The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 4

BMA Few cloudy patches mar the Tories' clear blue sky The parliamentary Boundary Commissioners have redrawn the electoral map of Britain. The next general election will be fought, by most candidates, on unfamiliar terrain fewer than one in ten constituencies are untouched by the redistribution of voters into more equable, adrninistratively convenient divisions. Well established MPs have suddenly found themselves in charge of strangely-named, newly-marginal seats, while some lucky outsiders are now in with a chance of election. The professional party managers, meanwhile, are in a turmoil of calculation. Over the next few weeks, Guardian reporters will examine the new political map, region by region, detailing the changes, assessing the balance of party advantage, and looking at particular politicians with particular problems.

Today, Derek Brown looks at the Conservative redoubt of the southern home counties Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. Pieces in the new election jigsaw Peggy Fenner (above left) defends.Medway against the former Rochester MP, Bob Bean (above right). Kenneth Baker (below left) has his eyes on the Dorking seat of Keith Wickenden (below centre), who is quitting Parliamentary politics, while Richard Luce (below right), defends Shoreham into Hastings, and will be defended by Mr Kenneth Warren. East Grinstead loses the eponymous town and becomes Wealden, under the continuing stewardship of Mr Geoffrey Johnson Smith. A slightly contracted Lewes stays with Mr Tim Rathbone, and a similarly foreshortened Eastbourne (which used to be a bright Liberal prospect) stays with Mrs Thatcher's parliamentary secretary, Mr Ian Gow.

The two Brighton seats, Kemptown and Pavilion, are virtually unchanged, and Hove sails on untouched. Mr Andrew Bowden, Mr Julian Amery, and Mr Tim Sains-bury are thought safe enough, though the notoriously Left Labour Party in Kemptown (Tory majority 16.5 per cent) will doubtless put up a stiff challenge. West Sussex is the likeliest source of surprises. Crawley, nestling in the very heart of the Conservative heartland, has consistently voted for a Labour new town council, though the party vote is evenly balanced a regional oddity in which is reflected the Conservatives' difficulty, so far, in finding a candidate. The sitting member for Horsham and Crawley, Mr Peter Hordern, has wisely opted for the Horsham end of the seat, where he is likely to score a whopping majority.

Equally safe are Mr Anthony Nelson, in the unchanged seat of Chichester, Mr Tim Renton, in the revised seat of Mid-Sussex, and Mr Michael Marshall, in the scaled-down seat of Arundel. Alliance hopes rest on Shoreham, which loses a large Tory patch in the north (to Horsham) and takes in a smaller Tory one to the west (from Arundel), and which includes strong Liberal territory in the district of Adur. Mr Richard Luce, the junior Foreign Office minister who resigned with Lord Carring-ton over the Falklands invasion, is the defending MP. Forming the yolk in the fried egg of Shoreham, so to speak, is the town of Worthing, where the Liberals also have some hopes of building on a strong local council presence. There the sitting MP is Mr Terence Higgins, with a majority around the same as Mr Luce's at 37.1 per cent.

In all the region, all parties admit, national swings of earthquake proportions will probably be needed to shift more than half a dozen seats out of Conservative hands. Humphrey Atkins, who has a 29.6 per cent lead. All the other Conservative MPs, save one. are staying on to fight seats either unchanged or marginally altered. They are Mr Geoffrey Pattie (Chertsey and Walton) Mr Archibald Hamilton (Epsom and Ewell) Mr Carol Mather (Esher) Mr Maurice Mac-millan (South-West Surrey, formerly Farnham) Mr Michael Grylls (North-West Surrey) Mr George Gardiner and Mr Cran-ley Onslow (Woking).

The intriguing exception is the old seat of Dorking, now transformed by the excision of bits of Tory Esher, and the inclusion of bits of Tory Epsom and Ewell, into the similarly safe Conservative division of Mole Valley. The Dorking incumbent, Mr Keith Wickenden, enjoys a majority of nearly 20,000 over the Liberals, with a Tory vote of 61.4 per cent, and a colossal majority of 41.8 per cent. Not surprisingly, his decision to bow out of parliamentary politics has provoked a gold rush in the party. Mr Kenneth Baker, the technology minister at the Department of Industry, whose St Marylebone seat disappears, is regarded as the front runner. Kent is not quite so cosy.

