The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 2

HOME NEWS THE GUARDIAN Thursday January 5 1984 ES3 deal Shop floor mutiny capsized shipbuilding Peter Hetherington on the communication breakdown which turned a flexibility 'deal' into a threatened national strike from unions that would in Leader of Christian CNDon protest charges THE shipbuilding dispute has been portrayed by some as a cautionary tale for those who still believe that trade union democratisation will automatically curb industrial unrest. After months of shadow boxing between unions and management, threats of yard occupations and, finally, all-out strike action it came as little surprise to some cynical observers two months ago when the unions accepted the outline plan a wide-ranging flexibility package linked to a 7 a week pay rise, and dropped demands for a no strings increase. There have, after all, been threats of industrial action in previous but in the end the power and the persuasiveness of trade union negotiators prevailed. Militant shop stewards backed down. corporation their first claim for a substantial increase was tabled on January 11 and there have been endless negotiating delays in an industry where skilled workers earn an average of 115, without deductions.

Wages are so low that many qualify for a variety of welfare benefits. It has become apparent since November 2 that the gulf between the senior shop stewards and their negotiators is almost as wide as that between the trade union hierarchy and British Shipbuilders. The shop stewards say emphatically that they were told by Mr Day that a contentious framework for survival" plan would be dropped at the November talks in favour of proposals dustry. But the 30,000 GMB members voted 3-2 for a strike, and although the response from other unions was more equivocal there was little doubt of widespread opposition to the BS proposals. The deepening frustration and bitterness among the 29 senior negotiating shop.

stewards was heavily underlined when they filed into the London headquarters of the conciliation service, Acas, yesterday afternoon for urgent consultation with their chief negotiators. Several were convinced they had been summoned to London to endorse a sell-out by their senior officials and were having none of it. For the past year they have been attempting to reach some agreement with the state We did not climb down, says union spokesman NCB and miners agree to pump out flooded pit Bv Paul Hoyland of equipment was trapped, to Mardy's lodge chairman. Mr Welsh Correspondent force the 750 miners to accept Arfon Evans, said last night a mhi riish bptwepn the a merger with the neighbour- that the union had not climbed wiLnal Pnal Rnard I and the 8 Tower eollierv that would down and would continue to niSL Minpworkers cost them 200 jobs. The union abide by the overtime ban.

rtiS TO totete claimed the A miners' Ieader said vester" thTflootog ofSat0newa2mil- was trying to make an example day he would be making a last- By Aileen Ballantyne The national organiser of the Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Ms Barbara Eggleston, told a court yesterday that the Government was acting against international law and the teachings of Christianity by preparing for a nuclear war. Ms Eggleston, aged 28, was appearing at Highbury Corner magistrates court, London, on two charges arising from a demonstration outside Parliament last November 15. The court heard that she was one of about 100 people protesting about the siting of cruise missiles in Britain. She was given a conditional discharge for six months for causing an obstruction and for not complying with police directions. She denied both charges, and refused to be bound over to keep the peace.

Conducting her own defence, Ms Eggleston told the court that the Criminal Law Act of 1967 made it lawful for a person to use reasonable force to prevent a greater crime. By demonstrating non-vio-lently outside Parliament, she had been acting lawfully in an attempt to keep the peace and ensure that those inside the House of Commons were not charged with war crimes at a later date. Miss Annabel Hanson, aged 72, who was also charged with causing an obstruction agreed to be bound over to keep the peace. About 100 court cases involving Greenham Common peace women were adjourned by magistrates at Newbury yesterday after the women had pleaded not guilty or failed to appear. One hundred and thirty-nine women face charges of obstruction resulting from a demonstration at the Berkshire air base on November 15 but only about 40 cases were heard.

One of the two courts in session at Newbury yesterday was taken by a stipendiary magistrate, Mr David Miller, who was called in from Woolwich and Greenwich in London to help to deal with the cases. In one court, women who pleaded guilty were fined 10 and ordered to pay 10 costs. In the second court women who admitted obstruction were fined 15 with 10 costs. One, Nancy Plrle, was gaoled for seven days after she had refused to pay. Eighty-two women pleaded not guilty to the offences and 17 arrest warrants were issued Helen John and Ann Pettitt, tlwo veteran peace campaigners, appeared before the stipendiary magistrate accused of causing criminal damage to the perimeter (fencing round the cruise missile 'base on December 30.

