But this can be greatly reduced by buying on an “execution-only” basis through companies such as Chartwell or Financial Discounts Direct. You should keep some part of your portfolio as cash to reduce exposure to risk and keep a source of accessible funds.
You can take the interest free of tax by putting your cash in an individual savings account (ISA), which allows you to invest £3,000 in cash this financial year (£1,000 in future years). Rates of around 6.5 per cent are available, but these may fall.
You can also invest up to £7,000 this year (£5,000 thereafter) in a stocks and shares income-bearing ISA. Returns vary greatly according to investment performance, but in the 12 months to November a £1,000 investment in Jupiter Income would have risen to £1,221.

If you took all this as income it will have paid 22.1 per cent. You should put only part of your funds in the stock market because of the greater risks.
The rates of National Savings have recently improved. Mr Laverick says: “Its index-linked certificates are now worth a look, especially for higher-rate taxpayers.” The index-linked five-year certificate (16th issue) pays the inflation rate, plus 1.8 per cent a year tax free, if you tie your money up for the full term. Its index-linked two-year certificate (1st issue) pays inflation plus 2.5 per cent.
Chartwell, 01225 446556; Financial Discounts Direct, 01420 549090. Fund managers selling income trusts are always keen to stress the highest-possible rates of return in their advertisements. But often these dazzling “headline” rates conceal a host of less attractive features in the small print.

Fund managers selling income trusts are always keen to stress the highest-possible rates of return in their advertisements. But often these dazzling “headline” rates conceal a host of less attractive features in the small print.

Jupiter’s new Dividend & Growth Trust, which closed its offer on Thursday, provides a convenient example. Advertisements for the fund dangle the carrot of 9 per cent income a year. At a time when even the best savings accounts are paying only about 6 per cent, that looks very tempting.
But Jason Hollands, of independent advisers BEST Investment, warns: “If something seems to be paying considerably higher levels of income than prevailing interest rates, it may be taking higher risks with the underlying investments. Or maybe they’re doing something odd with the charges.”
In this case, increased risk concerns Mr Hollands The Jupiter fund is a split-capital investment trust Trusts like these offer two different types of shares. One – known as a “zero-dividend share” – is designed for capital growth and the other for income.
The 9 per cent return promised by Jupiter Dividend & Growth comes from the trust’s income shares. When the trust winds up in six years and the time comes to repay investors’ capital, income shareholders will find themselves placed firmly at the bottom of the pecking order.
Philip Butt, director of Jupiter Unit Trust Managers, says: “When the trust is wound up, bank loans get repaid first, zeroes get repaid next and what’s left over goes to the ordinary income shareholder.”
Another characteristic of split-cap trusts is that they tend to be highly geared; that is, they borrow substantial sums to boost the funds they pull in direct from savers.

The return in our example above would fall to £200.
Justin Modray of independent ISA experts Chase de Vere, says: “Some of the lower-yielding corporate bond funds and some of the high-yielding equity funds kind of straddle each other towards the 5% figure That’s where it could make the biggest difference. But if someone wants equities, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend they avoid them simply because of the tax difference.”
If you do decide to go for a corporate bond ISA, be sure to take the “headline” income yields they promote with a pinch of salt. It will always be tempting to pick the fund promising the biggest income, but sometimes these high income yields are achieved only at the risk of capital erosion.
One danger is that the company running your fund will take its management charges from capital rather than income. This gives the fund an apparently attractive income yield, but will also chip away at the value of your capital.
Beware also of corporate bond ISAs which put a lot of your money not into the safe bonds you think you are buying, but into far riskier investments such as preference shares and convertibles. These offer the promise of higher returns than corporate bonds, but could put your capital at risk. A fund can put as little as 60% of its money into bonds themselves and still be classified as a bond fund.
Unlike bonds, preference shares and convertibles rely on dividends rather than interest.

