Daily opinion (again) - Boss should know better; Model council?; Royal painter

Tony Antoniades knows what racism is like, having experienced taunts and beatings half a century ago when he arrived in Brighton as the young son of Greek Cypriots.

So it's astonishing that he should have told staff at Eurolink to "work like niggers" and to have made sexist remarks to employees. Now he has deservedly lost an employment tribunal case at Brighton against office manager Rebecca Pugh, who's married to a black American.

Mr Antoniades is a very successful businessman who should know better than to make these sorts of remarks to staff in a town known for its toleration and good humour. He may have to pay compensation to Mrs Pugh but the cost to his reputation is far greater.

How ironic that Brighton and Hove, in many ways a model New Labour council, should find itself slated by Local Government Minister Hilary Armstrong.

She said councillors were irresponsible when they showed their unhappiness with the new cabinet system by voting to have a look at another way of conducting business. Brighton and Hove did better than many councils by holding its cabinet meetings in public and releasing papers beforehand.

But the vote earlier this month against the ruling Labour group still shows disquiet with the new system for not being sufficiently inclusive or democratic. It must hurt the council to be admonished by this minister but the lesson both must learn is they still haven't got the system right for Brighton or anywhere else.

There are two men in the life of Lewes artist Mary Ann Aytoun-Ellis. One is her husband, sculptor Marcus Cornish. The other is Prince Charles.

Mary was impressed by the Prince's knowledge of painting and his hard work after he appointed her official artist for his trip to the Caribbean earlier this year. The papers made him look a Charlie for his choice of headgear, but she knows the West Indian people thought Charlie is a darling.