I've cheered Brazilian triumphs before, but until this week they've always been football victories. Now, however, Brazil has produced a hero who may ultimately prove to be much more important than Ronaldo or Pelé. He is Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, once a metal worker and trade union leader, and now Brazil's new president-elect.

Lula (as he's generally known) leads the Workers' Party, which has traditionally been well to the left of centre, but has drifted rightwards in a successful bid to become electable. To British readers, this may all sound rather familiar; and there are certainly some parallels between the Brazilian Workers' Party and Britain's Labour Party.

But there are also some huge differences between Tony Blair and da Silva. Lula has made considerable compromises in his economic policies in order to appease the international banking community, but he was still elected on a platform of reducing inequality in Brazil, creating jobs and helping the nation's poorer people.

It seems as if that sort of talk was all too much for Blair. On a visit to Brazil last year, the Prime Minister declined to meet Mr da Silva, despite the fact that Lula already enjoyed a healthy lead in opinion polls. Blair was apparently advised by his loyal sidekick Peter
Mandelson that the Brazilian Workers' Party was similar to the old-style UK Labour Party, and so had no chance of winning an election. That, of course, now looks like yet another of Mandelson's blunders.

President Bush's response to da Silva's success was superficially friendly, but interestingly phrased. Bush spoke to Lula on Monday, and according to a spokesman: 'The president told President-elect da Silva he looked forward to working with him, especially with regard to advancing democracy, good governance, and free trade in the hemisphere'.

Those bits about 'good governance' and 'free trade' look rather pointed to me. But if Bush's words hint at a veiled threat, then just look at this statement from David Roberts, senior international economist at Bank of America Securities: 'Wall Street is looking to see if the Lula who takes office is the more moderate, forward-thinking person who appeared in this campaign, or if he reverts to his lifelong leftist stance. If he gives the right signals, there could be a significant recovery in Brazilian asset prices.'

In other words: watch it, pinko, or kiss goodbye to foreign investment.

Brazil's new leader has, in fact, firmly pledged to honour all agreements signed by the outgoing government, to keep inflation under control and pay the nation's debts. However, after his election triumph, da Silva also said: 'The market should also be aware that
Brazilians have to eat three times a day and that there are many people who are hungry.' The fact that Lula regards such humanitarian considerations as a priority is presumably what makes money men like Mr Roberts so nervous about his success.

It's also what makes the triumph of Lula so exciting. South America has historically been more associated with right-wing military dictatorships than with left-wing idealism. It'll make a very refreshing change if Lula proves to be willing to stand up to the iron rule of the market, and improves the lot of his country's poorer citizens. He's got a tough task on his hands, but I certainly wish him well.

Could some Scottish streets soon come to resemble the red-light areas of Amsterdam, with prostitutes sitting in shop windows? It might happen, as a result of a bill that's been put before the Scottish Parliament by MSP Margo MacDonald. Her bill proposes that local authorities should be given the legal authority to create prostitution
tolerance zones, where the law against soliciting would not be enforced during specified times of the day.

Ms MacDonald's bill would make possible official versions of schemes that have already operated unofficially but successfully in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Edinburgh had tolerance zones from the early 1980s until late last year, with the Scottish capital's police taking a lenient view of prostitution in the traditional local red-light area in Leith. Protests from local residents and businesses forced the unofficial tolerance zone to be moved to another area of the city, around Salamander Street - and then people from that area threatened legal action if the policy wasn't abandoned.

So the policy was abandoned, and the effects were dramatic. Prostitution in Leith didn't stop - far from it - but there were other drastic changes in the situation there. Reported attacks on women doubled in the six months after the policy change. For the first time in two years, girls under 16 were found 'working' on Leith streets.

Ruth Morgan-Thomas, project manager of the Scottish prostitutes' support group Scotpep has explained: 'Clients are taking advantage of the fact that the women are not working collectively together. We had one client who came back the same night and attacked a second woman, because the women didn't have the ability to communicate any more and
warn one another about the attack.'

'We have seen an increase in drug dealers coming into the area, and in men coming in to "mind" women. Those are the things which, in other cities, create far greater nuisance than the women themselves in areas where street prostitution occurs.'

Living as I do just a couple of hundred yards away from Bradford's red light district, I can certainly relate to those words. It's no great surprise that the same area of Bradford has seen some disturbing outbreaks of gang-related shootings in recent times - despite the
fact that the police have supposedly been cracking down on the local vice trade.

Prostitution is indubitably a sordid and sorry business, but it isn't called 'the oldest profession' for nothing. It's been around since time immemorial, and it isn't likely to go away any time soon. Having it properly regulated and policed can save lives.

As the Edinburgh experience shows, there's a practical problem in that not many people would want to find themselves living in a legalised red-light area. But Aberdeen City Council overcame that difficulty by putting their tolerance zone in an industrial and commercial area of their city, and most major cities should be able to find one of those.

Ms MacDonald's bill makes perfect sense. I hope that it becomes law in Scotland, and that the rest of the UK then follows suit with similar legislation. Perhaps then I'd read less stories about violence in the dodgy part of town just up the road.

After the previous item, it seems only natural to move on to the subject of Angus Deayton and his controversial sacking as the host of the BBC's wonderful satirical news quiz Have I Got News For You.

For non-British readers, I should perhaps explain that Deayton had hosted the show for 12 years, during which time its scathing topical humour has made it a national institution. Deayton's drily witty commentary on current affairs has one of the show's great strengths
during that time.

Unfortunately, it all started to go wrong in May, when a Sunday tabloid published a story alleging that Deayton had used cocaine and had sex with a prostitute. He found himself being mercilessly pilloried by the other stars on the own show. Further tabloid stories about
Deayton's private life last week gave his co-stars further ammunition to hurl at him.

And now the BBC has abruptly dismissed Deayton from the smash hit show he did so much to build. According to an official statement, they have done so because '...continuing stories in the media about Angus' private life have made him the subject of headlines, rather than a commentator on them. This has made his position as host of the topical news quiz untenable.'

Deayton's authority on the show had certainly been badly undermined by his co-stars' ability to top any jibe he threw at them with a riposte about his own infamy. But Deayton took the flak with grace and good humour, and I can't agree that it was necessary to heap further humiliation on him by dismissing him in the middle of a series.

It's very sad that the chemistry which made Have I Got News For You so consistently sharp and funny has been fundamentally changed. The show may possibly be as good in the future with a new presenter, but it'll never be the same again.

What is even sadder, though, is that on this occasion the BBC has allowed some of Britain's trashiest tabloids to dictate its personnel policies.

This is the 78th edition of 'Notes From a Small Planet', and after all those columns I feel in need of a break. I have therefore decided to make this the last 'Notes', for now at least.

There are several reasons for this decision, but the main one is that my life has become busier recently and looks likely to become busier still in the near future. Finding the time and energy to produce a weekly column has become rather difficult and stressful of
late.

So I'm going to go and do something about all those Guide entries I dreamed up months ago, but never had the time to write. Thanks to Shazz for editing my ramblings here, and thanks to everyone who's posted responses to them - even the hostile ones. I'll see you in Peer Review, and I'll probably also see you in the Post again before very long.

Ormy's 'Notes' and Other
Scribblings

The definitive collection

Ormondroyd

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