They denied the joint charge and were bailed to appear in court on February 24. Miss Pet-titt iwas also accused of obstruction. That case was adjourned until February 20. Pol, See at Wgssn CuntTn Tmer'gency King operation to clear 550,000 gal- Ions of water from the pit. After the face is drained a full The board's South Wales area director, Mr Philip Weekes, had accused the miners of being wantonly de- theunion'svetime8 ban 'in TXJXnSt 0 during tne unristmas snui- down, But the South Wales miners' president, Mr Emlyn Williams, accused the board of indus trial sabotage, when no pump Torrf, jiiik v.ui lieu uui uvjuuj after the men had returned to work Mr Williams claimed that the NCB had blocked plans to save the face, where 750,000 WAR VETERAN: Forces entertainer Tassie Hamilton Falklands rejection angers trouper Barlow still denies guilt By Aileen Ballantyne THE second-longest serving prisoner in Britain, Mr Kenneth Barlow, said yesterday that he was kept in prl-son for 26 years because "I continued to say I didn't murder my wife." Mr Barlow, aged 65, was released from Leyhill open prison on Tuesday and was yesterday settling Into a small guest house in Margate.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his second wife, Elizabeth, when she was expecting their first child. She drowned in the bath after falling into a coma, and Mr Barlow was found guilty of killing her by Injecting her with large doses of insulin. Mr Barlow said yesterday "I didn't murder my wife I worshipped the ground she walked on I still miss her." Mr Barlow, a former nurse, said his first priority now was "living instead of existing." He said he had been discharged from prison with a suit of clothes and shoes and 58, plus 6 of his own. He also had 2 a week in wages due to him from his job as prison librarian. I am a damned good librarian," he said.

I was running two libraries at a time in Wakefield." He said he had missed his work as a nurse while in prison. "1 was a damned good nurse," he said. "I personally think I was one of the best." He said he often thought about the people who had died "while I was not there to nurse them because I was in prison." He spent a lot of his time in goal reading Alistair Maclean or Jack Higglns. The biggest chanbe in the outside world in 26 years was the speed of the traffic. Everybody seems to have a car and they all seem to go twice as fast as they used to," he said.

The former policeman who arrested Mr Barlow yesterday recalled the case. Ex-Detective Chief Superintendent Phillip Cheshire, aged 78, was head of the Bradford CID. With his police team, he was commended by the assize court judge. He said yesterday "I was certain of his guilt then, along with the judge and jury. I hold that same opinion today." corporate the best available working practices already operating at a few of the 23 BS shipyards and factories, such as Appledore in north Devon, and Sunderland shipbuilders on the Wear.

But subsequently they claim that BS, believing it had the unions on the run, attempted to ignore aspects of the November 2 accord by pushing for sweeping changes in working practices. The BS proposals involve full interchangeability within the boilermakers' trades where there are seven subgroups ranging from welders and platers to blacksmiths and drillers as well as flexibility within the outfitting trades (joiners, plumbers and painters) and ancillary trades. wavv; which fira eKed1 toosff 6 Va 18 expected to lose to J- at im- taTJffin the gaggssrsras 1 meetinR of the South iMirivr evprntive vester- ultTmatum to the g-f ute0a fJhorl Dumping would take it uDon themselves to do the work, A fifty cotiara After several hours of nego- tiations at the colliery the NCB announced it had re- ceived an apology from a col- liery lodge official about the circumstances which led to the "The IMUM nave cj agreed that in future if there is an emergency at Mardy they will provide their full coopera- tion," a coal board spokesman said. visiting London three times a month, but he had agreed working arrangement witn nis colleagues in Sheffield which made it possible to accept the job. Mr Booth, who is 55, has leftwing credentials of long standing and was initially brought into government by Mr Michael Foot.