In the north, with the closure of the Royal Navy dockyard at Chatham, and on the east coast, where there is a traditionally strong Labour and Liberal base, drastic boundary changes have transformed the Conservative outlook from cast iron to merely safe and in some cases, wobbly. Labour hopes are focused on the three Medway seats of Dartford, Gravesham (the odd new name for Grave-send), and Medway itself (a concoction of Gravesend, and Rochester and Chatham). It was in this patch that the Conservatives made three gains in 1979, wiping Labour off the south-eastern map. But now the Government candidates will be defending marginal majorities, and the boundary changes, though not profoundly significant in changing the character of the three seats, could disrupt the organisational pattern, and the voters' perceptions, enough to tip the balance. For example, the 1979 victor in Rochester and Chatham, Mrs Peggy Fenner, is defending the new seat of Medway against the former Rochester MP, Mr Bob Bean, who still has a personal vote in the area.

Indeed, all three main parties acknowledge THE present political colour of south-east England resembles a particularly devilish jigsaw consisting entirely of sky. On a sunny day, at that it's all blue. The four pleasant counties of Kent, Surrey, and the two Sussexes, East and West, returned 40 members in May 1979. Every one was Conservative. Next time there will be 42 members, including 12 for safe Tory constituencies with unchanged boundaries.

Of the 30 others in the Boundary Commission's new picture, most have been built up with pieces of the brightest blue. They could do no other throughout the region in 1979 the Conservatives won 58.1 per cent of the vote Labour 22.6 per cent, and the Liberals 18.3 per, cent. Yet here and there cloudy patches have intruded. The ever-marginal Medway towns of north Kent, for example, have had a gentle shove from the commissioners, and could topple back to Labour on the most modest anti-Government swing. And there is a distinct sunset tinge over the Sussex new town of Crawley, which has a strong Labour majority on the local council, and is now shorn its rural The outlook for the Liberal-SDP Alliance is uncertain.

The Liberals came second in 17 out of 40 contests last time, and the Alliance has high hopes, where their organisation is strong, of squeezing the Labour loyalist vote. But there is an awesome amount of leeway to make up, and they have been given little hope by the commissioners, except in isolated places. One of the Alliance's most hopeful prospects is the much hacked-about seat of Shoreham, on the Sussex coast, which takes in Liberal-controlled Adur district council, and which loses a large chunk of countryside on the north side of the Downs. In Surrey, where the Conservatives took 59.4 per cent of the total vote last time, there is an especially dense thicket of senior Conservatives. The Chancellor, Sir Geoffrey Howe, is sitting on a whacking majority of 43.1 per cent in the reassuringly unchanged and unchanging constituency of East Surrey.

The Transport Secretary, Mr David Howell, will hardly be troubled by minor boundary changes in Guildford, where he has a 36 per cent majority. Spelthorne, unchanged, will provide a safe haven for the former Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr THE SEATS SHUFFLE Peter Rees, has a comparatively slender majority of 13 per cent, and. with the Kent coalfield and a strong Labour base in the constituency he will have to fight to maintain it. To the soutn again lies Folkestone and Hythe, unchanged by the Boundary Commission, and with a handsome Tory majority of 32.3 per cent, ruffled only by the presence of an historical Liberal base unusual in this part of the country. The sitting MP, Mr Albert Costain, is stepping down, and the Tory banner will be carried by a newcomer, Mr Michael Howard.

Elsewhere in Kent the Conservatives look impregnable. Throughout the county in 1979 they took 54.5 per cent of the vote, with Labour, concentrated in the northern and eastern seats, costs 70 and takes up to a year. Mr Waddington revealed yesterday that a profit of over 30 per cent is made on each registration, which costs only 52, following recent productivity improvements. He was reminded by Labour members of the committee that Commonwealth citizens eligible for registration are often hit worse than others by unemployment and poverty. Mrs Shirley Littler, the civil servant in charge of the Immigration and Nationality Department, explained that last year's increases were based on assessments of costs and that many voters still think of him as their MP.

The 1979 winners in Dart-ford and Gravesend, Mr Robert Dunn and Mr Tim Brinton, will also be staying on to defend their new patches against a strong Labour challenge. To the east, the new, slightly expanded seat of Gil-lingham is also a Labour hope, and has a new Conservative candidate, Mr James Couchman. He inherits a safe-looking majority of more than 20 per cent, but will have to work hard to garner the personal vote built up by the long-serving MP Mr Fred Burden, who is retiring. Further round the coast, at Dover and Deal, Labour hopes have been raised by the incorporation of the northern slice ojt the scat into the new seat of Thanet South. The present MP, Mr Blunder of 3m profit on citizenship fees Four on run from 'overcrowded' gaol warns on students used as doctors By Andrew Veltch Medical students arc beins pressured to stand in for quali- neu doctors oy Hospital authorities so short of cash that they cannot afford to hire locums, it was ciannea yesieraay.

