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;- . y.. -V >’’>■ WITH A PAUL MERTON PUNCHLINE, WHO NEEDS A HEADLINE? Every kind of comedy from Jo Brand to Nicholas fWns, from Eddie iraard to Willie Rushton. Plus some up-and-coming stand-ups you haven't heard of. Yet. For a free samnle r o a . P cassette of Radio 4 programmes phone 0990 115525. 92 - 95FM I981W HOME NEWS 3 THE TIMES FRIDAY MARCH 29 1996 Drunk, bored and armed with a spade, the three squaddies set out to hunt down a woman Soldiers brutally ended tour guide’s summer of dreams Bv Michael Tiieodovloi; «n iakvaca axd Michael Morn mill LOUISE JENSEN, a Danish |>>ur guide who had promised herself a summer in the Cyprus sunshine before siart- ipt* u urk as an au pair in the Canary Islands, was having the time of her life when three drunken British squaddies brought it to a violent end un the night of September 12 .
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,v=rs.» . THE TIMES No. 65,540 FRIDAY MARCH 29 1996 Guide to the tests How 14-year-olds should tackle this year’s papers PAGE 39 TESTPLAN Adoption A chance to put children first 'PAGES 4,19 % rt John Redwood Why Britain has a duty to save Europe from itself, PAGE 18 The mother of all freeloads Clement Freud goes raring in Dubai ' : v* PAGE 16AUSTRALIA Holidays from Sydney to the outback SUPPLEMENT Major to ask EU to end blockade Emergency ban on sale of at-risk cattle By Philip Webster, Charles Bremner and Nicholas Wood ANDRE CAMARA AN EMERGENCY ban on the sale of meal from cattle most at risk of "mad cow- disease was announced last night as John Major prepared to appeal to his European partners to lift the worldwide blockade on British beef as soon as possible. Unveiling the first moves in the Government’s increasing¬ ly frenzied efforts to restore public confidence in the beef industry. Douglas Hogg promised a £13 million a week special subsidy for renderers disposing of waste from slaughterhouses and £50 mil¬ lion to prop up beef prices. The Agriculture Minister also barred die sale of meat from cattle aged over 30 months — those thought to be at greatest risk of carrying infection — until new abattoir safeguards come into in opera¬ tion. Whitehall officials said that it could become perma¬ nent depending on the out¬ come of negotiations with ■Brussels. Ministers want farmers to keep such cattle on their fauns and use them for dairy pro¬ duction where possible. De¬ tails of any compensation package will have to wait Other measures wifi indude a premiums of just over E100- a-head for calves from dairy herds slaughtered before reaching 10 days of age and a ban from tomorrow on the manufacture of feed For farm animals using mammalian meat and bonemeal. The use of bonemeal in agricultural fertilisers will also be banned, but that be delayed because the law requires consultation. The legislation should be ready for introduction in a couple of weeks. Mr Hogg told MI’S that the extra payments to farmers and renderers would reach them as quickly as possible. “The future of this essential part of British agriculture depends cm a restoration of public confi¬ dence. British beef is safe and can be eaten with confidence. 1 believe that is an opinion that can safely be put ro the British people.” The Prime Minister will tell European leaders in Turin this morning that the EU's Matthew Parris is top columnist Matthew Parris, columnist and sketchwriter for The Times. was named columnist of the year ai the annual British Press Awards last night. The judges praised him as a -brilliant observer of people”-Page 2 Boring Tie Times overseas Austria Sch 40; Belgium B Frs M* Can j do S3.2 5: Canaries Pw 325; Cyprus CElJft Denmark Dfcr l boo. Finland Fmk 17.00; France F 14.00; Cermanv DM 4.50: Gibraltar ‘JOp Greece Dr soft Netherlands Ft 4.SO tush Republic 4 Sk taw L 4.500. Luxembourg U G* Madeira Esc 350; Mata 4 Sc Morocco Dir27 «wm> Kr 2000: Portugal con fac Mpc Spain Pis 325; Sweden skr 10.50. SwtoenarKi S Frs 4.00; Tunisia Din 2.200: USA
3 JO. The Times on the Internet //www.th e-times.eo.nk ban on British beef exports should go as soon as the Government has brought in a package of measures agreed with Brussels to tackle the crisis. As the summit gets under way Ministry of Agriculture officials will be meeting their European Commission coun¬ terparts in Brussels to discuss what compensation the Com- munify should pay Europe British farmers if the Govern¬ ment adopted a policy of selective slaughter. A decision at leaders level is needed for Europe to release the cash and yesterday Germany followed France in promising to make sure spe¬ cial funds were cleared. “Solidarity also means money and over and above that which Hogg : “essential to restore confidence” the EU would be obliged to pay in any case,” Karl tamers, a powerful figure in Chancel¬ lor Helmut Kohl'S parliamen¬ tary group, said. President Chirac had earlier telephoned Mr Major to express French solidarity with Britain over the problems it was facing. Mr Major meanwhile con¬ tinued to maintain that the export ban was “totally with¬ out justification” and he told MPS that he would be making that case vigorously in Turin. Speaking after the Cabinet had spent an hour debating how to restore public confi¬ dence, he said: “It is essential that decisions of this sort are taken by member states on the basis of rational judgments, on the basis of science and not on any other basis, as 1 believe them to have been taken on this particular occasion. I will most certainly be making our feelings dear tomorrow." Mr Major again dashed with Tony Blair over the issue, ridiculing an eight-point pack¬ age of proposals put forward by Labour as a piece of PR nonsense. “Labour is consid¬ ering votes. We are consider¬ ing rhe industry and the national interest." But Mr Blair said he had never heard anything “quite so pathetic” from the Prime Minister, adding: “Would you for once stop trying to shirk responsibility and take it” Today Mr Major will remind the other European leaders that the crisis is prob¬ lem for the rest of Europe as well as Britain and that the lifting of the export ban should be seen as part of the confi¬ dence-building package that is required. Under the terms of the ban confirmed by the Commission on Wednesday it could be six weeks before veterinary offici¬ als reconvene to consider eas¬ ing the ban. But British ministers believe that the scale of the ban, affecting such a wide range of by-products, means it should be lifted well before then. Today’s summit, called to launch the start of the inter¬ governmental conference on the future of the European Union, has been completely overshadowed by the die beef crisis. But British officials under¬ lined that Mr Major's attitude towards the meeting — includ¬ ing his opposition to any further weakening of the veto and extra powers for the European Parliament and his tough tine on the European Court of Justice — would not be affected by his desire to reach a good deal on compen¬ sation. “There is no linkage, " a senior British official said last night. Labour attacked, page 12 Cash relief, page 13 On die frontline, page 17 John Redwood, page 18 Diaiy, page 18 leading article, page 19 Letters, page 19 Japanese bank pays woman £81,000 for insulting her By Joanna Bale and Emma Wilkins Helen Bamber tribunal said Fuji bank's behaviour had been deeply insulting A CITY bond dealer who claimed that the world's big¬ gest bank set out to wreck her reputation and her career after she took it to an industri¬ al tribunal was awarded com¬ pensation of £81,000 yesterday. The figure included “off the scale" aggravated damages against the Fuji bank, which was denounced by the tribu¬ nal chairman as malevolent spiteful and deeply insulting. Helen Bamber. 