He served as Sec- retary for Employment in the last Labour government and was transport spokesman in the last Parliament. US job for Tina Brown Tina Brown, the journalist responsible for reviving the magazine Tatler, was yesterday appointed editor of the US magazine Vanity Fair, which was relaunched in a glossy format last year at a cost of $10 million. She will be the magazine's third editor in 10 months. Its nublishers, Conde Nast Publications, who also publish Vogue said that Miss Brown would replace Leo Lerman, whose appointment, last April, was yesterday described as temporary. Vanity Fair was revived last March after a 47-year absence.

Miss Brown, whose recent book, Life As A Party was a collection of pieces from the Tatler, is married to Harold Evans, the former editor of the Times BS also vant to introduce composite groups of workers, from various trades, where complete flexibility would apply at specific work stations" along the production line of a ship. One senior shop steward from Tyneside yesterday accused BS of attempting to make shipbuilding workers Jacks of all trades. We will lose all our pride and dignity with these plans they want to create composite shipbuilding workers who will have no trade at all, doing everything and anything in the industry," he said. BS denies that it wants anything of the sort and maintains that essential "core skills" would apply. But it is a measure of the deep mistrust between both sides JL ba" at the Weekend' Afaout 4Q wjndjng gegr ators' members of the NUM Power sroup who carry out -bthsjs j-a to defv tne ban and return to normal working from Saturday morning.

But the power group general secretary, Mr Boy pttey. has called a meeting for tomorrow night Mr pttey said Hopefully. I shall have some good news for them about a national ballot on the ban. Winders would call off their action if there was to be a vote thoughout the union on overtime working. I have written to tne union nresiaenr.

-11 Arthur Scargill, urging him. to. call a ballot and I am keeping my fingers crossed for a favourable reply by Friday night." Caesarean for Sara Keays By Anne McHardy SARA KEAVS, who gave birth to a daughter by the former Conservative Cabinet minister, Mr Cecil Parkinson, on New Year's Eve, had a Caesarean delivery, St Teresa's Hospital, Wimbledon, London, disclosed yesterday. Miss Keays and her child are still In hospital. Mr Parkinson, aged 52, yesterday refused to add to the brief statement he made after the birth was announced by Miss Keays's solicitors.

Then he wished the baby, his fourth child, peace, privacy and a happy life." Yesterday, at his Hertfordshire home, he said that he had nothing to add and told reporters: "I hope you will go away and And some more interesting news. I am sorry it is so cold for you." Mr Parkinson spent only an hour inside the house at Northaw, near Potters Bar, talking to a Metropolitan Police inspector who held back photographers and reporters while he and his wife, Ann, the mother of his three other daughters, went to their red Daimler car to drive away. At St Teresa's, a small private nursing home, the matron, Sister Francis, a member of the order of nursing nuns who run the hospital, said of Miss Keays: "She is feeling as delighted as any mother would who has given birth to her first baby." The hospital refused to comment on a report that Miss Keays was unwell. Her twin sister, Mrs Elisabeth Dalton, said as she left the hospital that Miss Keays was "coping very well" and hoped to leave hospital in a wepki Mr Parkinson, the MP for Hertsmere, resigned as Trade and Industry Secretary during the Conservative Party conference in October after Miss Keays had Issued a statement to the Times, saying that he had twice asked her to marry him, once on the day of the general election in June. campaign Booth to take over as Labour treasurer a national strike, accepted by over 300 delegates as a last resort measure in October.

But were the union negotiators representative of the shop floor? Senior BS officials were convinced that a majority of shipyard workers would accept their proposals if they were given the opportunity to vote. That challenge was taken up by the General, Municipal and Boilermakers' union, the dominant union in the industry, after it became clear that its senior officals were far from enthusiastic about a national stoppage. Apart from the loss to the union of about 700,000 per week in strike pay, officials were seriously concerned about the damaging consequences for the in NEWS IN BRIEF Engine fault killed MP A CORRODED engine part was the likely cause of the death of the former conservative Mtr, Mr Keitth Wickenden. whose twin-engined light aircraft crashed at Shoreham Airport, Sussex, last July, according to a report out yesterday. A preliminary report by the Department of Transport's accident's investigation branch, says that severe corrosion was found in a cansule which regulated fuel flow to the right engine of the Sea Dove aircraft, whicn was built in 1953.

