UK NEWS

OH NO! WHERE HAVE ALL THE TREES GONE?
Watch out for Railtrack’s struggling successors, National Rail. Not only are they steaming even further into trouble than their predecessor, with the Rail Regulator blaming their “unsustainable and escalating expenses” on “lack of shareholder pressure” (for which read “you can’t trust the people who run this - they need to be watched”). They’ve also just been responsible for a devastating assault on the countryside which has left shocked and tearful residents nationwide gazing at vast stretches of seemingly Agent Oranged earth.
Fond of railway embankments? Ever thought about them? Well, now’s the time to start. Railway embankments allow trees, vegetation and wildlife to flourish, without the dangers of being poisoned or burnt alive by “traditional” farmers. On top of that, they provide natural cover against the pollution and noise caused by trains. Or, at least, they did, until Network Rail came up with an ingenious new solution to the age-old problem of “leaves on the line”. They decided to eliminate the trees.
Official policy, in fact, was to “eradicate all trees within 20 feet of a railway line, and all trees with big leaves from the entire area”. In practice, as photos on a new protest web-site show, this meant all the trees, full stop, and everything around them. Badger-sets, bat roosts, wildlife runs, birds’ nests and the surrounding vegetation all went too. All in all, an area the size of the Forest of Dean was scheduled for devastation – but people started fighting back. In Bristol recently, horrified residents managed to stop workmen cutting down the trees by encroaching on the track. In Hampton Hill, Greater London, people also mobilised when they saw the chainsaws coming out. According to Dr Vincent Cable, the local MP; “an enormous area was being cleared of vegetation, far removed from anything that could conceivably have affected the operation of the railway. Fortunately, the press were brought to the scene, and lawyers were wheeled out...The operation has now been suspended, although what will happen eventually, I do not know”.
Nor does anyone else. Network Rail say they’ve now suspended operations nationwide, thanks to people pressure, but the main campaigning website, Networkwail, has been getting reports suggesting otherwise. Packed with sad stories, the website ends on the following note:
“If you live near a railway line and it has not yet been affected, then don’t be smug. The trees WILL be going. If you want to save your trees, then the time to act is now. The trees near me may have gone, but yours might be saved”
www.networkwail.co.uk

NUCLEAR BRITAIN
So we, the people, only get to own useless companies - as soon as they’re worth having, the government sells them off. This sad truth was underlined when state-owned (subsidised) British Nuclear Fuels revealed a pre-tax loss of £1 billion, causing plans for its part-privatisation to be shelved. One of the last state industries around, BNFL blamed this year’s losses on “lower electricity costs” - begging the question, how high did they expect them to be? BNFL did, however, also cite another factor - high staffing costs. Unsurprising, since they’ve just recruited Michael Parker, ex Dow Chemical president, as their new chief. Mr Parker does not come cheap. His annual salary is to be £550,000 – fifty percent more than his predecessor. He received a £2 million pay-off from Dow, after he “retired” (according to the Daily Telegraph) after years of “disappointing figures”. Environmentally, Mr Parker also seems to be rather expensive; local rivers near Dow’s headquarters in Michigan were found to have dioxin levels of up to 80 times the legal limit. Cleverly, Dow managed to get the local Department for Environmental Protection to raise the acceptable level of dioxins, making much of the contamination legal. Unhappily for them, the Michigan attorney general rejected the deal last December.
But BNFL are still trying. Their latest scheme is to go into partnership building a Pebble Bed Modular Reactor in South Africa – a scheme which has been met by campaigning groups such as Earthlife Africa with “shock and outrage” (www.earthlife.org.za) Meanwhile, failed private nuclear company British Energy has continued to be kept afloat by £200 million of tax payers’ money, with the government now offering to contribute up to £3.3 billion more. Greenpeace are not alone in pointing out that this is ludicrous, given the government’s promised support for renewable energy companies in its recent Energy White Paper (call their supporter information unit on 0800 269 065 for details of their campaign on this, or check the website www.greenpeace.org.uk)

Arundel Saved – Others under threat
At the last minute, and against all expectations, the Government has dropped its support for the environmentally destructive Arundel bypass scheme, as well as for the equally disastrous proposed Worthing bypass across the South Downs behind Cissbury Ring. Arundel and South Downs MP Howard Flight was certainly caught by surprise, having sent out a statement to local press earlier in the week welcoming ‘the Government announcement to proceed with a bypass for Arundel’.
Prior to the announcement there had been a flurry of media interest in the Arundel protest camp at Tortington Common. A hint as to why the Government backed down in West Sussex, while ploughing ahead with road plans elsewhere in the country, came in a report on the Evening Standard website. Written before the announcement, and seemingly expecting the Arundel road to be given the green light, it added: ‘The Government will be desperate to avoid clashes with committed activists such as “Swampy” - so-called “king of the eco-warriors”. It is still nervous of provoking the kind of confrontations that created ugly scenes at Twyford Down and the Newbury bypass in the late nineties.’ Regardless of the small inaccuracies (no road protestor ever called Swampy king of the eco-warriors, that’s for sure, and Twyford Down was in the early nineties...) they probably have a point.
Road schemes elsewhere along the south coast, at Chichester, Worthing, Selmeston and Wilmington have also been cancelled, as have the proposed bypasses at Stourbridge and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.
However, the Hastings bypasses are to go ahead, as is widening of the M1 and M25, so there could be opportunities here for anyone who fancies digging out the old climbing ropes and treehouse plans (or making new ones...).

