Foreign policy, once sacrosanct, has been attacked over the Government's hard-line stance against the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

The entire world, it seems, is dismantling the welfare state, privatizing the public sector, downsizing government, reducing subsidies and cutting social programs that were once sacrosanct.

Yet it's impossible to forget that mealtime was once sacrosanct, that life revolved around food and the family dinner table.

Since then, almost nothing once sacrosanct to the party leaders has been left untouched.

Indeed, last month animated slices of Pizza Hut pizza were flying over the once sacrosanct Yahoo home page.

But there were too many people present; the office, once sacrosanct, had miraculously become full of Popeek workers, policemen, secretaries, possibly some telefax reporters.

"To a large degree, we have to get away from the the idea of total respect for sovereignty that was once sacrosanct."

Or will it be Aleksei Kovalev again, or even the once sacrosanct Adam Graves?

Even the once sacrosanct Social Security system is being challenged.

In the process, almost nothing once sacrosanct to the Kabul rulers has been left untouched.