Deal with resources group Hargreaves Services would transform coal industry

UK Coal and resources group Hargreaves Services are weighing up a £350m merger which would transform the coal industry, the Guardian has learned.

UK Coal, the UK's last major coal producer, announced today that it had received a merger approach from an unnamed third party. The company is keen to reduce its reliance on its deep mines, which are expensive to maintain and have suffered production problems leading to large losses. UK Coal shares closed up more than 12% today.

It is understood that property and transport firm Peel Group, which owns 28% of UK Coal, is being kept fully informed of developments. The merger plan is still tentative and even if both sides proceed with the plan, they are understood to be some way from putting a formal agreement to shareholders. Neither company commented last night.

Hargreaves Services owns a deep mine in Maltby, South Yorkshire, which it bought from UK Coal, and is soon to start open cast mining. It also manufactures metallurgical coke and solid fuel such as briquettes used in barbecues. The company also runs a transport division and an industrial services division mainly handling fuel on behalf of power station owners in the UK. With a market value about a quarter more than UK Coal, it is likely that Hargreaves Services would be the senior partner in any merger.

UK Coal has embarked on an expensive project to upgrade its coal mines. But it has struggled in recent years because of the fall in coal prices following the economic slowdown and writedowns in its property portfolio. Its 43,000 acre portfolio is mainly located around disused collieries which have been earmarked for housing and light industrial redevelopment schemes and is a significant source of potential income. It reported losses of £80m in the first six months of last year, including a near £60m writedown in the value of its property portfolio. It also reported a rise in net debt to £191m, prompting urgent talks with its lenders.

In September UK Coal raised £100m via a rights issue to see it through the next couple of years. Next year, it should start to see the benefits of higher production rates from its mines and higher property values. The company has also struggled for some years with long term supply contracts which have forced it to sell coal below market rates to large customers such as Drax. The last of these contracts will expire next year.

UK Coal is Britain's largest producer of coal, supplying around 6% of the country's energy needs for electricity generation. It has four deep mines in operation, employing 3,100 people. Eight years ago it owned 13. It is looking to expand its surface mines, which produced around 1.7m tonnes of coal a year in 2008. They are cheaper to run but are opposed by many local communities.

Korean company Samsung kicks off the industry-wide push by launching a 3D range that will be in British shops by the end of the month

The friendly green monster Shrek, the blue-skinned Na'vi of the planet Pandora and Wayne Rooney's shots on goal will shortly take on a new, three-dimensional glory.

Spurred on by the success of the Hollywood fantasy blockbuster Avatar, the world's top electronics companies believe they can make 3D television sets the norm for consumers in the US and Europe within three years.

The Korean company Samsung kicks off the industry-wide push ? and battle for brand supremacy ? by launching a 3D range that will be in British shops by the end of the month.

Billed as the world's first high definition, three-dimensional LED televisions, Samsung's range will be serenaded by the Black Eyed Peas at a glitzy global marketing debut in New York tomorrow.

At a press conference today, Samsung said its televisions and Blu-ray devices will come with a starter pack of two pairs of 3D glasses and a Blu-ray version of Monsters vs Aliens under a tie-up with the movie studio DreamWorks Animation.

"It's quite simply the entertainment revolution of our time," said DreamWorks' chief executive, Jeffrey Katzenberg. "It's as important as the introduction of sound or colour."

Keen to get in on the act, the Japanese company Panasonic will sell its first 3D television at a BestBuy electronics shop in Manhattan this week. And Sony, which expects to begin selling its sets in June, has set an ambitious target of selling 2.5m 3D televisions by March 2011 ? amounting to roughly one tenth of all its global television sales.

In British shops, John Lewis's vision buyer, David Kempner, said he expected demand to be a "slowburn", with an opening price point of £2,000. "HD is still a relatively new concept and consumers are just getting used to it but 3D will be the next big thing. Given it has the support of all the major manufacturers, 3D technology has got momentum of its own but it also requires content providers to support it and there is a time lag there."