The practice is dangerous for patients, and since the students are not supervised it is illegal, warned Dr Mike Rees, chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee. His warnings followed reports at a BMA students committee meeting that a second year student, acting as a locum for a senior house officer, took out a patients's tonsils. Two students are being sued by the relatives of dead patients for allegedly acting as doctors. Dr Aubrey Bristow, of King's College Hospital, London, who has conducted a survey of hospitals in which students have acted as locums, has found that they were used to diagnose illnesses and initiate treatment. Dr Vivienne Nathanson, a member of the junior doctors committee, has warned "Sooner or later a student is going to be taken to court and charged with impersonating a doctor and with manslaughter.

Dr Bristow's report is being sent to the Department of Health, and the British Medical Association has called for an investigation. "We are very concerned," a Department of Health spokeswoman said. Hospital authorities were warned in Department of Health circulars in 1971 and 1972 that students should not act as locums, must not sign prescriptions for dangerous drugs, and should only undertake clinical work under the close supervision of a qualified doctor. Lack of money is causing the problem, said Dr Rees yesterday, hospitals have to appoint locums when doctors are away on study leave, but the authorities are saving cash by using students instead. In some instances they are not paying the students at all, in other cases the students are paid by the doctors themselves," he said.

He added: "Students who are put under pressure by hospital authorities and senior doctors are in no position to say But they must sav "There is no doubt that students especially in London where there is a concentration of hospitals, a great need for locums, and a large population of students are being required to do things which they are not qualified to do. This is dangerous." Dr Rees warned: Students have been carrying out a large number of practices, including signing for drugs, which should only be carried out be qualified practitioners. It goes on all over the country. The Department of Health added last night that they would investigate the claims if details were provided. A spokeswoman added It is the responsibility of the consultant to ensure that a patient receives proper care." Medical unions seek own review By John Ardill, Labour Correspondent Unions outside the TUC which represent members of the professions supplementary to medicine in the National Health Service have told the Government that they do not want to be covered by the same pay review body as nurses, midwives and health visitors.

Two of the main nursing unions, the Royal College of Nursing and the TUC-affilialed National Union of Public Employees, have taken the same line. The Government's recent consultative document suggests one body for both groups and promised review bodies to both groups as a part of last year's pay settlement. The Federation of Professional Organisations, which is not affiliated to the TUC, covers most of the 50,000 physiotherapists, radiographers and others. It believes its members will be submerged and overlooked if they are put under the same body as the nurses. Mr Phil Gray, Industrial relations spokesman for the federation, said yesterday that there were eight different, unrelated professions in the group.

Studying their pay would be a complex matter which should be taken on its own. The federation also wants a third of the review body to be appointed from a panel of knowledgeable persons nominated by staff organisations. The Government has said that members of the body should not be connected with the professions. Boy's well death A four-year-old boy, Warren Montgomery, of Farnham, Surrey, was killed when he fell into a well in Alton, Hampshire, yesterday. By Stephen Cook A hint that the Government might be prepared to reduce the fees charged for acquiring British citizenship was given to a Commons select committee yesterday by Mr David Wadd-ington, the Minister in charge of immigration at the Home Office.

The increase in fees last April has produced a profit of over 3 million this year, although the declared aim is only to cover the costs of the service. Naturalisation costs 200 and takes over two years. Automatic registration for certain Commonwealth citizens taking 29.8 per cent, and the Liberals coming a poor third with 15.1 per cent. Sussex is more promising territory for the Alliance, though it has the most intimidating Conservative stranglehold in all the region Government candidates took 58.1 per cent of the vote in East Sussex in 1979, and a colossal 60.5 per cent in West Sussex. There are major boundary revisions in East Sussex none likely to affect radically the outcome of the election but most sitting MPs are staying on.

The exception is Mr Godman Irvine, who is standing down in Rye, most of which is transformed into the pleasantly named Bexhill and Battle, and which will probably be fought for the Tories by Mr Charles War-die. Rye itself and the surrounding coastal country goes numbers of applications which turned out to be wrong for a variety of reasons. The committee heard that one of the costs was for police time in investigating the good character of applicants for naturalisation or discretionary registration, although the money is not refunded to police. This cost varies from 355 in Greater Manchester to 116 in Sussex. Mr Waddington said the variation was extraordinary and caused him anxiety.