32, who had brought a case claiming that she had been passed over for promotion and pay rises be¬ fore being forced to resign after rejecting her boss’s ad¬ vances, welcomed the judg¬ ment as vindication of her “David and Goliath” struggle. This is a day of shame for Fuji," she said. “I am looking forward to going back to my job in the City with head held high." Yesterday’s award included £20,000 in aggravated dam¬ ages for the way the bank treated Ms Bamber after she won her case for sexual dis¬ crimination last November. Claims for unfair dismissal and unfair pay had been rejected. Ms Bamber said the bank had launched a dirty tricks campaign against her, trying to ruin her reputation in the City and wreck her chances of a career with another bank by writing to its chief executive. Ian Lamb, chairman of the Croydon Industrial Tribunal, agreed. He said that the letter was mischievous and was sent to intimidate and embarrass Ms Bamber. These are all factors which fall fully within the description of aggravated damages — namely malevo¬ lence, spite, malice, insolence and arrogance intended to humiliate, distress or cause pain to the applicant. It app¬ ears to us that the conduct of the respondent is off the known scale of aggravated damages.” Last night, Ms Bamber expressed her delight at Mr Lamb’s verdict and predicted that many other women would now take action against the bank. "It is an unprece¬ dented amount of aggravated damages and I am told it is a record, apart from the recent Ministry of Defence maternity cases," she said. The tribunal came dawn on Fuji like a ton of bricks. The panel were all quite mild mannered and they admitted they had never seen anything like it when Fuji were in foil flow.” Ms Bamber. who said she was now happy in a new job, added: “It was a savagely fought case on their pan. And it has been extremely traumat¬ ic for me, but now l have won 1 fed completely vindicated. They spent an absolute fortune on fighting this case and resorted to inventing a conspiracy theory' that 1 was only doing this to try to extort money from them. They were desperate not to let me win because, apart from anything else, they know it will open the floodgates for other women to take action against them." Fuji spent an estimated £500.000 on fighting the case and at least one other former employee is poised to take similar action, according to a legal source. A spokeswoman for the bank said: “We are astonished at the size of the award and the legal grounds on which is was made. We await the tribunal’s written decision and will consider our position at that tune." In addition to die aggravat¬ ed damages, the tribunal awarded Ms Bamber £20.000 for loss of earnings while stiU working for Fuji. £12,000 in earnings lost since leaving Continued on page 2. col I Soldiers guilty of Cyprus killing BvMICHAELTHEODOOUHJ and Michael Horsnell THREE British soldiers were last night found guilty of kidnapping and killing a 23- year-old Danish tour guide in Cyprus. Delivering a 167-page judg¬ ment, Judge Takis Etiades said the three Royal Green Jackets had carried out a “decisive, planned and co¬ ordinated” attack on Louise Jensen. “Violence was used from the outset when a mili¬ tary spade was used to chase away her boyfriend and it was the same spade that was used to kill the victim." the court was told. Allan Ford. 27. Justin Fowler. 28, and Geoffrey Pemell. 24, sat handcuffed in the tiny dock at Lamaca Assizes as the three judges summed up at the end of their eight-month trial. They face life sentences for manslaugh¬ ter. conspiracy to rape and kidnap. The soldiers, who had made 100 court appearances over 19 months, lowed exhausted by the rime they learnt of their fate. I2h hours after the summing-up began. The night Louise died, page 3 13 SATURDAY IN THE TIMES Kate Muir meets Emmanueile Be art, femme fatale, in the Magazine How to get free membership of the Royal Horticultural Society, in Weekend Mortgages: how much you can save, in Weekend Money Household Cavalry ordered to learn gentle art of non-discrimination By Michael Evans DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT EVERY member of the House¬ hold Cavalry has been ordered to attend rare rela¬ tions dasses as part of train¬ ing. following a damning report on radal discrimina¬ tion in the unit. Under \ a plan agreed be¬ tween the Ministry of Defence and the Commission for Ra¬ cial Equality, the Household Cavalry will be instructed in the art of non-discrimination, including appropriate lan¬ guage when talking to mem¬ bers of ethnic minorities. A spokesman for the ORE. which has devised the lessons, said certain words, “such as coon, wag, and nigger”, were clearly offensive to people from ethnic minorities. How¬ ever. “if a soldier from an Afro-Caribbean background is referred to as Leroy because his name is not known, that “Permission ro carry out a racial equality survey, sir?” might be all right." the spokes¬ man added. The special instruction in language and conduct is in¬ cluded in a long list of mea¬ sures to be introduced for the Household Cavalry which has been told to open its doors to black and Asian soldiers and to record any incident of radal abuse or harrassmenL Colonel Pieter Rogers, com¬ manding officer of the House¬ hold Cavalry, which consists of a combined regiment of the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals, is to issue a directive reminding afl ranks of the Army’s equal opportunities policy “and stressing his com¬ mitment to its objectives". The measures followed a two-year investigation. Be¬ tween 1989 and 1994 not a single black or Asian soldier was recruited into the House¬ hold Cavalry, although three from ethnic minorities have joined since 1994. Even so, ethnic minority representation in the Household Cavalry is far lower than in the Army as a whole, which averages around 15 per regiment The CRE investigation was prompted by the case of Cor¬ poral Jacob Malcolm whose transfer from the Royal Elec¬ trical and Mechanical Engi¬ neers to the Household Cavalry was cancelled when it was discovered he was black. The CRE commissioners who investigated the House¬ hold Cavalry decided there were sufficient grounds for serving a non-discrimination notice on the regiment under the 1976 Race Relations Act, a move which Herman Ouseley, chairman of the commission, said was an action of “last resort". The cavalry was given 12 months to introduce the proper anti-discrimination measures. The CRE was dissuaded from issuing the notice by the MoD which said it would harm attempts to encourage ethnic minority recruits. The ministry also agreed an action plan aimed at stamping out racism in the Army and the other two services. 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Miss Jensen. 22, had arrived in ihe Cypriui resort of Ayia N'apj January and early in the summer met Michaelis Vassiliades. whn was working there as a waiter. They had been going out together for a few ueeks and friends said they were very much in love and might have married. After spending the evening of September 12 with col¬ leagues from the tuur com¬ pany she set off with Mr Vassiliades, 22, a .student from Nicosia, on his motorbike to visit a sick friend in Parulimni. That same evening the three soldiers were dancing in the streets of the popular two-star resun. Its cheap beer and young British women looking for uncomplicated holiday ro¬ mances were a magnet for the British servicemen stationed at Dhckelia. The soldiers were soon in¬ volved in a prolonged drink¬ ing bout and became Louise Jensen, who was about to start new job extremely drunk. A former soldier who met them in Ayia Napa's thronged central square al about Upm said Geoffrey Pcmell. 24. was ag¬ gressive and abusive to a group of young English women, but Allan l ord. 27, and Justin Fowler. 28. were “happily drunk". About 30 minutes after mid¬ night they staggered to Fowler's banana-yellow Mini- Moke and began the 25-mi It* drive back to Dhekctia base where they were stationed with the 1st Battalion. Royal Green Jackets. As they drove to a petrol station. Pbmdl announced he “was going to get himself a wuman for the night", according to a state¬ ment Fowler made later to police. Ford readily agreed it was “a good idea". At the petrol station, they spatted Ms Jensen and her befriend, neither of whom they knew. Twenty yards frum the station. Mr Vassiliades tried to overtake the Mini-Moke Jt swerved towards the motorcycle, caus¬ ing Mr Vassiliades to lose his balance. Miss Jensen lay trapped beneath the hike. Ms Jensen, whu had a strong sense of humour, was initially laughing, as she thought they were the victim of a bizarre practical joke. Her expression changed to one of horror when the Mini-Moke reversed into the motorcycle and PCrnell gut uul. brandishing a spade which he used to chase oil Mr Vassiliades, whu had hidden in some bushes. The court was told that Ford and Fowler beat Miss Jensen befurc H:mell returned to help to bundle her. kicking and screaming, into the back of the vehicle. While Fowler drove. Fond and Pt-mcll sal on her in ihe back seat to subdue her as they passed through Ayia Napa and headed for a desert¬ ed spot. They stopped at a building site in open countryside. Fowler claimed to have seen in the rear-view mirror Ford trying to have sex with Miss Jensen. When they gave evidence, the soldiers blamed each oth¬ er. Fowler told the court "After five minutes Pcmell swapped places with Ford and then I saw Perndl hit the woman with a spade. I couldn't believe this was hap¬ pening. About five or ten minutes later they came back to the car. I asked than where the woman was. Pfcmell said, 'Don’t worry, it’s sorted.’ Ford said, We buried her’." The soldiers were arrested by an armed policeman at a road-block yards from the British sovereign base of Dhekdia. Their clothes were spattered with blood, as was the Mini-Moke. In the rear luggage rad; was a spade. Annette and Poul Jensen, Miss Jensen's parents, leaving court in Lamaca, earlier this month - Cypriot barmen miss fun-loving trio who were happy to help others :..va«y. . J— ftT«p..s.rfta wot . heap . x«r n Th ' ST [ !.!!i6rl l i*e ]uupcH; l-i{£ AiAAir 05.. £22 »'f_«{£. tii
