UR TV CAST

The company unveiled plans to reduce spending by making 42 staff redundant, amalgamating offices and developing a corporate alliance in the United States. But company officials said that the annual cash burn would remain at around pounds 50m to pounds 60m, meaning that it would run out of money within three years if new cash was not forthcoming.Dr McCullagh insisted that all these plans had been in place – but not made public – at the beginning of the year. They were not introduced in response to Dr Millar’s criticism, Dr McCullagh insisted.At a special press briefing, a shaken-looking board led by Dr McCullagh and the chairman, John Raisman, received tough questioning but in turn attacked Dr Millar for damaging the company.The board members said a decision to sue Dr Millar for unfounded allegations was under review and accused him of endangering two clinical trials.They believed he was partly motivated by the fact he had wanted a job which had subsequently gone to an outsider, Dr Peder Jensen, who was at the conference yesterday.Dr Jensen, a board member and development director, said Dr Millar had acted “improperly” in peeking at the results of two studies into various uses of Marimastat and Zacutex, the company’s two main drugs.Dr Jensen, who has been with the company for only three months, warned that “blind” trials could be deemed invalid by regulatory authorities and therefore could be delayed in coming on to the market, “in a worse- case scenario”.But Dr Jensen backed up one of Dr Millar’s complaints by saying it would help if there were more people on the board with relevant experience.On the central allegations of wrongful share dealings, a poor product pipeline and bad corporate strategy, the circular to shareholders said: “The board considers these allegations to be unfounded … He fought Cleveland twice, in 1951 and 1953, before winning Haltemprice (later Beverley) in 1954: this constituency he served until his retirement in 1987.It is important to remember Wall’s distinguished record as a fighting man. The son of a well-to-do engineer, he had demonstrated an early bent for matters technical: he was only seven when he built his first model ship, and he had a collection of thousands by the time of his death. It was no great surprise to his family when he enlisted in the Royal Marines in 1935.It was Wall’s settled early decision to make his career in the armed services.

It was not until after the Labour Party’s triumph at the general election of 1945 that he evinced any serious interest in politics, and not until 1950 that he left the Marines to seek a Conservative parliamentary nomination. I found a most genial and humorous host, most firm in his opinions, not at all evidently docrinaire, and certainly having about him nothing of the wild-eyed ideologue I had feared.Wall held staunchly to many beliefs throughout his life, but he was above all staunch in his religious beliefs. Educated in Switzerland and at the famous Roman Catholic public school Downside, he rose in later life to become chairman of Pro Fide, the well-known international Catholic organisation. He was also, Sewill warned me, no cardboard man of the right, but a fiercely intelligent and learned man, and only too willing to confound the arguments of any tyro such as myself.It was not, therefore, without trepidation that I accepted an invitation to lunch with Wall.

And they are a formidable trio.”
Powell and Bell I already knew, albeit slightly Wall I knew from his ferociously right-wing reputation. He was an ardent anti-Communist, a proponent of mining the approaches to the Baltic Sea in order to restrict the movements of the Soviet Navy, a pillar of the apartheid-based government of South Africa, an enthusiast for the cause of the Portuguese empire in Africa, and a friend of Chiang Kai-shek, the ruler of what he called the “Republic of China” and what most people called Taiwan. The possibility of separating the roles had been discussed but was “not part of current planning”.City analysts said a move by Sir Richard to non-executive chairman would be welcomed. “In this age of Cadbury, combining both roles is difficult to justify,” one analyst said. “He is his own worst enemy at times because he has this “chip on the shoulder” attitude towards the City. It might be a good idea to have someone with a smoother style.”It is a shame because he is a great merchant and there is nothing wrong with his strategy of expanding both in the UK and abroad while going into home shopping.”The debate over who might succeed Sir Richard was fuelled two months ago when Lord Stone, who has presided over the growth of the company’s clothing operations, was moved to take over its food operations. Analysts say he now looks to be ahead of other candidates such as Keith Oates, the former favourite, Peter Salsbury and Andrew McCracken.The questions over the boardroom structure came as Marks & Spencer reported a 6 per cent increase in full-year profits to pounds 1.17bn and said the fruits of its aggressive pounds 2.2bn expansion plan would not come until the turn of the century.

You will have to learn about immigration and Commonwealth policy, and you will have, from time to time, to deal with Enoch Powell, Ronnie Bell, and Major Patrick Wall. The department’s director, Brendon Sewill, told me, in the course of his briefing: “It is a British tradition, sanctioned by our history, to make young men responsible for subjects they know nothing about. The Greek Foreign Minister, Theodoros Pangalos, chose the moment of Mr Cook’s visit to reaffirm that veto, citing Athens’ territorial disputes with Ankara in the Aegean.Mr Pangalos also insisted that the association council discuss political as well as economic issues. Turkey is happy with the draft as it stands, which mainly expands the customs union into the fields of services and agriculture. But Greece wants human rights and other political topics to feature as well. That, say the Turks, must wait until the EU’s “discrimination” is ended.Mr Cook was stoical about the likely delay in the council meeting “I’m not disappointed,” he said. He will now make a fresh, but probably fruitless, effort to change Athens’ mind.Turkey has hardened its line on Cyprus, backing the insistence of Rauf Denktash, President of the Turkish Cypriot north of the island, that his statelet must be recognised before any involvement in the talks for Cyprus to accede to the EU.Mr Cook paid a surprise visit in hospital to the leading Turkish human rights campaigner Akin Birdal, who was shot last week No one has been arrested for the crime.

Earlier the Foreign Secretary expressed his dismay at this “ghastly” crime.. IT IS a selling job that would stretch the spinning skills of the slickest international advertising agency. Russia is trying to overhaul the image of the nation’s most hated official – the traffic policeman. The newly appointed Interior Minister, Sergei Stepashin, has embarked on a mission to clean up the profoundly corrupt GAI, the State Automobile Inspectorate, whose portly, swift-fingered, cops have come to symbolise official venality in the eyes of many Russians.
He has launched a public relations campaign to eradicate the force’s widespread reputation as little more than a club for licensed highway robbers, and to adorn it with a “human face”.Thus, later today the GAI’s most senior officer, Vladimir Fedorov, will spend several hours answering questions and complaints telephoned in by the readers of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.The GAI’s paramilitary iron-grey uniforms are being replaced with new outfits whose cheerful colours – bright lemon in some cases – will shine out against the monotonic hues of the Russian winter or a summer downpour. Smith has reorganised its ports operation and launched a pounds 100m share buy-back in an effort to accelerate earnings growth.- Bloomberg. MAJOR SIR PATRICK WALL was a politician of unbreakable independence of mind, taken by some to be stubborn and blinkered, and by his party’s whips to be simply infuriating. When I joined the Conservative Research Department in 1969, I was given responsibility for acting as secretary to the party’s backbench Home Office Affairs Committee.