In order to qualify for the better tax treatment discussed above, a fund must pump at least 60% of its money into interest-paying investments.
For a free copy of Bates Investment Services’ guide to investing for income (normal price £2.60), call 0800 013 4135.
Holden Meehan, 0171-692 1700; CGU, 0171-283 7500; Henderson, 0500 707 707; Fidelity, 01732 777086. BRITAIN’S TOP hotels are stocking up on face masks and milk baths in anticipation of a surge in demand for beauty treatments And it’s not for women. For when 21st century man checks in to a hotel, he won’t be winding down in the bar or the gym Instead, he’ll be heading straight for the beauty salon. It means, according to a survey by The Future Foundation think tank, done with the RAC, that hotels will no longer be able to ignore male grooming or the men willing to pay for it.
“Men used to regard pampering as something slightly effeminate but today it’s not an issue,” said Kirk Ritchie, manager of the Lygon Arms country inn in Worcestershire. “We now offer top-to-toe treatments for men and women and notice a significant increase in uptake from male guests, particularly at weekends.”Whereas men once thought of beauty parlours as mysterious places where women paid lots of money for treatment that didn’t make them look much different, these days, it appears, they just can’t get enough of their feminine sides.The shift in attitude, says Melanie Howard of The Future Foundation, is down to a growing preoccupation with appear-ance, more money to spend, and a desire for new experiences – body scrubs, perhaps – and escape from daily stress.”There’ll be `time travellers’ seeking refuge in hotels from the demands of the 24-hour society,” said Ms Howard.

Three-quarters of the hoteliers surveyed, she said, forecast that men would want to indulge themselves with relaxation and beauty treatments.The research also indicated that the big source of income for hotels would no longer be the business traveller but the growing numbers of self- employed and single visitors.. On his attempt to be the mayor of London: “If you are only going to have a saint for this job, I’m certainly not your man.”

On women: “I adore them, and they know I appreciate them. I admire women – they’re so reliable.”
On his career: “I had to work hard. I didn’t have the talent not to.”On his political ambition: “I didn’t enter Parliament with the idea of spending 35 years on the back benches.”On his appointment as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party: “The best unpaid job in England.”On the Monica Coghlan case: “I am innocent of this charge, and no matter what you say, now matter how clever your wording of out-of-context questions, there is only one thing that matters in this court of law – and that is that I have never met this girl and I have never had sexual intercourse with this girl and that is the truth.”On The News of the World then: “They were quite happy to ruin my career. They were behaving very dishonourably.”On his brush with bankruptcy in 1974: “The downfall showed me that I wasn’t a god; I was a normal mortal, well able to make a bloody fool of myself, which I did.”.

WHEN LORD ARCHER of Weston-super-Mare decided to run for mayor, he sat his family down for a chat. “If I go for it,” he said, “we’re all going to have to face the past.” His critics might have responded: “Which past?”

For the truth of Lord Archer’s life story has always suffered from what his wife, Mary, called “inaccurate precis”. Veering between triumph and disaster, it has been shrouded in a haze of half-truths and exaggerations. As he withdrew his candidacy yesterday for the one job that he believed would ensure his place in history, there was a certain poetic justice that it was a lie that deprived him of it.
Jeffrey Howard Archer was born in Somerset in April 1940 Even at its beginning his life was mired in confusion. On his birth certificate, his father, William, a bigamist and fraudster, was described as a “journalist”, which he was not.The young Jeffrey Archer attended Wellington, a small private school near Taunton – not the more prestigious college in Berkshire. He left without A-levels but thanks to his athletic prowess won a place to study for an education diploma at the Department of Education at Oxford.

There is a drag-lift in the trees at the top-station of Le Jaillet that gives access to mild, pleasant runs suited mainly to novices and early intermediates. Megÿve’s ski schools have fine reputations, particularly for beginners Lifts: 80 Pistes: 300km. Tourist info: 00 33 4 50 21 27 28.
7 | Kitzbühel, Austria (Best for intermediates)
Kitzbühel is a walled, medieval settlement in which fur-clad Germans mix with younger, often more financially challenged skiers from Britain, Holland and Italy to form an alpine social melting pot. Apart from Innsbruck (see No 25), this is the one resort in the Tyrol that is really suitable for skiers and non-skiers alike. It’s essentially for cruisers, with largely intermediate skiing and few pisted challenges for experts.

Anyone with a couple of weeks’ experience can manage the celebrated Ski Safari: an itinerary of blues and gentle reds that leads up the Kitzbühel Valley from the Hahnenkamm Lifts: 28 in Kitzbühel; 60 in area Pistes: 164km in area. Tourist info: 00 43 5356 621550.
8 | Chamonix, France (Best for experts)
When enthusiasts talk of Chamonix, they really mean the Grands Montets at Argentiÿre. This is a truly magnificent mountain for expert skiers and snowboarders – steep, complex and dramatic, with seemingly unlimited possibilities. On powder mornings, the rush for the Grands Montets is fierce, but the area is so enormous that skiing it out quickly is beyond even the powers of Europe’s most dedicated first-track pack.

