THE Diary was rattled to read in yesterday's paper that the new James Bond has been chosen.

Apparently Daniel Craig is set to step into the still warm dress shoes of Pierce Brosnan.

Craig (is he a relation of Wendy Craig, the Butterflies actress?) is all set for a three-film deal playing the gun-toting supersleuth.

This is shattering news, because we had a much more charismatic star lined up.

The name's Galloway. Steve Galloway.

He's perfect for the role. As our picture shows, Steve's the epitome of rugged machismo. And he runs the council with ruthless 007 efficiency, despatching opponents with deadly accuracy (just ask Ernst Stavro Merrett). Nobody does it better.

Equipped with a specially customised Smart car, which shoots heat-seeking bollards at litter louts, and accompanied by his girl Honey Reider, he could be the best thing to happen to Bond since Roger Moore hung up his eyebrows.

This photo was taken in November 1983 when the then Lord Mayor Galloway, a Bond addict, brought the northern premiere of Never Say Never Again to York.

The event, at the old ABC Cinema, raised pots of cash for his mayoral charities.

Should our Steve ever take up the role of Britain's best known drinking, gambling womaniser, here are five Bond films he could star in...

1 Lib And Let Die

2 For York Pride Only

3 From Rush Hour With Love

4 Guildhallfinger

5 Thunderbollard

MARTIN Lunn, York's curator of astronomy, is in touch with some spooky solar facts on the eve of the pope's funeral.

"The pope was born on May 18, 1920, when there was a partial eclipse of the sun visible in the southern hemisphere," he tells us.

"On the day of his funeral, Friday, April 8, there will be an eclipse of the sun visible over the Pacific Ocean. Neither eclipse was visible from Rome.

"In the 12th century the Saint Malachy, an Irish saint, produced a prophecy in which he listed a short motto for 112 popes. The motto for John Paul II was 'De Labore Solis' - of the labour of the sun. Rather fitting for a pope connected with two eclipses."

But some people show no respect. Our attention has been drawn to a page on internet auction website ebay. For sale, it states, a "small white people carrier". It is accompanied by a picture of the Popemobile.

Updated: 09:29 Thursday, April 07, 2005