The engine was a replacement Bristol Siddeley Gipsy Queen 70 Mk II, which had been in storage for several years Mr Wickenden. aged 50. chairman of European Ferries and former MP for Dorking, Surrey, bought the engine for 650, having rejected a 10,000 estimate tor tne overnaui of tne original right engine. English keep chess lead THE English tournament leaders drew carefully among themselves in round seven of the Ace Computers Chess international at Hastings yesterday while the pursuing European grandmasters adjourned with wins in sight, writes Leonard Barden. Hebden and Speelman drew in 22 moves while Martin held off Mestel's pressure for a draw in 30.

Scores are now Hebden, Martin and Speelman (all England), 4i; Mestel (England), Ftacnik (Czech) and Karlsscn (Sweden), 3J and one unfinished. Both Ftacnik and Karis-son have favourable adjournments in the English performance so far is the poor' form of Nigel Short, who lost rapidly to Ivanov. of Canada, and now needs six wins out of the six Funeral of Violet Carson TELEVISION executives and friends and former colleagues of the Coronation Street actress Violet Carson yesterday attended her funeral at Bis-pham Parish Church, in Blackpool, where Miss Carson lived with her sister. Fans of the long-running TV series evidently adhered to the family's request to keep away from the uneral. Only about a dozen members of the public stood outside during the 25-minute service.

'Affairs' MP faces committee ST HELENS South MP, Mr Gerry Bermlngham, has promised to attend a committee meeting of his constituency Labour Party today io discuss his future. Party members last month passed a motion of no confidence in him after allegations that he had had two affairs, one with a former nurse who is expecting a child. Mr Berm-ingham failed to attend that meeting because he was suffering from stress. This time, officials are confident that he will arrive and explain his situation. Police to pay after oversight THE police have been ordered to pay the court costs of a man they wrongly held in custody for three weeks.

Stanley Duckworth, aged 19, appeared before Liverpool Magistrates on December 7 on a theft charge and Was remanded in custody on the strength of police prosecution evidence. But yesterday the magistrates discharged Mr Duckworth, of Fazakerley, Merseyside, after the police had admitted that the evidence was incorrect. The prosecution said that, "an oversight," was The police, were ordered to pay 300 defence costs. Break-in at secrets centre MILITARY and civilian police were yesterday investigating a break-in at the high security nuclear, biological and chemical centre at Winterbourne Gunner, near Salisbury, Wiltshire. Intruders cut through perimeter barbed wire, but nothing was stolen or This time it was different.

The union's chief negotiator, Mr Jim Murray often ridiculed by the rank and file may have given every indication that he had clinched a deal with the new British Shipbuilders' chairman, Mr Graham Day, after 12 hours of talks on November 2. But at subsequent meetings to clarify the details of this deal revolutionary in the context of UK shipbuilding it soon became obvious that many of the men on the shop floor were having none of it. The 29 senior shop stewards, who complement the union negotiators, turfed out the proposal three weeks later and by early December the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions had little alternative than to Trinder, Grade Fields and Phyllis Diller. She first sang to the Australian and New Zealand troops as a child in the first world war. She still carried the shrapnel in her leg from a bomb explosion as she entertained the forces in New Guinea in 1943, and then took her act to the Western Desert.

Mr Gordon Clark, the assistant head at the Combined Services Entertainment Organisation, which organises the Falklands shows, said There is no way that a lady of this age can be allowed to travel to the Falklands. It is a long and arduous trip and accommodation down there would not be suitable." He added: "It's a different ball game now anyway gone are the days of the White Cliffs of Dover. LaiTIlrr0uP- Greenpeace accused producing distorted figures in stating that the six cases did not represent a greater incidence of cancer in workers at Sellafield than in the general population. The area secretary, Miss Jea deatJls' wnile concealing the number 0f existing cancer sufferers A pr0per stUdy would compare a simiiar gro of men a tween 25 and 40 living in the south east and working in cler- ical occupations, It is about time people saw the full facts," she said. Jean Emery, said that BNFL the most highly regarded foreign correspondents working in Asia.