AS Part of Allan Ford’s statement to police in Cyprus By Michael Tiieodoulou THE three soldiers, who be¬ came friends in Northern Ireland, were known as the "geezers" to the barmen of Ayia Napa. The ornately tattooed trio were big spend¬ ers who consumed prodigious quantities of alcohoL Like the Cypriot barmen, detectives found Allan Font.who came from a happy working-class background in Sutton Coldfield, quick-wit¬ ted. humorous and likeable. "He was tough, very strong and funny." Kypros Christou. a barman at the Jasmin pub. said. "A week before the killing. Allan was here teach¬ ing a little boy of six to play pooL He was never any trouble." But Ford had a violent streak. He was already facing a charge of aggravated assault when Louise Jensen was killed Kerin Remmer. a musician from Durham, needed 29 stitches In his face after Ford attacked him with a broken glass in an bar. Ford’s estranged wife. Michelle, who left him after three months of marriage, said her childhood sweetheart had turned into an obsessively jealous husband who threatened her with vio¬ lence if he should catch her with another man. She dis¬ closed he had tattooed an arrow and the word “UP" on his penis with a needle and Indian ink. Justin Fowler, 2S. a welF built six-footer, came from a middle-class family from Constantine. Cornwall. His grandfather and father were in the Army, his brother James was in the Royal Marines until his career was ended by a parachuting acci¬ dent and his sister Jane served in the Royal Navy. Friends described him as a "good laugh" and depend¬ able. His fiancee; Susan, a hairdresser from Scotland, has promised to wait for him until he finishes his sentence. “He was like one of the family and would do any¬ thing for you," said the Cypri¬ ot owner of the Manhattan restaurant in Lamaca. Fowler’s mother. Anne, a social worker, said the family did not believe he was respon¬ sible for Miss Jensen's death, but spoke of his remorse “Justin is still devastated by what happened to that poor girt When his lawyer showed him pictures of Louise's body, he was physically sick." Geoffrey Pemell, 24. from Oldbury. West Midlands, was also a heavy drinker who became violent when drunk. On the night of the killing he was celebrating the comple¬ tion of a training course wfiich would have led to promotion to the rank of lance corporal. Less than two hours before Miss Jensen died, he had announced he was going to "slap" a woman that nighL Pern ell's fiancee. Sarah Green. 22. has said she will wait for him. Army sources said his father, John, was the only parent of the three accused to accept that his son was not entirely innocent "If he was there, he’s guilty." he said. “At least our families can visit them in prison; Louise’s will never see her again." Islanders question need for bases By MichaelTiieodhi'loi' THE British Army insists there is no drink problem among servicemen on the “sunshine posting” of Cyprus and that the brutal killing of Louise Jensen was an aberration. But many Cypriots see it differently. There had been complaints that drunken and bored off-duty soldiers were performing a national disser¬ vice in the tourist resorts, above all in Ayia Napa. It did not help that Ms Jensen was killed at a time when some CyprioLs were already questioning Britain’s right to the valuable swaths of real estate covered by the sovereign military bases. They were ceded to" the former colonial power as a condition of the island's independence in IdoO under a treaty some argue is now outdated. Britain still views the two bases as vital strategic inter¬ ests. despite the end of the Cold IVar. They help to guard Britain's oil interests in the Middle East and are useful for electronic intelligence gather¬ ing. for training and as stag¬ ing and supply posts. But fur most of the 4,500 service personnel in Cyprus the posting is considered a compensation for more ardu¬ ous tours of duty. Boredom, however, turns many to drink. Allan Ford, an alcoholic on a bottle of whisky a day, said: “Here, this so-called sunshine posting is really boring. You finish guard dury and there's nothing to do. There's just one shop on comp so you go to the bars and drink too much. That was the big problem." He drank even on duty, but said the Army never noticed, the court was told. "How could they know i had a problem? I was no different from all the others." After the killing Army com¬ manders. stung by criticism they had not done more to prevent trouble, ordered a security review. Ayia Napa was put, and remains, out of bounds to all military and civilian personnel and a lam curfew was declared on other tourist -areas in deference to local feelings. Heir to a fortune faces deportation By Richard Ford IHE Hume Office is expected o announce today that Jay kJiadka, the former Nepalese Ttouniain boy who is heir to a LL5 million fortune, is to be Jcported. The 19-year-old has lost his ight to remain in the country n spite of a recommendation Tom an immigration tribunal hat he be allowed to stay. Two arlier tribunals rejected his ippeuis. He was fighting a deporta- ion order that was issued by he Immigration and Narion- tliiy Department because he tad no residence permit and tis passport when he entered Britain stated that he was 18 vhen he was 14. Jay has lived for the past five -ears in a commune in an Sth-cemury castle in the For- st of Dean. He could not read ir write when he was rescued rom a life of poverty in Nepal iy Richard Morley. a million- ire businessman, who heads he commune at Clearwell Castle. Gloucestershire. Mr Morley. 41, has said he rili leave Britain if the Home fficc presses ahead with the leportation. He has said it is iof a question of wealth or lureaucracy but or human elationships. Mr Morley says he rescued ay from poverty to honour a act with the boy’s dead father- He has brought him up as his son since July 1990 and named him heir to his fortune. The two met after Mr Mor¬ ley punctured a lung m a climbing accident in Nepal in Jay’s father. Basil, a policeman, trekked for three days through the mountains to seek help. After making a full recov¬ ery. Mr Morley traced the father to his village and prom¬ ised that if anything happened to him. he would take care of Jay. After Basu's death in 1990 Mr Morley, a former naval officer who has made a for¬ tune in computers, returned to Nepal and brought Jay to England. Jay Khadka: tribunal said he should stay High drama over delayed opera By Stephen Farrell SIR PETER HALL accused Italian opera directors of dis¬ honesty and double-dealing last night after his new pro¬ duction of Fidelio was post¬ poned by last-minute machin¬ ations worthy or grand operatic tradition. Sir Pfeter, 65, was due to open Beethoven's opera in Rome on April 16 in a joint production between Rome Op¬ era and the Royal Opera House. But rehearsals were delayed after the Italians sud¬ denly raised technical objec¬ tions to the British-built set on the day it was due to be loaded for shipment abroad. Sir Peter has flown back to Britain blaming in-fighting at Rome Opera, which has been hit by industrial action, for Ihe delay. The £250.000 set, created by John Gunter, will now sit in the Royal Opera's CJmon Val¬ ley scenery storehouse until further notice. Italian techni¬ cians claimed it was too heavy for their stage and could not be loaded m time to fit around other productions. Sir Ffcfer, former director of the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, rejected the claims. “There is a war inside the opera house between the old guard and the new artistic director. Vincenzo De Vivo, and f think the old guard was bent on stopping this production. Ttiis is a move against him, not me. "My general feelings are complete disgust at the techni¬ cal department in Rome being so unprofessional and. in my view, dishonest. I would put it as strongly as that 1 think there is a faction at Rome Opera that had no intention of doing Fidelio and held its hand until the very last minute, which gave no leeway to solve the issues." He said the set was a beautiful, early 19th-centuiy design, without any difficult hydraulics or computer tech¬ nology. "In my estimation, with 40 years’ experience, it is not remotely difficult and it is actually under the weight they told us they required." Rome Opera was not avail¬ able for comment yesterday, but the Royal Opera House described the problem as a “regrettable blip". Sir Pbter said that the objec¬ tions were "baffling" because the set design had been agreed long before. “There has been double-dealing, which is i suppose the common currency of drama. However. 