Although open snowfields, bowls and gullies abound between the marked pistes, this is wild and dangerous terrain. The glacier is a web of crevasses and seracs, and to ski here without a qualified guide is to court death Lifts: 49 Pistes: 140km. Tourist info: 00 33 4 50530024.
9 | Selva Gardena, Italy (Best for families)
The resort of Selva Gardena has a quiet, unsophisticated charm that makes it popular with families – especially since children aged seven years and under ski free. With its mainly blue and unproblematic red runs, you would not come here for a challenge, but it is an excellent area for children of all ages to learn to ski. Even toddlers and small children are catered for, with a kindergarten where they can learn the rudiments of skiing among cartoon characters.

Instructors are plentiful and patient, and, once away from classes, the surrounding area is ideal for older children to learn or improve their skiing Lifts: 81 Pistes: 175 km. Tourist info: 00 39 0471 72277.
10 | Breckenridge, USA (Best for snowboarders)
Situated in the heart of the Rockies, Breckenridge was the first resort in Colorado to permit snowboarders. It is a bustling “party town” that prides itself on accommodating 26,000 skiers in the 254 restored structures downtown, which date from 1859, and in its self-contained resort/shopping complexes closer to the slopes. Skiing and snowboarding experiences range from the tedious but scenically forested flats at the resort base, to steeps and deeps in the ample chutes above tree-level. Easily accessed bowls and chutes make Breckenridge hugely popular with boarders, who voted the resort’s funpark and half-pipes the best in North America The ski school teaches snowboarding at all levels Lifts: 22 Pistes: 2,043 acres. Tourist info: 001 970 496 4334.
11 | Cervinia, Italy (Best for beginners)
Cervinia’s excellent snow record means that novices enjoy good conditions on the nursery slopes before moving up to the green and blue pistes at Plan Maison.

It is possible to ski from Risoul to Vars 1850 and back on blue runs. The green runs, with a children’s park and snowmaking at the bottom of Risoul, are some of the most attractive in Europe Lifts: 54 Pistes: 170km. Tourist info: 00 33 4 92 46 02 60.
37 | Park City / Deer Valley, USA (Best for intermediates)
These are two of the distinctively different resorts that make up Ski Utah, a market-consortium in the state that produces the finest, driest powder snow in the world. The most central is Park City, which also acts as a bed base for the adjoining ski areas of Deer Valley Resort. Park City’s skiing consists of extensive rolling, wooded terrain on the slopes of Jupiter Peak; 48 per cent of the trails are listed as intermediate, and cover every area of the mountain.

Deer Valley Resort is a mile northeast, up a winding road lined with multi-million-dollar homes. Skiing here is on three mountains, and beware that the people are as meticulously groomed as the slopes Lifts: 14 at Park City; 19 at Deer Valley. Pistes: 3,300 acres at Park City; 87 runs, 6 bowls at Deer Valley. Tourist info: 001 435 649 8111 (Park City); 001 435 649 1000 (Deer Valley).
38 | Aspen, USA (Best for experts)
Aspen has some of the best skiing in North America for all standards, from complete beginner to advanced.

The town of Aspen lies at the foot of Aspen Mountain, and has conserved the low-rise appeal of the original Victorian mining town. Celebrity status attracts higher prices, but with a little care in your choice of aprÿs-ski, it is still possible to have a moderately-priced holiday. Aspen has four completely separate mountains: Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass. Aspen Mountain is strictly the reserve of good skiers and has no beginner slopes, while Highlands has some of the most exhilarating off-piste terrain in the valley Lifts: 39 in area Pistes: 4,785 acres. Tourist info: 001 970 925 1940.
39 | Geilo, Norway (Best for families)
Geilo is a traditional resort midway between Bergen and Oslo. The skiing is relaxed and uncomplicated, ideal for novices and intermediates.

These people don’t see how they are institutionalised in their racism. There needs to be ethnic monitoring to ensure representation at official level. It’s no wonder black and Asian people get so angry about them.”The Football League said last night that it would be “strongly contesting” the case. “We would like to make clear that Mr Singh has been judged on his performance in his assessments and you have to get pretty poor marks to come off the register,” a spokesman said.Mr Singh was unavailable for comment but when the Independent on Sunday contacted the Referees Association about the case, a spokesman said “What? That coloured chap?”. PARENTS WHO take their children to the dentist because their teeth are crooked are not being warned that orthodontic treatment could permanently alter the shape of their faces. Research shows that three-quarters of patients, many of them children or teenagers, are not told that treatment could cause serious damage. Many suffer painful long-term damage to the skull, jaw pain and headaches as a result of orthodontic dentistry.