THE PRIVATE SECTOR
ACT NOW! HEALTH IS GOING...GOING...CORPORATE

The Health and Social Care Bill, which recently saw the largest rebellion yet by Labour MP’s, and which is now due to be heard in the House of Lords, will end the role of the NHS as a universal health care system, and shift the nature of UK health care to a market-based service.
Until now the NHS has been, just like the old Post Office and British Rail, mainly protected from market pressures. Unlike, say, the US, where 60 million people currently go without health care, this has been how the UK has managed to maintain a universally accessible service.

But, if the bill becomes law, it will see the destruction of the NHS as we know it. In its place will be “Foundation Trusts”; a little understood term which has conveniently replaced the widely reviled, eventually unsellable concept of “foundation hospitals”.
The government maintains that Foundation Trusts will be models of local ownership and control. There is a supposed cap on the involvement of the private sector, and limits to the private finance which can be raised. Although Foundation Trusts will be expected to make a “surplus” (i.e. a profit); in what seems like a reasonable move, the surplus will then be directed back into the trust.

There is, however, no requirement for trusts to provide one of the hallmarks of the NHS - universal service. And it will be entirely legal for trusts to enter into partnerships with private companies, lease out premises to private companies, and sub-contract to private companies. The profit opportunities will, obviously, be immense. US corporations like United Health Care are already queuing up to target this new and lucrative market.
Meanwhile the pressure on trusts to achieve a surplus will, campaigners say, result in the continued erosion of staffing costs and an increasing dearth in treatment for the elderly, the long-term sick, or otherwise “unprofitable” patients.
The trusts themselves will be overseen by a “Regulator”; a role previously held by the Secretary of State. This will now be entirely outside parliament; the regulator’s duty being to act “in a manner suitable to a Secretary of State” - whatever that might mean.

In a recent meeting with business leaders, Tony Blair indicated his
intention to open all aspects of the health service to the private sector. The current bill is the next, irreversible, step. Although it’s due for a “rough ride” in the House of Lords, opponents point out that, so far, no government initiative has yet been rejected by Parliament. The fact that the government have put John Reid in charge shows, they say, that the government is taking no prisoners.

But, the harder the fight, the better. Campaigners, including the major health and medical unions, are urging people to contact the press and their MP’s and insist on a historic rejection of this attempt to dismantle the NHS.
Linda Kaucher

CLOSE DOWN CAMPSFIELD - PRESSURE STEPS UP
Campsfield House is an Immigration Detention Centre at Kidlington, six miles from Oxford. It is a prison run for private profit by Group 4, supervised by Home Office immigration officials. It used to be a youth detention centre, but it re-opened as an Immigration Detention Centre in November 1993. The local parish council was opposed to it, but their wishes were overruled by the Home Office.

There are 200 detainees in Campsfield House. Most are political refugees fleeing danger, torture and even death from countries such as Nigeria, Algeria, Ghana, Turkey, India and Zaire. They are held without charge, without time limit, without proper reasons given, and without proper access to legal representation. Amnesty International report that these are breaches of internationally recognised human rights. The former Chief Inspector of HM Inspectorate of Prisons (Judge Stephen Tumim) and The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture have condemned conditions at Campsfield House.
Campsfield opened in November 1993. The next couple of months will see an intensification of pressure as its tenth anniversary approaches. As refugees are increasingly demonised, and detainees around the country increasingly forgotten, now is the time to act. Anyone wanting to help stop this “abomination to human rights” (the Oxford Mail) should check www.closecampsfield.org.uk for details.

Corporate Watch

CORPORATE ADBUSTERS WANTED
Corporations in the UK are still accountable for their advertising. They might have the power to run riot everywhere else, but they still have to be “legal, decent, honest and truthful” in their print advertising. On TV, they aren’t allowed to produce anything “likely to deceive those who see it” especially when “as a result of that deception, consumers are likely to alter their economic behaviour”.

It only takes one complaint to start an investigation. You might have to fight further to get your point through, but the best case scenario is that the ad will have to be withdrawn, costing the company in question lots of time and money. The supermarkets use it to complain about each other, suggesting that it is worth trying....
For an on-line complaints form:
l Advertising Standards Authority (complaints about posters, print ads) www.asa.org.uk
l ITC (tv ads) www.itc.org.uk (go into “Contact ITC” page and click on complaints about advertising)

HELP FOR WHISTLEBLOWERS
If you work for a corporation, or know someone who does, suspect something’s wrong, and are having problems putting it right, we’d like to hear from you. All enquiries will be dealt with in the strictest confidence.
Write to: Help @ Corporate Watch, 16b Cherwell Street, Oxford OX4 1BG Or phone the News Editor on 01865 791 391.

Available from Corporate Watch:
The essential guides to companies behind GM crop commercialisation:
Monsanto, Bayer CropScience, Syngenta.
And an overview of the industry as a whole. Available to order from our offices (send A4 size SAE) or online at www.corporatewatch. org/genetics/genetics.htm.
Also: the Biotech Family Tree. A2 colour poster detailing the growth behind, and the relationships between, the corporations who bring you GM. Available from our offices or http://www.corporatewatch.org/genetics/familytree.htm