He said he would be grateful for the committee's suggestions on how to iron out the discrepancies, for example through more faces being sent back to Iran they could come back to England to settle witli their children. But now they can't get out themselves." A spokesman for the Home Office confirmed yesterday that formal refusal to remain in Britain had now been issued to the six-year-old. Under the immigration rules, he could only remain in Britain if he was properly registered at an in-dependent school with the fees fully paid. The spokesman said that there had been "insufficient grounds" to justify allowing the child to be educated at the state's expense. The Wyatts, who lost their only child at birth, are too old to adopt the younger child, Ali and say that they can only afford to keep the older boy Kambiz at a private school in Paignton.

By Aileen Ballantyne Police were carrying out an extensive search last night for four youths who escaped from Bedford prison, where staff are in the middle of an industrial dispute over overcrowding. The youths, who were awaiting trial, escaped by sawing through the bars of their cell, tying eight bed sheets together, and climbing 20ft down to the prison yard below. They then broke into a contractor's yard, stole a ladder, and used it to climb over the 15ft prison wall. Their escape was discovered early yesterday. Bedford prison is a Victorian gaol in category which deals with prisoners on remand, short-term inmates, and lifers in saol for murder.

The Home Office named the escaped prisoners as Timothy Brown, 18, charged with burglary, Mark Palmer, 16, charged with assault and theft, Danny Biddle, 19, charged with attempted grievous bodily harm and theft, and Sammy Henville, 19, charged with robbery. The youths were sharing a cell measuring 12ft 9in by 9ft fiin only slightly larger than the regulation Victorian 12ft by 7ft cell originally designed for one. The prison, meant for 170 Home Office near on Carl By Paul Johnson The Home Office is expected to give its decision soon on whether to reopen the case of the men convicted of the killing of Staffordshire newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater. The move comes after a sustained campaign on behalf of two of the men involved, cousins Vincent and Michael Hickey, who have continued to pcotest their innocence. Matters have been brought to a head by a rooftop demonstration, now 17 days old, mounted by the pair at Long Lartin maximum security prison near Evesham, Worcestershire.

Since last month, the cousins have been on the roof along with supplies of food, blankets and plastic sheeting. Trustees seek ban on Bond film SEAN Connery's come-back as James Bond in his latest film Never Say Never Again should be banned pending the outcome of a legal dispute, a QC argued in the High Court yesterday. The trustees of Bond's creator, the late Ian Fleming, are claiming that it breaks an agreement involving film rights. Mr Samuel Stamler, for the trustees, said the film had a projected release date in the US of October 1, but the main trial of the trcistee's action would not come on until November. That would mean that a victory for the trustees in the action would "merely be closing the stable door too late," he told Mr Justice Goulding.

The trustees sought an injunction banning distribution of the film pending the outcome of their action against the film's producer, Jack Schwartzman, his company Schwartzman Productions, and executive producer Kevin McClory. Mr Stamler said details of the film's script were such a closely-guarded secret that some of the court hearing might have to be held in private. Mr Stamler said an agreement between Mr Fleming and Mr McClory made in 1963, gave Mr McClory the film rights of Mr Fleming's novel Thunderball. The producers claimed that the new film was based on the Thunderball novel and so did not break the agreement. That was disputed by the trustees.

Never Say Never Again had also run into trouble with the makers of another James Bond film, Octopussy, starring Roger Moore, said counsel. Its makers, United Artists, had been given film rights to Fleming's Bond novels and had so far a 12 films. Thty were worried that the market would be saturated. The hearing continues today. boy's death corded a verdict of accidental death.

Marcus, of Partridge Flat Road, Bessacarr, South Yorkshire, was in his second term as a music student at Wells Cathedral School, Somerset. He played trumpet, piano and cello. The school's head of brass, Mr Ruari Wilson, said Marcus was an exceptionally talented pupil whose ambition was to be a professional composer and musician. detailed guidelines to police. This was later interpreted as a nint that planned annual in creases would be deferred, or even that fees will be reduced.

But Mr Waddington rejected a suggestion that work done by police could be done by civil servants in the majority of cases. Part of the assessment of a person's good character could only be done by police, he said. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants has written to Mr Waddington accusing the Home Office of deliberately setting the fees to make a profit. Musical's first night cancelled By Dennis Barker THE ROYAL gala performance before Princess Anne tonight of the most expensive musical ever planned for London's West End has been cancelled in a frenzy of cutting and re-writing. Another London production a Covent Garden opera was also at the centre of rumours yesterday of clashing temperaments and production techniques.