In the worst cases, they suffer ringing in the ears, postural problems leading to muscle pain in the neck, shoulders and back, and extreme headaches.
On a Channel 4 Dispatches programme to be broadcast on 2 December, rebel orthodontists claim such problems are caused by the common practice of fixing braces accompanied by extractions. Of 700 families interviewed for the programme, more than half of those with children undergoing treatment had teeth removed when the the brace was fitted. Yet in southern California, where a dazzling smile is de rigueur, extractions take place in only 15 per cent of orthodontic treatments. There, many orthodontists fit removable, expanding braces combined with exercises to improve “oral posture”.Nigel Harradine, a spokesman for the British Orthodontic Society which defends traditional treatment, said the figure of 56 per cent was “slightly higher than desirable”. He said the number of cases that should be treated with extractions should be between 20 and 40 per cent.Dr John Mew, a critic of mainstream orthodontics, said the British methods can result in long-term damage to the skull. The face grows downwards and becomes longer and flatter, changing the angle of the jaw, sloping the forehead and making the nose look more prominent.”I frequently see examples of faces which have been really badly spoiled. In my personal opinion, probably about 20 per cent of orthodontic patients are noticeably damaged and maybe another 30 per cent are slightly damaged,” he said at his practice in Sussex.

“If my views were accepted, orthodontics would have to change dramatically.”He believes the argument is most graphically illustrated by the case history of twin brothers, Quentin and Ben Creed, now 21. Quentin, the more serious case, was treated by Dr Mew, who expanded Quentin’s jaw to make room for overcrowded teeth, while Ben was treated by a traditional orthodontist who extracted four teeth and then fixed braces.Although identical before receiving treatment, they now look different. Ben Creed said: “Because of the extractions, the width of my mouth is smaller. In hindsight, I would have preferred to have gone with Dr Mew’s method as it got much better results.”In another case a talented young ballet dancer had to abandon her dream of a stage career after she began to suffer debilitating headaches after orthodontic treatment at 13. Jo Edwards told the researchers: “I wanted to be asleep all the time so I didn’t have to feel the pain.”After eight years, she was referred to dentist Francois Rossouw in Brentwood, Essex, another critic of traditional dental methods.

“We can get the virus’s genome, fair enough, but if we can get the virus itself we will have so much more information.”A second team of scientists in America has already sequenced three of the eight influenza genes from preserved tissues. Professor Oxford said it was inevitable that a full genetic sequence would be produced “We have no doubt about it It’s just a question of how long it’s going to take.”. SHERE HITE, the American sexologist who taught the world about female desire, has had a change of mind. The problem she says, isn’t lack of sex, it’s too much of it. In a new book, to be published early next year by the Financial Times, she says the modern workplace is “poisoned” by an explosive cocktail of sexual resentment.
The book, Sex and Business, calls for corporate man and women to build “creative, stable, friendships,” and resist the temptation to see colleagues as potential lovers.The reason so few women are at the top of corporations still boils down to sex, she says.

In fact, to judge by the book the office is a melting pot of barely concealed urges with libidinous bosses at every turn. The blurb at the front could be introducing Amanda Platell’s scandalous new novel. “No other book delves into the psyches of men and women caught in the web of sexual intrigue, harassment and sexual bullying,” it gushes.She argues that however hard men and women try to change their sexual behaviour, habitual attitudes “cling stubbornly like old coffee stains”.Famous for The Hite Report on women’s sexuality in the early 1970s, she believes that harassment at work is always about an issue of control rather than physical attraction.Together with statistics and interviews, Ms Hite offers a snapshot of corporate life in the 1990s which can make grim reading. “I grew up to believe work and business would be an all-male environment, and that women do not belong here,” says one male executive. “It’s incorrect, so kill me, but I like women at the office with good legs,” says another man. “I find an old, dull, fat bird a real turn-off and I don’t want to work with anyone like that.”In the course of the 221-page volume, with chapters including “Real men and Viagra” and “Is neutering the office the solution?”, Ms Hite argues that sexual politics in the workplace must alter if men and women are to work together successfully.”Many people feel a spark of attraction for another person, but is it best expressed by having sex?” she asks.

