NOW it was short notice we know, but surely the students could have mustered their forces a little better.

Tony Blair, the man who has landed them with fees and loans they'll be paying off for much of their working life, arrived at the York University campus last Friday to be met with a very half-hearted demonstration.

No eggs, not even a tomato, just a derisory chorus of "Tony, Tony, Tony - Out! Out! Out!" Considering he's already announced he's leaving Downing Street, the Prime Minister was hardly likely to be shaken by such a demand.

Worse still, one group of scholars had taken leave of their highly-gifted minds and made a banner with the words "Tony We Love You" (Tories, presumably).

Over in France students were chucking petrol bombs and dodging rubber bullets during demonstrations against their government's laws. Over here, our undergraduates were blowing kisses at the PM.

No wonder Tony was heard to comment: "We did protests better in my day."

GLAD to be away from the "loans for peerages" scandal at Westminster, Mr Blair raised a few smiles inside the National Science Learning Centre at the university.

"There's a quotation of Einstein's which I've seen that says no amount of experimentation can ever prove me right but a single experiment can prove me wrong," he said.

"Really, the same applies to the Prime Minister's position."

Confessing he wasn't much cop at science in school, he added: "I feel at a certain point - much later in my life - I would benefit from a little bit of re-education."

LATER our chief reporter had another encounter with the PM. The last time the two had met, Mike Laycock reminded him, had been during the floods crisis atop the Foss Flood Barrier in the pouring rain.

That day a sodden Mike leapt from the cloudburst to thrust a dossier on North Yorkshire's feeble flood defences into a stunned Mr Blair's hands.

Was that a flicker of recognition or panic that registered in the premier's face? The interview then went smoothly, despite Mike having forgotten his notebook.

He wrote the Prime Minister's words of wisdom... on the back of a press release.

ONE topic they covered was the loss of Rowntree jobs.

As they throw hundreds of workers out the door, the income of those Nestl fat cats deserves to come under some scrutiny.

So thank you to the Haxby Road employee who drew our attention to a website which does just that. Input "Nestl UK" into the "Your Company" page of worksmart.org.uk and all sorts of interesting figures emerge, such as:

Directors' remuneration: £2,212,000.

Increase over past five years: 121 per cent

Highest paid director's salary: £549,000.

Increase over past five years: 40.77 per cent.

Seems like some at Nestl are having more of a break than others...

Updated: 10:43 Monday, March 20, 2006