The musical called Is being presented by the British impresario Michael White at the Piccadilly Theatre, After its gala performance it was to have opened on March 22. But Mr White said yesterday the opening had been postponed and a new date would be announced by the end of the week. The 1.5 million show is planned as part of an evening which includes dinner and a cabaret. "The show is running between two and a half and three hours and as it is only part of the evening it had to last only 30 minutes," said Mr White. We tried to give more than we should have done." He dismissed suggestions that the production was a nightmare and said he did not expect that changes In the production, which is being directed by the star, 23-year-old Italian quick change artist Arturo Bra-chettl, would mean cutting the cast The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, refused to comment about reports that its May 3 gala performance of Puccini's Manon Lescaut might not now take place before the Queen Mother because the sets were too cumbersome for quick dismantling, and that talks with the Italln producer Piero Faggloni had broken down.

inmates, holds 302, and the Home Office say it is recognised as one of the most overcrowded prisons in the country. Mr Terry JarmaTi, a member of the POA executive, and a prison officer at Bedford, said that industrial action had been going on at the prison since last week, following an incident which threatened the safety of the prison. Mr Jarman said that 36 remand prisoners, including one drunk and two mentally disturbed inmates, had been brought in all together into the already overcrowded gaol. This meant they all had to be held in a tiny holding room for over two hours," he said. Since then the prison officers had imposed rigid regulations on the number of remand prisoners they would accept at any one time.

Prison officers at Dartmoor have begun industrial action in protest at new manning levels. The action has been ordered by the POA executive following the recommendation of a manpower team from the Prison Department's regional office in Bristol to cut the number of duty staff at Dartmoor. The Home Office said the changes had been introduced after consultation with the POA. decision killing Last week, friends and relatives petitioned the Home Office, pressing for the case to be reopened. Yesterday, a Home Office spokesman said that requests from Mr Roy Hattersley, Shadow Home Secretary, and the organisation Justice had been received asking for a review of the case.

Vincent Hickey, aged 29, and Michael Hickey, aged 21, were convicted in 1979 of the murder of the boy, aged 13, which took place during a raid on a farmhouse at Wordsley, Staffordshire. Also convicted were Mr James Robinson, who is serving life, and Mr Patrick Molloy, who was given 18 years for manslaughter. He has since died in prison. Mr Roger Stokes, coroner, told an inquest at Yeovil, Somerset yesterday: "All the evidence suggests that he was trying to rehearse in his mind what it might feel like to be near death The coroner said Marcus was trying to gain an insigftt into a state of mind which would enable hm to interpret music he was studying. He was absolutely sure that Marcus "a happy, balanced young man" did not take his own life.

He re Megan and Walter Wyatt with their foster son Ali who Elderly couple told boy must go back to Iran No appeal for killer By Ian Black John the murderer who held an assistant governor hostage at Parkhurst prison last January, was yesterday refused leave to appeal against conviction. Bowden, aged 26, of Peckham, South London, was ordered serve at least 25 years for the murder of Donald Ryan, aged 49, by Mr Justice Mars-Jones on January 15, 1982. Mr Michael Mansfield, for Bowden, told three Appeal Court judges, headed by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, that the main ground for appeal in his client's case was the risk that the jurors did not have their attention sufficiently drawn by the trial judge to the possibility of reaching a verdict of manslaughter. But Lord Lane said that if there was an omission it was a slight one. Sombre rehearsal' led to By our Correspondent An elderly couple have been told that they cannot keep a six-year-old Iranian boy they have cared for since he was three months old and that he must be returned to Iran.

Walter and Megan Wyatt, who live in Torquay, agreed to look after the child and his elder brother when their parents, who were on an English language course in the Devon resort, returned to Iran when the revolution broke out in 1979. Mr Wyatt, aged 65, said yesterday The boys' parents did not want to take them back because they feared for their futures. We agreed to take them in and treat them as our sons. Their parents returned to Iran to get out their money so A brilliant young musician. Marcus Batchelor, was found hanged at his public school after an experiment that went tragically wrong.

Marcus, aged 13, had been told by his trumpet teacher that he should imagine himself as a corpse in a coffin in order to understand a sombre piece of music. The next day he was found hanging from a scarf tied to the ceiling and with his legs chained together..