But in a small community you see each other smile, but you also hear each other fart,” says Kim, a Tom Baker lookalike. Kim and Sue, aged 44 and 45, are part of a group of 34 men, women and children who have come to Wales to be tested for their suitability to take part in BBC1’s fly-on-the-wall documentary, Castaway 2000. Things are going so deliciously awry, you can almost hear the documentary makers rubbing their hands with glee. Within a day of filming a group of strangers holed up in eco-cabins in Wales, doors have been slammed and voicesraised. One couple, narrow-boat operators Kim and Sue Russell, have even humped their mattresses out of their shared cabin, and put them in a derelict building to get away from everyone. Things are going so deliciously awry, you can almost hear the documentary makers rubbing their hands with glee. Ms Abramsky said he had been a “wise and valued member of the team, and John Birt, the outgoing director-general of the corporation, praised him as “bold, brave and enormously successful”.Mr Boyle gained a first class degree in English at the University of Strathclyde before completing an MA on Charles Dickens.

He was a lecturer, and joined BBC education before becoming head of BBC Radio Scotland in 1993.He is expected to leave in the spring and the post of controller will be advertised.. Radio 4 is settling down extraordinarily well now.”Yesterday, Mr Boyle, who has been with the BBC for 25 years, said: “When I became controller, I said I had a clear idea of what had to be done and I would complete that task and go. I have done what I set out to do and now leave one of the greatest jobs in British life.”The BBC yesterday denied reports that he was leaving as a result of a personality clash with head of BBC Radio, Jenny Abramsky, and that he was simply taking early retirement, which he had always planned.”The new schedule has increased ratings and improved the station,” said a spokeswoman. More than nine million people were tuning in every week, and for 90 minutes more than before Mr Boyle said then: “The listener sulk has gone. When I think of the riches we once had I could weep.”But Mr Boyle stuck to his guns and the BBC said it was just a “blip” which happens at the station from time to time.By late 1998, the year-on-year decline was about 600,000, which took Radio 4’s audience below the important eight million mark to 7.68 million.But after a year of vicious criticism, his strategy was vindicated when listeners began returning.

Listeners switched off in droves when he moved Woman’s Hour and axed the daily arts magazine Kaleidoscope.Politicians also criticised his decision to switch to long wave and shorten the current affairs programme The World at One. Mr Boyle stood firm, insisting there would be no “moronisation” despite the growing stack of angry letters.One from a Mrs L Culshaw, from Bletchley in Buckinghamshire, was typical. It said: “From being a full-time listener I barely have a radio on thanks to you I have lost a great companion I feel bereft. James Boyle, the much-criticised controller of Radio 4, is to step down from his £100,000 BBC post.

Mr Boyle, 53, who caused uproar in middle England when he reorganised the schedule in 1998 and caused ratings to plummet, is tipped to become head of the British Library when that chief executive, Brian May, leaves in May.
Two years after Mr Boyle was appointed in 1996 there was outrage when he committed the heinous sin of moving The Archers from its regular slot. It is not carte blanche for partying every night of the week, but a way of encouraging straightforward dialogue within the agency.”. James Boyle, the much-criticised controller of Radio 4, is to step down from his £100,000 BBC post. Mr Boyle, 53, who caused uproar in middle England when he reorganised the schedule in 1998 and caused ratings to plummet, is tipped to become head of the British Library when that chief executive, Brian May, leaves in May. James Maxwell, United Kingdom chief executive at Ketchum, said:”We do have a business to run, but we will always look to accommodate life ambitions.”The Red Consultancy also gives staff hangover amnesties, so that, in the words of Red’s joint founder David Fuller, instead of occasionally phoning in with “food poisoning”, “people come clean and admit they went on a bender the night before.

And being Dave Moorcroft, you have to believe him.
As he sat last week in the Birmingham offices UK Athletics now rents – well-appointed premises in a smarter part of Egbaston were sold last year to help pay off creditors – the former world 5,000 metres record holder reflected upon his turbulent spell in charge of the sport he so patently loves.There have been three main reasons not to be cheerful for the man whose Mr Nice Guy image has always caused him to feel discomfited: the financial crisis, which emerged just two weeks after he had taken charge of the British Athletics Federation; the recent farce involving Wembley, which has effectively frozen athletics out of its prospective redevelopment, and the spate of British athletes who have tested adversely for the banned steroid nandrolone in the course of the past year or so.”Without a shadow of a doubt, in terms of what has caused me to have the most sleepless nights, it is the doping issue,” Moorcroft said. Dave Moorcroft, the chief executive of UK Athletics, likes to get into work early these days so he can go for a run. Dave Moorcroft, the chief executive of UK Athletics, likes to get into work early these days so he can go for a run. Such are the pressures bearing down on him right now that he could be forgiven for fantasising about not returning to his desk. But the man who has pulled British athletics back from the brink of financial extinction in the space of the past couple of years is not about to do a Reggie Perrin At least, he says he isn’t And being Dave Moorcroft, you have to believe him. “Air pollution showed a record deterioration in 1999 yet the Government is failing to tackle the problem,” he said.. The two-thirds of Londoners who think that air pollution is “the big problem” are not basing their fears on the facts, he said.Much has been done to reduce air pollution, but Lord Macdonald conceded that more work is needed.