1 do not think the whole thing would make a very good opera because the turnabout has been so barefaced and demon¬ strably false that no audience would be very impressed." Opera, page 35 Don attacks ‘myths’ of Ms brigade By Jot Joseph academics who ' had long settled ip of women's riety have been k to the debating London don ar- ir more women ole of wife and than feminists o believe. -jne Hakim had xplode feminist [bat she decided She studied attv- : in Britain and lent and decided if dovetail with eminist beliefs, a senior re- v at the London School of Economics and Political Science, wrote in the British Journal of Sociology that even after barriers against women in society and employment bad been re¬ moved. many still chose the traditional role of looking after the home and raising the family, leaving men a& the main breadwinners. This month she opened her copy of the journal to find that ten academies had pooled their resources to pen a riposte to her article, which appeared last autumn. One of them. Dr Jan Pahl, Reader in Social Policy at Kent University, said: "I think the danger of Catherine Hakim's piece is that policymakers will not lake seriously wom¬ en’s role as workers. If that's the assumption, then you don't need maternity leave, [riches, flexible working hours, job-shares, term-only jobs, and so on." Dr Hakim seems bemused to have provoked such a haQabaloo. Is she a feminist? "Yes. always. I don't think these days anyone questions the concept of egalitarian feminism — equal opportuni¬ ties. All I*m saying is that when the barriers do come down, not all women want to pursue careers. “One consequence is that when they do work, they choose part-time careers and their attitude Is different — they're not Interested in pro¬ motion or long-term careers. It is a myth that part-time workers are all exploited. “Another myth is that childcare is the main barrier to women's employment the main issue is women’s atti¬ tudes to career." It is on such points that Dr Pahl and her co-signatories start spitting- She says that women’s move into employ¬ ment, mainly part-time, “re¬ flects both their commitment to their families and their desire to earn for themselves — for a variety of reasons". Nor can she fathom Dr Hakim's point on childcare: “Most women cant afford nannies." & W-M Does your health insurance make you wait for a bed? We’ll have a bed waiting for you. flntff row, [raying a cheaper private beanhpbn has meant compromising on the amount of cover yoa get But Primacare, a new poficy from Prime Health, actually gives yoa comprehensive cover - at a budget price. So, if you’re buying a policy, ask yaarsefft dees it &n yon i mmedia te access to private treatment? Does it guarantee fnfl pa y ment of surgeons’ and anaes¬ thetists’ fees? Wffl ft Wty cover oat-patient consaftations and tests? And what about alternative medicine? 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STD code] B*y_ -CMBning- Date of birth of the eldest powaarequiriifa cover I If yin already ham prints nedted fasenuwe please state renewal date Please pest fa [uo stamp required] Prime Berth tinted, REPOST, SX 3042 Stockport, Cheshire SX2 BYfi. uouong " ". - - tivifs FRIDAY MARCH 29 1996 •; 4 HOME NEWS the times - Ministers determined to remove barriers of age, race and class frustrating hopes Qfduldlesscoupl^ j Government acts to cut red IS; tape holding back adoption By Dominic KkiVNEDY SOCIAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT MINISTERS published a draft Bill vesterday designed to make adoption easier and more popular. Political correctness will be banished and red tape swept away in an effort to reverse the steep decline in infants available to childless couples over the past 25 years. Women as old as 55 wUl be encouraged to bring up other people's babies when guidelines restricting prospective parents' eligibility on grounds of age, race and dass are scrapped. Social workers chosen to interview prospective adopters should be parents themselves. Ministers say the draft Bill, Adoption —A ServiceJor Children, published yesterday, will help to revive adoption but campaign¬ ers are suspicious that the Conserva¬ tives want to tackle the problems of single parents by getting them to relinquish their offspring. "It is vital that we do not turn the dock back to a time when women were shamed into giving away their child¬ ren, resulting in trauma and long-term distress,” Karin Papperiheim, director of die National Council for One Parent Families, said. John Bowis, a junior health minister, said: "If adoption is seen as a positive option, it is possible that some mothers will be encouraged. There'is absolutely no question of any mother — I don't care whether the mother is single or married — being pressurised by : this legislation or anything we have issued into giving up her child unwillingly.'’ His reforms are the most sweeping changes in 20 years, an era during which the number of children, particu¬ larly babies, available for adoption has plummeted. In 1976, there were 18,000 adoptions, a fifth of them babies under one. By 1993, there were oily 6,900 adoptions, of whom 465, or one in 14, were babies. -Half of adoptions now involve stepfathers or stepmoth¬ ers taking responsibility for their spouse’s child. Mr Bowis said: "Political correctness has no place in the adoption process. That is widely accepted among the professionals in adoption and certainly right around the House of Commons when we debated the subject" He denounced adoption agencies which rejected prospective parents because they were too old. die wrong colour, too rich or because they had careers: “There have been occasions when ageism has crept in,” he said. “Mothers have been told they are too old at 35 despite die fact that they can give birth many years after that "It may certainly be that a woman of 55, an older person with knowledge for 'example of a particular form of disability, having brought up a family of her own and lad experience, is the ideal person to entrust this child to.” Children of 12 and older will have a veto over being adopted but their natural parents will have their rights reduced. Previously the courts could force a mother to give up a child for adoption only if they could prove she was acting unreasonably. Now they need only decide it is in the child's welfare to make her hand it over. Social workers will be encouraged to use adoption rather than foster parents or children's homes. A struggling mother who keeps putting her children into care then taking them back when she can cope again could find the council trying to have them adopted. Some reforms strengthen the natural mothers rights-A baby will have to be six weeks old before it can be put up for adoption and the mother win have to be counselled before handing over a child so she understands foe decision and that it is hers to make.. Couples will find it easier to adopt children from South America, South East Asia and Eastern Europe under the proposals, which would alter immigration and nationality law to ensure that youngsters adopted from overseas can obtain British citizenship. There has been a surge in demand for foreign chfidren as abortion and the removal of stigma from single mother¬ hood has reduced the numbers of native babies available. Four years ago. only 61 youngsters from abroad were adopted. This year the total was Herbert Laming, chief inspector of the Social Services Inspectorate, has written to all councils idling them to let couples adppt children from parts of the world where their natural parents cannot cope. pp v7-.«• 3^ •; i: -a_ Leading article, page 19 Jim and Roma Lawrence thought they were an ideal couple for adopting a child JU ^ vtR - Pair defeated by ‘political bias’ A large selection of specially priced Ideal Home Exhibition suites now in every store v-' . < .> gt ’ ■ •♦ bui uni dell bat TE: [br legi ren mo* co [b]. by. plai bail R 3.Q WE THE APPI JUS THE 0 each; The I IW- THE Cana Send Ddiv 12 BSE: POLITICS THE TIMES FRIDAY MARCH 29 1996 ■ \u ... ■ in- ru»: f-birj’ :j.’ afoEk* "'b gp/;: r K/V .... kj^tp u£> THE TIME S FRIDAY MARCH 29 1996 _ « gall for‘Euro-friendly’attitude ;, EU leaders rally to Major with relief for beef disaster From Charles Brcmjver and Richard Owen in Turin EUROPE'S leaders will reas- BSE: TURIN SUMMIT 13 tiC- t] m 'tidl ■ 1 i sure John Major today that he can count on their largesse to soften the financial blow of Britain’s beef disaster but in meeting to launch the Maas¬ tricht review conference they will also make dear that they expect a more Euro-friendly approach from London. As Mr Major flew to Turin for the ceremonial opening of the year-long negotiations of the inter-governmental confer¬ ence, Germany followed France in promising to make sure special funds were cleared to help to staunch Britain’s losses. "Solidarity also means money over and above that which die EU would be obliged to pay in any case," said Karl Lamers, a powerful figure in the German parlia¬ mentary group. It was ‘'not always easy" to support the British, he added, but "quite apart from the psychological consequences of leaving Brit¬ ain alone, there would also be severe economic consequences that none of us would want". Lamberto Dim, the Italian Prime Minister, said dial he planned to discuss the emer¬ gency with Mr Major before the conference opens this morning. The whole of Europe was affected and "we must find a solution commensurate ‘with the gravity of the prob¬ lem", he added. ~ A decision at the leaders’ TURIN SUMMIT level will be required for Europe to release relief aid. Estimated at about El billion, the handout will knock a hole in the common agriculture policy budget. Before the emergency, Jacques San ter. President of the European Commission, had