He wrote for the Times and Sunday Times, which sent him to interview Burgess and Mac side County Council. He was chairman of the authority for four years. By Julia Langdon, Political Correspondent Mr Albert Booth, the former Labour minister who lost his seat in Parliament last June, is to become party treasurer in succession to Mr Eric Varley. He takes over the job, and the ex officio membership of Lhe national party's executive and its sub-committees, because he was the runner-up in last year's election for the treasur- ersnip. Mr Booth was the leftwing challenger to Mr Varley who successfully defended his tenancy of the crucial party Mr Albert Booth post last October.

He later leftwing credentials announced that he would resign this job as well as his He said yesterday that the parliamentary seat at Chester- nost as treasurer would mean By a Correspondent A VETERAN entertainer of troops since 1914 opened hostilities against the Ministry of Defence yesterday after being told she was too old to cheer up the forces in the Falklands. Tassie Hamilton, a 74-year-old Australian-born comedienne who has entertained English, American and Australian soldiers in every major conflict since the first world war, said yesterday "They don't know what they are talking about. None of them have ever seen me or my act. I'm fit enough to cope with the conditions down there and my material has never failed to leave the lads smiling." Tassie, of Ripon, north Vorkshire, has appeared with stars such as Tomrrty ment of Energy during the last Labour Government, insisted last night that BNFL had made a dramatic admission, knew that BNFL na(1 given compensation but I have neVer seen and I challenge wirirr. r.

o.r et wi ich thev admitted Sat on the balance of Drob iiiit Pi ability, radiation at the plant had caused cancer among its wrke. I know that no such ment has ever been issued by BNFL or the Government," ne said. In Mr Waldegrave's letter, BNFL was quoted as saying BNPL denies 6 cover-up' claim over Sellafield compensation payments By Paul Keel ing from the first settlements that while it was not possible British Nuclear Fuels said in to distinguish between a cancer yesterday that there had been "In view of Mr bedgemores $ht well-known interest nuclear py exposure ai wotk ana one no cover-up concerning out-of- amQSt jncon, that arose from natural causes, court compensation payments ceivable that he was not aware tne Payments had been made which it made to former that thjs had been "on, Pbabil- workers at the Sellafield nuc- mace public he said ltv although liability was not lear plant who had contracted cL admitted. cancel or leukaemia. hX SSTOlSSn Yesterday Cumbria regional a rnvpr.un was aliened ves.

nrivstu at tv, iw0r organisers for the environmen- field to join the Coalite Com- pany. The national pvprntivp offered the job to Mr Booth, the former member for Barrow in Furness, under the party's constitutional rules. Mr Booth had to decide, however, whether he had sufficient time to uo tne job. Since he lost his parliament- ary seat he has been a techni- cal director of the South Yorkshire passenger transport executive. Pressure to save 1,7 painting from export By Donald Wintersgill, Government and West German Art Sales Correspondent private donors have raised IS The secretary of the all-party million Deutschemarks (about group, Heritage in Danger, Mr 3.8 million) to acquire The Hugh Leggatt, said yesterday Embarkation for Cythera by that the nation should make Jean-Antoine Watteau, a great strenuous efforts to acquire a picture by one of the greatest Foreign correspondent 14th-century Sienese master- rreucn loui-veuiury paimera, piece valued at 1,798,800, which the Getty Museum was which is threatened with being also interested in buying, exported West Germany recently Mr Leggatt is a member of raised 8,140,000 to buy a 12th the Government's advisory century German medieval Museums and Galleries manuscript, the Gospels of Commission, and his views are Henry the Lion, supported by many other Mr Leggatt said yesterday, members of the art establish- If the Germans can raise this ment.