As part of the Road Traffic Act, the minister will present his own conclusions on traffic congestion and pollution, this week.However, Tony Bosworth, an FoE campaigner, pointed out that the Department of Health had estimated that up to 24,000 people a year could die prematurely because of air pollution. Professor Glaister argues that economic damage may be caused by over-eager environmentalists insisting on strict measures to limit air pollution.”Air-quality standards have been set with inadequate attention to the benefits of meeting them and there is a risk that the ill-considered costs imposed by the authorities seeking to secure compliance, will greatly exceed any benefits,” the report said.Lord Macdonald of Tradeston, the Transport minister, tried to steer a middle course yesterday between the concerns of FoE and the iconoclasm of the Imperial College academics. While “congestion charging” – road tolls and workplace parking surcharges – might be beneficial, they would do little to reduce harmful air pollution. But the report argues that no further legislation is needed to deal with such pollution and that a “large proportion” comes from a small number of old or badly maintained vehicles.Professor Glaister, a specialist in transport and infrastructure, urges the Government to promote London as an “essentially healthy city”, although he concedes that it could not be trumpeted as free of “filth, litter and rubbish”.The report adds that few traffic-reduction measures could be justified on health grounds.

That, coupled with a concentration of smokestack industries, made London one of the worst cities for air quality, says Professor Glaister.In the Nineties, emissions from vehicles declined rapidly and, while road congestion is growing nationally, the trend is not matched in the capital.The Imperial College analysis acknowledges that efforts to reduce particulate emissions should continue, as these pollutants are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs. The inhabitants of the latter breathe in particularly high levels of ozone.The image of Britain’s capital as the home of pea-soup fogs should have evaporated 40 years ago, the study says. In the Fifties, hundreds of thousands of people lived in or near central London and burned coal to keep themselves warm. These three came bottom of an international league table of pollution in mega-cities, defined as those with more than 10 million population and ranked according to standards agreed by the World Health Organisation.Cairo, the Egyptian capital, is rated nearly three times worse than London, which is comfortably ahead of New York, Tokyo and Los Angeles. The risk to healthy individuals is “very small”.The 80-page study, commissioned by the NHS Executive in London, says that catalytic converters fitted to cars since 1992, general improvements in vehicle technology and the use of cleaner fuels have helped to make London’s air eminently breathable compared with the atmosphere in, for example, Cairo, Shanghai and Mexico City. Only the very old and frail are affected by the relatively low levels of pollution in Britain, it says.

. Steven Norris was officially installed as the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London yesterday and immediately took personal control of his campaign. Steven Norris was officially installed as the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London yesterday and immediately took personal control of his campaign.
The former transport minister, who beat his rival by more than three to one, made clear that he, rather than the Tory leader, William Hague, would have the final say over his manifesto. The party’s mayoral candidate said he was not worried about his “distance” from official Conservative policies.”People in this city are less worried about party loyalty than they are about the credibility of the programmes that the candidates are offering,” he said. But Aslef’s general secretary, Mick Rix, said the issue of drivers’ hours was not discussed that day. “The meeting took place, but there was no discussion about a 35-hour week.” The company spokesman rejected the union’s allegations and said the minutes of the meeting were “absolutely genuine”.. Connex insists a 35-hour week should be self-financing through productivity improvements.The disputed minutes quote an Aslef official saying at a 9 December meeting that its demands for a 35-hour week were “progressing well”.

