for the inauguration of President Karzai on Thursday when the new EU appointments are being decided in Brussels over a dinner which is expected to feature such Belgian delights as stewed rabbit in sour beer.

David's brother, Ed, the climate change minister, has given up any hope of getting a legally binding deal on carbon emissions at Copenhagen next month and is predicting, instead, a "politically binding" deal.

His plans to cut Britain's emissions are crucially dependent on fast-tracking planning approval for 10 new nuclear power stations. Three of them are on or near the Irish Sea coastline in Cumbria, including one at Sellafield (formerly known as Windscale), while another is on Anglesey, a little to the north of Holyhead.

Irish Independent