kind of money, so can we. The The prospective buyer of the Sienese painting has been in Sienese Crucifixion is the Getty this country for more than a Museum of Malibu, California, century and was on show in which has about $1 million a the National Gallery of Scot-week to spend. land. It was owned by the It was revealed at the week- Earls of Crawford, great end that the West German patrons of the arts." OBITUARY RICHARD HUGHES, the Aus tralian-born iournalist who in. terday by Mr Brian Sedgemore, the Labour MP for Hackney South and bhoreditch, who re- leased the contents of a letter from Mr William Waldegrave, Mmiste.r' in which BNFL admitted six such payments since it took over the Cumbria plant-for- merly known as Windscale-in 1971 A spokesman for BNFL said yesterday that there was nothing new in Mr Sedge- more's revelations and that all the relevant information had been given in a series of press and ministerial statements dat- Gunman 'on way to job' The gunman who shot a salesman, Mr Alan Dell, after a minor car crash was pro bably on his way to a robbery, A balaclava helmet and an empty shotgun cartridge were found near the burning wreck of the stolen getaway car Mr Dell, aged 35, of Longland Avenue, Coulsdon, Surrey, was shot on Tuesday night after another car had crashed into the back of his in Farnborough Road, South Croydon.

Advertisement CRITIQUE PUBLIC MEETING The End of the Labour Party? Speakers: JaoiM Hlnton, Historian Andrew Glynn, Economist G. A. E. Smith, Economist Chaired by: Ahmed Ohotbl Friday, 6th January, 7.30 p.m. UNIVERSITY LONDON UNION Mttt StTMt.

London WC1 GLC vets firms to back race terviewed the British spies lean as we'l as tne Economist, Guy Burgess and Donald Mac- the- Melbourne Herald and the lean, and who became the Far Eastern Economic model for two characters in Mr Hughes was the model best-selling thrillers, has died for the character Craw in John in Hong Kong, aged 77. le Carre's novel. The Honour-Mr Hughes, who earned his able Schoolboy, much of which nickname, the Monk, while he is set in Hong Kong; and Ian worked for the Sydney Daily Fleming based on him the Telegraph in his twenties, character of the Australian because of his ecclestiastical secret agent Dikko Henderson manner and a fondness for in the James Bond story, You Biblical quotations, was among Only Live Twice. MP and council leader SIR KENNETH THOMPSON, boy who started his working the Conservative MP for Liver- life as a newspaper reporter, pool Walton for 14 years until then entered commerce and 1964, who was assistant post- became a director of several master general and parliament- companies. He was elected to By John Ezard contracts and be blacklisted.

At the end of this month the industry, we are not able to say unit will begin to check the how many." As the Greater London Coun- The survey is being con- Djgger supply firms, which have The unit assumes that these cil publicly launched its Anti- Qict councils Equal individual contracts worth over replies followed tactical advice Racist Year vesterdav a back- Opportunities Contract Com- 100 00o a year. It has already from some building employers' Racist Year yesreraay, a ox unit, set up last April a pt survey of 700 organisations. It is writing back room squad of officials was witn a 400,000 budget. The HJiJ firms. The results are to insist that firms give more in-planning the biggest phase of unit is described as the first still Deing tabulated, but Ms formation if they want to re-an operation designed to give initiative of its bind-in Britain smith, the unit's head, said that main on the GLC's approved the campaign real teeth.

to harness a local authority it was aiready dear that the list. The team is vetting the Purchasing power directly to majority do not have adequate To mark Anti-Racist Year, employment practices i of all 8reater ea.ualitv practice for women or ethnic the unit's staff has heen firms which have con- at work' minorities." creased from seven to 10. It is tracts worth 450 million a year It is modelled on established The survey also revealed issuing 30,000 minority lan-with the GLC, including multl- equal opportunities pro- companies' first attempts to guage leaflets, nationals such as Shell and BP. grammes for Federal frustrate the operation. Asked The year's campaign was in-After the survey, firms which ment contractors in the United how many ethnic minority or augurated at a ceremony refuse to change habits which states, but.

lacks their statutory female staff they employed, County Hall yesterday with all-the council regards as dis- back-up and hopes to work about a fifth of firms gave a party support from Conserva-criminatory against ethnic min- chiefly through consultation standard reply Due to the tives, Liberals, and the ruling orities or women will lose their and advice, fluctuating state of the building Labour group. ary secretary to the Ministry Liverpool City Council in 1938 of Education in the Macmillan and in 1977 led the Conserva-Government, died yesterday tives to the control of Mersey- aged 74. Sir Kenneth, kniehted in 1963, was a grammar school.