It plans to publicise details of the emergency timetable this week.Union officials said Connex was trying to give the impression that discussions on reducing the working week were going well to reinforce its contention that it was not “the real reason” for the action.The company believes Aslef wants an industrial-relations victory – Connex has a tough approach to management – so that it acts as a warning to other train operators. Relations between train drivers’ leaders and the company operating some of the busiest rail routes in Britain hit a new low as management revealed a plan to beat strikes.
Connex said it would provide a skeleton service on key routes next Tuesday for the 200,000 passengers that use its services when train drivers walk out on the first of six day-long stoppages. Yesterday there was little hope of averting the disruption as Aslef, the drivers’ union, accused the company of “fabricating” minutes of a meeting over working hours, the issue at the heart of the dispute.Most Connex drivers are in Aslef. The company will press 70 instructors and qualified managers into service to help provide an emergency timetable, and will also expect the few drivers who are in the rival RMT union and those who do not belong to a union to work. Relations between train drivers’ leaders and the company operating some of the busiest rail routes in Britain hit a new low as management revealed a plan to beat strikes. Liszt’s fairly restrained, straightforward transcription of Beethoven’s song-cycle An die ferne Geliebte seemed, without the benefit of words, rather arbitrary in its switches of character, though Yung Wook Yoo commanded a nicely relaxed singing tone and served phrases, as if to be savoured, with the right sense of romantic flourish. And if Liszt’s Réminiscences de Don Juan was rather like an assault course at the Royal Tournament, then that wasn’t altogether against its nature..

Why he disregarded Debussy’s pianissimo in a passage during “Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fût” and again at the end of “Poissons d’or” I’m not sure, for he certainly balanced soft sounds satisfactorily elsewhere. It made a powerful, serious piece, and with its extremes of haunted stasis and aggressive action, an effective vehicle for a strong player.Which Yung Wook Yoo undoubtedly is, though in Debussy’s second set of Images he showed sensitivity to a much more fluid and sensuous style. If he hit patches of turbulence here and in the Impromptu before it, they were momentary losses of poise, and he took the final Allegretto, gently, at its word.Yung Wook Yoo is only 22, and is still studying at the Juilliard School in New York, though he won the Grand Prize and Gold Medal of the prestigious Santander Competition in Spain two summers ago. He has lived in the US for several years, and his second item was a big sonata by a 41-year-old American, Sebastian Currier, which he played from memory and with the sense of commitment that implies.Currier’s idiom here (he wrote the sonata in 1988) was thoroughly pianistic yet compact, not exploiting extremes of register too much. Beginning with Schubert’s first set of Impromptus, not even his warm directness of expression, nor his easy legato in the third of the four pieces, tamed the restiveness in the stalls. His harmonic language was not far removed from Prokofiev at his most dissonant, but although even the slowest of its five movements erupted occasionally in violence, these moments were quickly checked, and while the first movement (described as “bold and defiant”) was propelled by continuous galloping rhythms – tiring and awkward to play – its finale made a virtue of jumpy, nervous contrasts which alluded to everything that had gone before.

The other two pieces, my viola concerto and an oboe concerto, Tam Lin, were natural choices as all three are chamber works.” The conductor turned out to be Ola Rudner, an old college friend. “We played the pieces in the concert hall then recorded them while the performances were fresh in everyone’s mind It was ideal.”

“It was a bit like a fairy tale. “It was a bit like a fairy tale. Someone who liked my music sent an unsolicited cassette to the Swedish record label, BIS, and a phone call out of the blue told me they were interested in recording it.” With the classical record industry struggling, Sally Beamish – a composer with no influential publisher, PR or agent – must have believed she had a fairy godmother.

Ian Bogle, chairman of the BMA Council, welcomed the promise to bring spending up to the European average but added that a wide-ranging review of the NHS was also needed.The Royal College of Nursing general secretary, Christine Hancock, said: “We need to tackle the essentials of care – feeding, privacy and the dignity of patients – right now.”In a separate development, the Tories seized on Mr Blair’s admission in the interview that Labour had put up taxes by “stealth”. “Cuts in the basic rate of tax that come in in April is in part compensation for other changes in the taxation system,” Mr Blair said.Francis Maude, shadow chancellor, said the Prime Minister had finally admitted the tax burden had risen.. Mrs Skeet has now been told that her condition is inoperable.William Hague sought to capitalise on Mr Blair’s problems, claiming that the winter NHS crisis had revealed the Government’s “stark and comprehensive failure” to manage the service competently.Doctors and nurses gave a cautious welcome to Mr Blair’s spending plans but said the NHS was facing immediate problems that could not be covered by such initiatives as NHS Direct alone. In the short term we have got to get more intensive- care beds and we have got to bring more nurses back into the health service, and that is what we are trying to do.”I’m not going to sit here and say there aren’t problems in the NHS, because there are, and that’s one of the reasons we were elected, to put those things right.”The health hotline NHS Direct would be extended to cover the whole of England by October, two months earlier than planned, and 60,000 Grade E nurses would be given a £1,000-a-year pay rise.In a separate attempt to regain the political agenda, nurses will get above-inflation pay rises when the public-sector pay settlement is announced today.Mr Blair’s fightback followed attacks on the state of the NHS by patients, doctors, politicians and the fertility expert and Labour peer Lord Winston.An opinion poll yesterday suggested 76 per cent of people wanted ministers to ditch April’s 1p income tax cut and re-direct the savings into health.Mr Blair ruled that out, but accepted responsibility for the “dreadful case” of Mavis Skeet, whose operation for throat cancer was cancelled four times in five weeks because of bed shortages. We’ll bring it up to the European Union average in time,” Mr Blair said.”We should spend more, but we have to do it accompanied by reform.