been aim¬ ing to persuade the 15 leaders to transfer spare cash from die agriculture budget to trans¬ port projects as a way of creating jobs. The beef crisis has altered the chemistry among the lead¬ ers as they gather. The quarantine has given physical form to Britain’s stark political isolation from most of the other 14 states on Europe's future. At the same time, in the view of many EU officials, it has made Britain beholden to the EU and demonstrated the worth of "solidarity" among members. Mr Major is expect¬ ed to raise the emergency as the first item this morning. Senior officials from conti¬ nental states said they were already detecting a gentler Veal tops the menu r Turin; The European Union leaders will be hracb- = mg on veal today, but their hosts insist ti will be from local Piedmont cattle [Rkb- ard Owen writes]. While die leaders are ' eating, al the Meriden Ho¬ tel next to the Iisgotto " Conference Centre, the For -'•jjpgn Ministers will also be eating a dish nude op of bcefas they lunch under the glass-domed “bubble’’ oil the roof of the Lragotto, the Flat car factory bufit In 1917, which still has its cartesting track on the roof. The heads of government wffl be served mixed vegeta¬ bles, followed fay aspara¬ gus, fillet of veal and wild fruits. The Foreign Minis¬ ters will eat bresaola, a dish of air-dried raw beef thinly sliced and served with ofl and lemon, followed by polenta garished with Fon~ tinaj-eheese. They wiD end ' them* meal with spurn a T sweet souffle made from three kinds of chocolate. style after .Britain was forced to apply to Brussels for eco¬ nomic help. Erik Dnydce, the Belgian Foreign Minister, . said that Britain had behaved in a "much more conciliatory” way at a foreign ministers’ meeting this week, lifting some abjections to giving the European Parliament an ob¬ servers* role ar the conference. Mr Major is expected, how- ever, to make his own plea for Euro-solidarity, urging col¬ leagues to lift the crippling ban on British beef exports. He is likely to receive a frosty response, given the anger which has swept the continent this week over what every other country sees as Britain’s . Inadequate response. Although Britain is the most isolated member as Europe starts renegotiating elements of the Maastricht treaty, other leaders also have conflicting positions. Wim Kok. the Dutch Prime Minister, for example, is barely do speak¬ ing terms with President Chirac as a result of the French leader's attacks on his country's drugs policy. Even the Franco-German pertnership is suffering strain. President Chirac has irked Bonn with his push for a separate European defence ar¬ rangement and his impas¬ sioned demand for the efforts of the EU to be devoted above all to creating jobs and protect¬ ing the “soda! rights" of its people. Bonn is wary of what sounds tike a reversion to French protectionist instincts. Italian officials were work¬ ing last night to smooth over national differences on the formal orders to be given to negotiators. Britain was con* cemed that the instructions had the makings of a federal agenda. The position paper of the Italian Government this week defined the IGCs goal as “fulfilling the federal vocation of the EU" at a time when it is heading towards a single cur¬ rency and a common foreign and defence policy. . Leading article, page 19 Letters, page 19 mi-mmsrnm ti n r An Italian police officer walking past the flags of EU states yesterday outside the centre in Turin where the inter-governmental conference is being held. About 5,000 police will handle security at the opening today Bonn offers cash to bolster unity From Roger Boyes in bonn GERMANY'S key European push forward with the strategists proposed yesterday Europol police network, to that extra funds should be formulate common European made available to help British immigration and asylum poll- farmers with blighted cattle. aes. to move doser towards Wolfgang Schauble—right- making die West European hand man to Helmut Kohl. Union the military arm of the Chancellor — and Karl Europe, and to build up the Lamers, his Fellow Christian powers of the European Democrat, were trying with Parliament their surprise offer to take the Over the past ten days sting out of the dispute be- Germany has allowed its inv tween Bonn and London over patience with Britain to sur- the future of Europe. face. Klaus Kinkel, the said he 1 Herr Schauble said that the was "disappointed and sad” crisis would demonstrate to that Britain was “simply the British that the European against any further steps to- Union is “essential in solving wards integration”, such problems”. Herr Lamers Yesterday David Davis, said: “Britain is in an unusual- Minister of State at the For- ly difficult situation. We do not eign Office, hit bade in a long want merely to impose bans article in the German press, but also to show solidarity "It does not help to assert that with Britain.” German views are correct and The two men. setting out the European, while Great Brit- German stall for the confer- ain’s views are incorrect and ence. made dear that Bonn’s lacking in vision. We, too, are aims have stayed constant: to - a European country with a extend majority voting, to Europe*.,l history ” NFU seeks to dictate agenda By Michael Hornsby, agriculture correspondent AS JOHN MAJOR seeks Eu¬ rope's help for his beleaguered beef industry in Turin, he is fighting on an agenda that is largely dictated by a bluff Nottinghamshire farmer. Sir David Naish, president of the National Fanners' Union, almost single-handed¬ ly forced the Government to abandon the dtvnothing policy announced by Stephen Dor- reli. the Health Secretary, in the Commons on Monday. Yesterday Sir David’s scouts were in Turin, in ad¬ vance of the European Union's inter-governmental Conference, seeking financial , support for action to salvage , the British beef industry. David Evans, the NFU*s director-general, met Walter Luchetti, the president of the European Union's Council of [ Agriculture Ministers, and se¬ cured agreement for an emer¬ gency session of the council next Monday in Brussels. It is ironic that it has taken proba¬ bly the greatest threat to farming this century to galvanise a body whose influ¬ ence has been shrinking for decades as control over agri¬ cultural policy moved to Brus¬ sels and the weight of the farming vote declined. Sir David, who runs a 1,100- acre sheep and arable farm at Budby in Nottinghamshire, became president of the NFU in 1991. His initial instinct was to keep a low profile over BSE. However, within hours of Mr Doreen's failure to announce 1 new measures on Monday, swiftly followed by the EU ban on British beef, the NFU convened a meeting of leading food retailers and manufac¬ turers, and got their backing for the destruction of caws at the end of their productive life. On Tuesday Mr Major was forced to admit that the Gov¬ ernment was actively consid¬ ering the NFU proposal. Threat by French to slaughter cattle Paris Cattle of British origin in France wfll be impounded and may be slaughtered, the Agriculture Ministry said yes¬ terday as the French beef market plunged again [Ben Matin tyre writes]. Responding to demands from French unions that no British beef be allowed to reach the domestic market. Philippe V'asseur, the Agricul¬ ture Minister, said that 70.000 British-born calves aged under six months would be rounded up and confined. A decision on whether to destroy them will be made on Monday. Stocks of frozen and fresh British beef in France will also be impounded. Germany to label ‘clean* stocks Bonn: All beef imported by Germany is to cany a certifi¬ cate declaring it does not come from Britain or Switzer¬ land [Roger Boyes writes]. Horst Seehofer, the Health Minister, said he was issuing the order in the absence of any firm European Union derision on the supervision and control of suspect cattle and beet Greece destroys imported meat Athens: Greek authorities im¬ pounded 40 tonnes of British beef around the country and ordered its destruction, after a 75-year-old man died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease [John Carr writes]. A second man is in a serious condition with the disease. An average of four people in Greece die of CJD every year without ft bring linked to BSE. Hong Kong ban Hong Kong: The import of British beef was banned by the Hong Kong Government yesterday. The move came after critics bad accused the administration of ducking the issue out of political motives and complaints by butchers that beef sales were falling. 