SERBIA’S notorious paramilitary leader and indicted war criminal Arkan has made inquiries about travelling to Belgium, raising speculation that he may be planning to surrender to The Hague-based international war crimes tribunal. “In future flotations, departments should start from a presumption in favour of a phased sale.”SBC Warburg (then SG Warburg), which was paid pounds 10.9m for advising the government on the sale, was challenged by the committee about the failure to get more money for the taxpayer.The firm replied that the achievement of the flotation was “a miracle” and blamed Labour for some of the loss.The launch share price was substantially lower than it is now because the Labour Party in opposition was hostile to the privatisation, it said.The “transformation” of Labour’s attitude towards the privatisation of the rail network caused the shares to rise in value in 1996, it said.And Railtrack’s involvement in the Channel Tunnel fast link and speculation that it would be able to take a stake in the London Underground added a further pounds 6.50 to the share value.Warburg said it was the first time the a government had sold a company that was dependent on a subsidy of around pounds 1.8bn a year and heavily reliant on regulation.. A Tory-led Commons select committee yesterday castigated John Major’s government for its handling of the sale and warned Tony Blair’s ministers not to repeat the same mistakes in future privatisations.
Mr Blair called on the Tories to “apologise” to the taxpayers after David Kidney, the Labour MP for Stafford, claimed the report proved the sale was “a gigantic rip-off”.The Treasury raised pounds 2bn from the privatisation, but Railtrack’s share value has since quadrupled, giving it a book value of around pounds 8bn, according to the highly critical report released yesterday by the Public Accounts Committee, which is chaired by David Davis, a former Tory minister.The previous government made a mistake in selling 100 per cent of the stock in one go, instead of testing the market value by selling the shares in stages, it said. THE “MIRACLE” flotation of Railtrack, the privatised rail network operator, by the last Tory government cost the taxpayer pounds 6bn in lost profits.

That is the position and that is the way it should stay.”But Mr Hague accused him of not thinking through the consequences of what had happened in Scotland and Wales.”You have not understood that making a success of devolution requires the fair representation of the voters of England,” the Tory Leader said.”If you refuse to make such changes, you will have weakened the UK and gerrymandered the British constitution.”Dismissing Mr Hague’s claims, Mr Blair said: “In relation to overall expenditure in Scotland and Wales, all the MPs of the House vote upon that.”. Paddy Ashdown, the out-going Liberal Democrat leader, had protested that it was difficult to justify ministers’ calls for everyone else to “do more with less, when it appeared the Government was doing less with more”.
Mr Blair was also challenge over the so-called `West Lothian Question’ by Tory leader William Hague, who asked why, since devolution, Scottish MPs were able to vote in the Commons on matters concerning only England and Wales when Westminster MPs could not vote on purely Scottish matters.Mr Hague claimed there were now two classes of MP – “those who vote on matters in their own constituencies and those who only vote on matters in other people’s constituencies”.He said Labour’s Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow) – who originally raised the issue when he was MP for West Lothian – had said that, since devolution, he “simply does not have the brass neck to vote on purely English business” in the Commons.Replying, Mr Blair said: “Because they are all UK MPs and we should have one class of UK MP. But the Prime Minister insisted during question time that the seven ministers still had much to do in areas such as tackling crime and education. TONY BLAIR was told yesterday to reduce the number of Scottish and Welsh Office ministers in his forthcoming reshuffle because of devolution. The Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill, which is passing through the Lords, is likely to be defeated unless amendments to reverse the cuts are introduced.A coalition of Labour, Conservative and crossbench peers is planning to time its crucial voting on the legislation to coincide with the Labour Party conference, which will maximise embarrassment for the Government They will be helped by a large number of hereditary peers..

Ministers should take “real” steps to improve disabled people’s lives, the study by the Fabian Society will argue. Pooled departmental budgets and a “joined-up” policy-making process, including the establishment of a disability select committee, would ensure an end to their disadvantages in society.
Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Social Security, is already under pressure after introducing legislation which would cut some benefits. THE GOVERNMENT should introduce a holistic disability policy to fight the social exclusion of the most vulnerable in the community, according to a report published today. “If Sinn Fein/IRA are committed to peace why are they holding on to their weapons unless killing is still on their agenda,” he said.

Peers were being asked to support a “pig in a poke” which would give hope not “to democrats but to bandits,” he said.. “This wholly destructive Bill would obstruct all that we have achieved.” Lord Molyneaux said the Government had intelligence reports which proved that the IRA had decided to “reject decommissioning at any time in the future”.Lord Tebbit, whose wife became wheelchair-bound when injured by the Brighton bomb, condemned the IRA’s failure to decommission “even a single rifle or ounce of semtex”. We will, therefore, bring forward further amendments in an effort to provide a basis upon which all people can agree this last step in the Good Friday Agreement process.”In particular, those amendments will focus on making sure that decommissioning happens in accordance with a timetable to be laid down by General John de Chastelain actually in the Bill and making clear that any breach of that timetable will lead to the automatic suspension of the institutions.”But during the Bill’s second reading in the Lords, Lord Molyneaux of Killead, the former unionist leader, dismissed it as an “act of vandalism”. “I hope that all the politicians in Northern Ireland do make their very best efforts to secure this chance for a lasting peace and settlement in Northern Ireland,” he said.”We have listened very carefully to the comments made in the House yesterday. Mr Hague said he hoped the Government was responding to the “genuine concerns” expressed about the lack of “fail safes” in the legislation.The Bill cleared the Commons on Tuesday night, after eight hours of impassioned debate, amid deep divisions over the effectiveness of the safeguards contained in it.Mr Blair said he had “listened very carefully” to comments made during the debate, urging all parties to take the “final step” to secure a stable and peaceful future for Northern Ireland. The amendments would also allow for the formal identification of any parties that defaulted in the process and for the suspension of the institutions created by Northern Irish devolution.
The concessions, which mirror suggestions made by John Major, are a last- minute attempt to convince David Trimble, the Ulster Unionists’ leader, to support the peace deal.William Hague and Paddy Ashdown welcomed the Government’s “readiness to amend the Bill”.