He said out-patient waiting-lists, at record levels, would finally come down this year.In his first broadcast interview of the year, the Prime Minister told Breakfast with Frost that Labour was making progress turning round the health service.He revealed that the next three-year spending round would yield 5 per cent annual increases for the NHS. The current three-year deal has earmarked £21bn for health.”If we carry on for the next lot of spending rounds, getting that extra money in, we will make a substantial difference. He also said the Tories’ support for greater private health care meant there was “no alternative” to the Government’s strategy. He said funding would be brought up to the European average through year-on-year spending rises of more than 5 per cent.Britain spends 6.7 per cent of its GDP on health care, compared with the European average of 7.9. The Department of Health said the new money would mean a target of 8 per cent would be achieved by 2006.Mr Blair said the new money would come from a healthy economy rather than income tax and refused demands by some Labour MPs and Liberal Democrats to abandon this year’s 1p tax cut to fund the NHS. The Prime Minister admitted the winter crisis had exposed “fundamental problems” with the service and the need for more intensive-care beds and doctors and nurses.
After one of his most difficult weeks in office, Mr Blair moved to regain the initiative. Tony Blair tried to defuse criticism of the Government’s health policies yesterday when he promised billions of pounds extra for the National Health Service.

Tony Blair tried to defuse criticism of the Government’s health policies yesterday when he promised billions of pounds extra for the National Health Service. The Prime Minister admitted the winter crisis had exposed “fundamental problems” with the service and the need for more intensive-care beds and doctors and nurses. Tim Henman breathed a huge sigh of relief after overcoming talented Frenchman Jerome Golmard in four sets in the opening round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Left-hander Golmard had beat the British number one in both their meetings last year and also in a five-set thriller at the same stage of this event two years ago.And when he took the first set in a tie-break the alarm bells must have been ringing inside Henman’s head.The 25-year-old from Oxford, seeded 11th, hit back, however, by breaking in the sixth game of the second set and holding serve twice to level the match, then took two more tie-breaks to go through 6-7 (7-3) 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (9-7) in three-and-a-half hours.Golmard saved five match points – two at 4-5 and then three more at 5-6 – but then Henman dramatically saved four set points in the tie-break before going through.His next opponent is German Rainer Schuttler, a straight sets winner over Costa Rican Juan Antonio Marin.First round singles resultsMen’sMark Philippoussis (16), Australia, beat Noam Okum, Israel, 6-4, 6-2, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2.Fernando Vicente, Spain, beat Alberto Berasategui, Spain, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2.Paradorn Srichaphan, Thailand, beat Karol Kucera (14), Slovakia, 6-2, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.Andrew Ilie, Australia, beat Jeff Tarango, United States, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3.Leander Paes, India, beat Dejan Petrovic, Australia, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.Axel Pretzsch, Germany, beat Alex O’Brien, United States, 7-6 (1), 6-2, 6-1.Women’sSandra Nacuk, Yugoslavia, beat Janet Lee, United States, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 7-5.Julie Pullin, Britain ,beat Jane Chi, United States, 6-1, 6-3.Patty Schnyder, Switzerland, beat Lilia Osterloh, United States, 6-3, 6-4.Marlene Weingartner, Germany, beat Anne Kremer, Luxembourg, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.Natasha Zvereva, Belarus, beat Brie Rippner, United States, 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-2.Fabiola Zuluaga, Colombia, beat Nathalie Dechy, France, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.. Byron Black, Zimbabwe, 5-7, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2, 8-6.Jiri Novak, Czech Republic, def. Markus Hipfl, Austria, 6-3 4-6 6-3 5-7 6-2.Sjeng Schalken, Netherlands, def.