14 OVERSEAS NEWS M Errors of Israel’s MIS condemned by Rabin inquiry From Christopher Walker in jerusaiem THE reputation of Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, was destroyed yes¬ terday by the state inquiry into tiie assassination of Yitzhak Rabin which accused it of in¬ competence and failure to come to grips with intelligence warnings that the late Prime Minister's life was threatened by far-right Jewish extremists. The report by the three-man commission led by Meir Shamgar, the former Chief Justice, was [me of the most damning published in the 48- year history of the Jewish state. It dismissed conspiracy theories surrounding alleged right-wing involvement inside the security services, but failed to convince all Israelis as 118 pages remained classified and were last night being studio! behind dosed doors by a select group of Cabinet ministers. As well as criticising Shin Bet, the equivalent of M15. and the performance of the Tel Aviv police who failed to pro¬ vide adequate protection at the peace rally where Mr Rabin was killed, the report also called on the “reborn state of Israel” to leant the lessons of 2.000 years of Jewish history and conduct “comprehensive soul-searching", especially in its education system, to pre¬ vent inter-Jewish violenoe. “Our findings and conclu- sions... reflect the conceptual and operational flaws in many areas, and a weakness in the management ailtirre of gov¬ ernment authorities.” the re¬ port concluded, after hearing 72 witnesses at 61 sessions, most of them in secret "In this respect, this report serves as a signpost and a warning for many other institutions-” The publication of the re¬ port a day after Yiga] Amir. Rabin's unrepen tent Jewish murderer, was sentenced to life imprisonment, coincided with warnings from Shimon Peres, the assassinated lead¬ ers successor, that there were still right-wing Jewish threats against his life and a similar daim by Rabin's closest aide, Eitan Haber, in an artide which shocked many Israelis. “Yigal Amir is not just one. Among us live more citizens who think like him. who speak the same hollow cliches, who have pistols but no inhibi¬ tions.” Mr Haber wrote. The commission exposed the inability of the Shin Bet director, who has resigned, and those under him to grasp the significance of a potential right-wing threar against Ra¬ bin, although he had been labelled a “traitor'’ and “mur¬ derer” by right-wing Jews angry that he was handing bade parts of Eretz Israel [the biblical land of Israel] to the Palestinians under the 1993 peace accord. “Many people and many protected VIPs at¬ tended the [November 4j rally. It took place at a time of real risks of attack from extremist Arab terror organisations and of sharpened threats of an attack against the Prime Min¬ ister by a Jewish assailant,” the report stated. The com¬ mission determined that the threat of a Jewish assailant was not sufficiently empha¬ sised by the bodyguards.” Carmi Gilon, the former Shin Bet chief, said last night he accepted responsibility, but daimed the commission had not dealt adequately with the difficulties of preventing at¬ tacks by Jewish extremists. □ Palestinians held: Israeli forces continued their crack¬ down against Islamic extrem¬ ists. arresting almost 400 Palestinian students from Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, in an operation that restricted raids to areas still under control of the Jewish state [Ross Dunn writes]. Most of those arrested in the predawn swoop originated from the Gaza Strip, strong¬ hold of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement The university administra¬ tion condemned the arrests as an “unprovoked, indiscrimi¬ nate and illegal invasion” of the villages where the students live. Yassir Arafat the Pales¬ tinian Authority president ac¬ cused Israel of violating peace agreements. T HE TIMES FRIDAY MARCH 29 1996 Clinton* mired in abortion Mrs Clinton and Chelsea admire the Blue Mosque in Istanbul yesterday before flying to Greece last night Chelsea steals the foreign roadshow By Martin Fletcher IF President Clinton believes his wife, Hillary, too much of an electoral liability to campaign for Him this autumn he should send his 16-yearold daughter in her place. Chelsea Clinton is accompanying her mother on her trip to Europe and winning the same glowing reviews at home that she garnered when the two women toured Asia. She has shown “poise, confidence, good humour and her father’s gift for the gab”, said one journalist. Yesterday she and her mother went on a guided sightseeing tour of Topkapi palace, constructed between the 15th and 19th centuries, and saw Turkey’s rich religious heritage at the Blue Mosque, the most beautiful in Istanbul They also visited the Hagia Sofia museum, a Christian basilica built by the Byzantine emperor Jus tinian. The tour followed a private meeting with Tansu Ciller, the former Prune Minister. Chelsea and Mrs Clinton were due in Athens last night • This stylish Neapolitan bedroom is available in a wide variety of colours and with a choice of 5 different trims it will suit any colour scheme. Even with a sloping ceiling, expert installation is free. 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From selected department stores and china specialists. *RRP fingof nfaun Anted Staa. 70020 1 I I r ■ l Philip Howard ■ Politicians may strut— but they are not the real movers and shakers T he movers and shakers have flocked like pigeons to the handsome old diy of Turin for their inter-governmental conference. Jim Naughtie will almost cer¬ tainly refer to them on the Today pro¬ gramme, with a touch of pawky sarcasm, as movers and shakers. And we may reflect through the shaving-soap that m. and s. are not what they used to be in the days when the leaders of governments were giants whose faces and voices were recognisable. This modem assembly of grey men in grey suits consists of anonymous mooers and quakers. “Movers and shakers" has become so fashionable a cliche that it scores more than a thousand references in the British national press database for the past year. They can be found in every activity from international statesmanship to English cricket administra¬ tion, Washington celebrity hostesses and concrete sculpture, lists of movers and shakers proliferate, and those not on the A list of Oscar parties or die Whitehall file of great and good feel excluded and envious. And the joke is that the modem use is the exact opposite of the original meaning. Arthur O’Shaughnessy. the forgotten poet was referring to music-makers and dream¬ ers of dreams: “World-losers and world- forsakers./ On whom the pale moon gleams:/ We are the movers and shakers/ Of the world for ever, it seems “It seems" is a weak ending, but necessary for the rhyme. O’Shaughnessy. a riptide wet romantic and friend of Rossetti and other Pre- Raphaelites, was making the paradox that poets are the true legislators rather than the | politicians who strut and fret their hour I upon the screen and then become yesterday's men and Mr Whos. He was not making an original point. Hard-up poets have always pretended so, from Horace declaring that warlords such as Agamemnon are remem¬ bered only because of the bards who tell their story, to Hardy asserting that the old man harrowing dods and the maid and her wight [he sounded twee even then] had a longer shelf-life than Dynasties passing. W ithin the past few years, the m. and sandwich has been grabbed and turned topsy-turvy. The process started, as with much new language, in American politics: “The rich movers and shakers always manage to manipulate the Congress for their own benefit and screw the rest of us.” And from there movers and shakers have taken over the stock of common rhetoric on this side of the Atlantic, are becoming a laughing-stock, and. in the usual pattern, will soon die of shame. H.W. Fowler called such common errors “misapprehensions of which many writers need to disabuse themselves". Ones that are too recent to have incurred his rebuke are the delusion that prevaricate means to put off until mahana instead of to walk and thence to behave crookedly: and the belief that an unlevel playing field gives an advantage to me side. They change sides at half-time, and to play up a slight slope slows the ball down so that your wingers can run on to it The dassic misapprehension is that “one touch of Nature makes the whole world kin" means, roughly, that fellow-feeling makes us all kind to each other. But Troilus and Cressida is cynical, not sentimental, about politics and love. What Shakespeare meant was that a certain tendency is natural to us all, viz. fickleness. CShaughnessy made himself an expert in herpetology at the British Museum, when he was not composing romantic poetry. Natu¬ ralists with zoological degrees were at first offended but then persuaded. Today he is remembered just for his verse about movers and shakers. And so he joins the select band of poets remembered [or just one verse. Dean Burgon is another, with “A rose-red city, half as old as Tune!" And he borrowed “half as old as Time!” from Samuel Rogers. Anti-Romantics mock O’Shaughnessy’S Movers and Shakers as the ultimate in Victorian escapism, along with Childe Roland to the Dari fe Tower Came, The Lady of Shalott, Byron, Keats. Shelley, et aL Movers and shakers are misapprehended to butter up strutters on the ephemeral stage. But music-makers are closer to real poetry than the too-clever verses of Pope, the poet for those who do not understand poetry. Saving Europe from itself T he United Kingdom has often had to save Europe by her exertions. Today we must save Europe by our exhortations. We are facing a breakdown of British diplomacy. The diplomatic establish¬ ment is unable to see the threat of European Union dearly enough. It does not find the words and deeds to rally other European countries to our cause. It must do so before it is too late. It is far from reassuring to be told that “we are winning the argument" or that “Europe is going our way" when we face summit after inter-governmental confer¬ ence and paper after meeting where the Franco-German integrationist band¬ wagon rolls on. Chancellor Kohl makes no secret of his intentions. He wants monetary union. The price for that monetary union is political union. What can political union mean unless it means a centralised European state in the German federal image? Germany wants one flag, one curren¬ cy, one foreign policy, one set of border controls, one anthem, one Parliament, one economy and one social policy for Western Europe. Anyone else would call that one state. It is a dear vision. Some bdieve that it would make us more secure and more prosperous. If I thought that, I would find it very attractive. The trouble is that it is likely to cause the opposite: more insecurity, more rows and tensions, fewer jobs. The case for monetary union has rarely been made in Britain. In Germany and France the case against is treated as some kind of leprosy which the sceptical voters must be kept away from. We can see the strains that preparations for monetary union have already caused. A major diplomatic inddent was sparked when Germany . stated the obvious, that Italy would not qualify. The dole queues are lengthening across the Continent as economies are drawn out on the rack of overvalued currendes necessitated by the Maas¬ tricht treaty rules. The United Kingdom had a bitter experience of preparing for monetary union while she was in the exchange rate mechanism, the necessary precursor of a single currency according to the treaty. The single currency would require higher taxation to pay subsidies to the poorer parts of the Union. Just as Britain recognises our obligations to help Northern Ireland in our currency union, so we would have to help John Redwood accuses British diplomacy of ignoring the threat to peace and liberty posed by Franco-German federalism Brandenburg and northeastern France if we were in a currency union with them, lr would cause unemployment. Parts of the Union would find the exchange rales and interest rates not to their liking but would be unable to do anything about it Britain has a mighty dollar trade. When we were in the ERM this was damaged by too high an exchange rate against the dollar. The same could happen to us if we ex¬ changed sterling for the euro. If countries are to move to single foreign policies, single armies and common frontiers they have to feel part of one nation. West Germany unified with East Germany in a hurry. It was very expensive, raising West German taxes by 7.5 per cent of taxed incomes and causing a big rise in unemployment in East Germany. It is possible that people put up with it because they are one nation. They share all but their recent history, they speak one language, they fed German. Trying to put France, Germany and even Britain together would have none of that natural sense of nationhood to fell bade on. A sense of belonging matters. I will never feel loyalty to a government where Germany has the most powerful voice. Nor will I fed suffidently European to accept the authority of a European flag and government over my loyalty to my country, the UK. I speak for marty millions who feel the same about their countries. I resent the idea that belief in my country threatens the peace of Europe. Britain has no imperial ambi¬ tions in Europe and is not about to declare war on our neighbours. W e are told that Britain is being difficult by making these elementary points. We are told that Britain must not hold things up. We must not miss out If I joined a dub I would, of course, wish to enjoy the benefits of membership. I do not want to spend all my time in club meetings arguing about perpetual changes to the rules. It is those who are never satisfied with the ar¬ rangements that are disrupting it all, not us who wish it to calm down and prove its worth as a friendly group of countries trading together. My worry is that the kind of Europe Herr Kohl wishes io create will be an unemployed and miserable Europe, where identity and nationhood will have been suppressed too much and there will be endless wrangles as a result 1 do not want to live in a federal state with 30 or 40 unhappy Quebecs all trying to get out Nato has kept the peace in Western Europe for 50 years. There is no need to change the arrangements that have worked so well There would be a danger in disrupting them, especially if it jeopardised US support During the long hard years of the Cold War. US involvement was essential to the preser¬ vation of our freedam- Today we see Russia trying the paths of democracy and peaceful intent Let us hope it remains that way. There are now several nuclear weapons’ powers where once stood the Soviet Union- If any one of them turned to tyranny and became hostile to the West we could need the American nuclear umbrella again to guarantee our peace. If we move too far in strengthening the Western European exclusive dub the countries of the fanner Soviet Union could find that threatening. I do not think Western Europe would be safer for a defence merger of France and Germany. It would unbalance Europe. It would mark the failure of a long and honourable tradition of British foreign policy, to keep a balance of power on the Continent. The big issue today is whether the European supreme court, the Court of Justice, is compatible with our vision of a free association of nation states. Are that Court's recent judgments a fair reflection of the treaty and the intentions of the members when they signed? I do not believe they are. We negotiated an opt-out to the social chapter in good faith, only to be told that the Court will override it We passed an Act of Parliament to safeguard our fishing interests, only to be told that it counted for nothing. Parliament and the British nation must awaken from their slum¬ bers before it is too late. We must assert the rights of the UK to stand by our view of what we have agreed. Our right to self-government hinges upon the su¬ premacy of Acts of Parliament If law is to be handed down by unknown judges in a far-away court we have lost our right of democratic redress. Parliament is no stranger to struggles to uphold our liberties. In the 16th century, a simple Act of Parliament swept aside the jurisdiction of the Roman courts in England and Wales. Doubtless die equivalent of Foreign Office lawyers told the King h could not be done, it would violate European law. He did it and it worked. I n the 17th century, Charles I tried to rule without Parliament The imp osition of Ship Money caused a < constitutional crisis. The King said he could raise it without parliamentary approval. Ifarliament disagreed, and eventually won in the Restoration settle¬ ment- Today a foreign court is levying its own kind of Ship Money, idling us that we have to pay compensation to Spanish fishermen from our taxation, whether Parliament wants to or not Our whole history is the history of expanding the franchise and increasing the rights of voters to a say in how they are governed through a sovereign Parliament The growth of unelected power in the European institutions is a serious threat to our settled constitution. It must be arrested before it gets out of control We should stay in Europe for trade, for friendship, for co-operation. We must influence Europe for tire better. We must rally all those who disagree with Chancellor Kohl’s vision. We must speak for all those who wish to keep democratic selFgovernment We must say that a single state forged out of the different languages, tempers, histories and cultures of tire European peoples cannot work. We must show that there is a different and better way, a way that looks outward, thinks globally and welcomes the new technology that can keep us prosperous in a fast¬ changing world. A Euro-state with too much law and tax from Brussels would cut us off from the opportunities that the world and its dynamic changes offer. It is time for Britain to save Europe from itself. John Redwood is Conservative MP for Wokingham. TH E TIMES FRIDAY MARCH 29 1996 Blairites, should be puritans David Selboume on Labour and the moral order G iven the scale of Britain civic and social crisis—in education, in family breakdown, in person¬ al isolation, in the forms of violence, in the mistaken dispersal of public institu¬ tions to the market—what kind of moral regime is required of an incoming Labour administration? First, the recurring qdes of national ethical disgrace, media frenzy, heroic acts of dedication, the placing of flowers at the scene of crime and a return to moral relativism [and despair] signify that something is seriously wrong. The largest doubt here must be whether Labour's adopted notion of “stake- holding" —whatever it may mean—can restore our civic balance and redeem us as citizens. Secondly, the rabble of moral relativ¬ ists which cron dies, vulture-like, upon the body politic, denying thai right can properly be distinguished from wrong, is a greater presence among Labour’s supporters than elsewhere in the polit¬ ical spectrum. Here, new Labour has a fight on its hands if it is to provide a sense of direction in the wilderness which has been made of our lives by 23 y*> vacuous doctrines of “opportunity” and “choice". In most ethical matters there cannot, in practice, be “choice". But if d* even the bishops of the atrophying I X Church of England think there must be, J I I Labour is unlikely to be braver.
B I I Thirdly, the liberal mind draws back «/ from most morally necessary acts which require the curtailment of individual freedom. Yet Karl Popper, the greatest n from their slum- exponent of modern liberal thought, was late. We must assert in despair at his life's end over the to stand by our view corruption of the liberal ideal, even greed. Our right to declaring himself trenchantly in favour lges upon the su- of the censorship of television. -Tv ‘ • i j*r “TT Te have need of liberty.’ he \f\f said in 1988, “in order to t V prevent the abuse by the State of its power, and we have need of the State to prevent the abuse of liberty.” But the tide of televisual and video violence continues to rise above our nostrils, applauded on its way by comfortable amoralists. Here the liber¬ tarian Right and Left occupy the same cul-de-sac, in which liberty is equated with unimpeded freedom of action. In consequence, both lose the right to criticise die anti-ethical behaviour cf others. Free market fundamen talisirer violent sacrilege against nature, and even royal self-destructiveness are all expressions of the same suicidal “free spirit” and individual entitlement which the libertarian camp wrongly thinks are synonymous with freedom. In this camp, and it is a large one, is also the great tribe of cynics and scoffers—many with access to the media — for whom any moral argument whatever is ab¬ surd, stiffnecked or "old-fashioned". Fourthly, the most assiduous lobby¬ ists in Labours ranks continue to be more exercised about individual rights than individual duties. They are also generally unable to accept the concept of the “bad citizen", for fear of giving class offence. Connected with this is the disproportionate attention which they wish to see paid to minorities—and rally to same minorities at that — rather than to the common civic good. A Labour administration is going to have to break these spells if social peace and personal liberty are to be safeguard¬ ed. It is a puritan, or Roundhead, ethic which die nation needs, not soft toys left at the site of each act of violence while a helpless citizenry weeps. N or is such a puritan ethic compatible with a continuance of flie fire sales of public institutions which hold the dvic fabric together. Labour will have to put a stop to them and reverse those that can be reversed. It will have to be stern, too, in its encouragement and defence of the marriage bond. In particular, civic obligation will have to be enforced, and the varieties of individual and civic irresponsibility will need to be better controlled by sanction. Labour will need to stand firm alike against duty-dodging parents, trouble- makmg tenants, work-avoiding claim¬ ants and the tax-evading rich, not so that ^liberalism shall rule the land but so that the long, disastrous reign of dutiless right can be displaoed by a soda! ethic. It is also important that dvic benefit becomes more closely linked to dvic conduct that the scope of personal responsibilities be extended in law and that community service be increasingly made a title of access to dvic goods. For citizenship is a matter of duty as well as of right If Labour were to enforce this, then the lost idea of die dvic order might begin to revive. It should be noted by “the Left” that this political agenda is “progressive”, being in the interests of all: the peddling of an indiscriminate politics of rights and more rights - the politics of Charter 88 and other lobbies — benefits the Few while imperilling the future. For dvic society requires above all to be protected, as the massacre of Dunblane shews: the “right" to carry a gun stands at the opposite pole to that of public interest B ut so also do many rther rights m soaeties which have kart the other [and for nature] and the better and the worse. It is time, rather fora generalised politics of dvic md g^^iwpMBibflity which is sus- Sw **U?™ 310 " so the moral 5 bS - and ii looks as if wilt feu to Labour to attempt it. No sweat SOMETHING is afoot among Parliament’s marathon runners. Most years, you can rely on eight or nine MPs pulling on then- trainers for the London Mara¬ thon, to take place next month. This year, they are down to one. Excuses range from slipped discs and sciatica to pressure of work. Sceptics say die party whips are terrified of any MP keeling over and forcing a by-election. Robin Cook and Gare Short head the list of cop-outs, in January, they appeared outside the Houses of Parliament in their running togs, encouraging over¬ fifties to run the marathon. Now Miss Short's office tells me the all¬ smoking. ali-drinking Shadow Transport Secretary has been too busy to train. Cook’s staff say their man never really planned to go the full 26 miles himself but in true Labour fashion, was keen for others to do so. Of the other regulars. Doug Henderson, Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne North, pleads a sports injury. Alistair Burt Conservative MP for Buiy North, has his eye on the New York Marathon instead. Jeny Hayes, Conservative MP for Har¬ low, has slipped a disc, while Gary Waller, Conservative MP for Keighley, claims “a spot of back trouble after an operation and some fll-advised squash" has sty¬ mied his run. Alan Michael. Labour MP for Cardiff South, goes for the Short excuse of a heavy workload. Which leaves John “tite car bo-loader" Austin- Walker, Labour MP for Wool¬ wich. The marathon passes Robin Cook and Clare Short among this year's non-starters through his constituency and al¬ though he has not put in the requisite hours of street-pounding, he does expect to finish. • /n Buckinghamshire, a mad pub scare. The Red Cow in Woobum Green, a 14th0 am Edinburgh 6.4B pm to 548 am Manchester B3B pm to 5.47 am Penzance 650 pm to 6.03 am □ General: England and Wales will be dry with some earty mist or fog. Easternmost counties may have the odd fight shower of rain or sleeL Winds will be moderate or fresh, mainly northerly but tending to swing northeasterly. Temperatures will be a little below normal. Scotland and Northern Ireland win have sunny intervals and showers, falling as snow in the mountains. Winds will be fresh and temperatures below normal. □ London, SE England, Central S England, Central N England, E Midlands, W Midlands, Channel Isles, SW England, S Wales: any earty log will dear. Sunny spells. Wind moderate, north to northeasterly. Max 9C, 48F. □ E AngBa, E England, NE Eng¬ land, Borders, Edinburgh & Dundee: sunny intervals with some sled or snow showers. Wind mod¬ erate to fresh, northerly. Max 6 C, 43F. □ N Wales, NW England, Lake District, Isle of Man, SW Scotland, Glasgow, Argyll, N Ireland: clear or sunny spells, wind moderate, north to northeasterly. Max 8 C, 46F. □ Aberdeen, Central Highlands, Moray Firth, NE Scotland, NW Scotland, Orkney, Shetland: sunny intervals and showers JaJBng as snow over the mountains. Wind northerly, fresh to strong. Max. 5C, 41F. □ Outlook: little change. Overnight frosts with a risk of showers in the East. 9=9* h Rain Max Sot Rah Max Its h C F In C h Abentom 35 0.15 A 43 Si uwsMjfcja 9.0 0.02 6 43 70 38 0.01 030 S 5 48 41 sh sh Manchester 1.6 93 300 9 6 48 43 Befiast 54 0.01 B 4H sh Moracambe £1 306 9 48 69 9 48 sh Newcastle 2A 007 7 45 BogrtorR 60 X 0.05 0.07 a 9 46 48 s s KK. 37 23 0.0? X 7 X 46 Bristol fi.7 » 48 s Oxford 63 9 48 06 0 13 s 41 an Penzance 33 0.11 6 43 CsnHB 31 8 48 sh Poole 35 o.oe 7 4b 90 0Q2 5 41 e Prestatyn X a Mi 83 304 0 43 s Roewnye 62 u 48 EZJ 0.0* s 43 b Safcombe 43 O.TO 6 43 105 309 « 43 s Safcombo 43 310 6 43 1.8 0.11 6 43 b Smdown 43 006 « 43 52 a 46 b SeunmSnd 72 a 46 55 007 10 50 b oWlDOfO 2.4 001 5 41 Qumtaey 85 O.I2 i 45 s Stwswsbury 40 9 48 Hsskm Harrw Bay 34 39 004 004 Q 5 43 41 3 3 Skegness Southend 38 76 301 0.03 5 5 41 41 6.8 304 a 46 2 Southport 45 9 Hunstanton 104 002 5 41 & 61 Dfracombte X X 9 48 f Stornoway 5.4 022 Into or Mm 39 002 9 48 sh Swansea 44 308 Jmiay 90 0.11 a 46 3 Tekyi mouth 79 309 G KWoss 1 9 0.17 a 46 Sh Time 4.6 Unrick 33 0.17 6 43 h Torquay 63 Lmxfaa LhfWpool 69 42 9 9 48 48 b s Tynemouth Venhor 27 5.6 0XH 0.07 7 45 London 55 9 48 sh Weymouth 86 309 8 43 h b b sh b sh Times Two Crossword, page 48 Mra. wl lllcj iSP riJWjTbulkPn In *T ; V vV LONDON TO PARIS from £70 eturri f . i ‘ V”; 5 . 117*. I17S J*. » AM? 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