Experts say that 3D televisions are likely to enjoy mainstream uptake because the technology behind them barely costs any more than existing sets. To achieve three dimensions, manufacturers need more powerful processors but the fundamental make-up of the television changes only marginally. The only substantial extra cost is making 3D glasses.

"The add-on cost of manufacturing isn't significant," said Jim Bottoms, director of the technology consulting company Futuresource. "Set makers are starting to incorporate 3D in higher-end televisions this year. Very quickly, certainly by 2015, virtually every full-sized television will have 3D capability."

Although pricing for British shops is yet to be finalised, Sony's 3D televisions range in Japan from around £2,150 for a 40in set to double that amount for a 60in model, while Samsung is charging $2,000 (£1,350) to $4,000 in American stores.

Sport and films will be the early applications for 3D home entertainment. Under a deal with Sony, Sky has already begun showing certain Premier League matches in pubs on 3D televisions and this summer's World Cup could be a watershed for the technology: Sony will film 25 matches in South Africa using 3D cameras.

The opening ceremony of Vancouver's Winter Olympics was available in 3D. More than 20 movies in 3D are scheduled for release this year, including Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which topped Britain's cinema box office charts at the weekend.

Mainstream television programming will take longer. The BBC and ITV have expressed interest in experimenting with 3D content.

But Bottoms said everyday shows were unlikely to go 3D until technology arrives to eliminate the need for special glasses, which is thought to be up to five years away.

"We see the next three to five years as being 'event-driven' for 3D. When we get to a glass-less solution, then we'll really see 3D become more pervasive," he said.

It has taken decades even to get to this point. The first 3D film, The Power of Love, was made back in 1922 and dozens of movies came out in the 1950s including such gems as Creature from the Black Lagoon.

But a key problem was "3D fatigue" whereby viewers' eyes became tired from distinguishing the twin images needed to create depth perception.

Samsung's president of visual display products, Boo Keun Yoon, told the Guardian that 3D fatigue killed off three-dimensional filming in the 20th century but that new techniques have overcome this lingering problem by creating a more consistent image.

"We've recently had developments in how 3D films are shot," said Yoon. "I believe 2010 will be the year of the 3D television revolution. Probably by the end of this year, we'll see an explosive growth in demand."

Under the banner of transparency, ministers have allowed a frenzy of blame to develop around the Jon Venables case

The chief enemy of British freedom at present is the British press. The justice secretary, Jack Straw, was right eventually to refuse details of the re-jailing of the child murderer Jon Venables. By then it was too late. Following a possible breach in Venables' new identity, he was pursued and allegedly caught with pornography on his computer. It is unclear whether this allegation, while sufficient to send him back to prison, would be enough for him to stand trial. The probation system seems to have worked as it should.

That was until ministers and the media became involved. Announcing Venables' return to jail, Straw said it was because there were allegations that he had committed an "extremely serious" offence. He mentioned none and brought no charges against him. He is a lawyer, and must have known that this would declare open season for lurid speculation. It was an extraordinary decision.

Straw and the home secretary, Alan Johnson, then sated themselves on publicity. Johnson declared the public had "a right to know" what Venables was alleged to have done to breach his parole, an obscure right when the offence was unproven. Straw contradicted Johnson, said such a right was "not presently in the interests of justice", and indeed would "undermine the integrity of the criminal justice process".

The media took up the cry. BBC News, now chasing ratings with tabloid fervour, covered the Venables case extensively. His crime was "almost too terrible to contemplate", it announced, before contemplating it at length. The tabloids went into full outrage mode. The Sun offered perhaps the most prejudicial front page in modern times, declaring: "On a scale of 1 to 5, Venables' child porn rated 4."

Leading a pack that included the Mirror and Mail titles, the Sun was unfazed by an attempted government injunction of restraint. It wrote of "experts horrified" at Venables' computer material, "among the most depraved and serious anyone could possess" and involving "an element of sexual violence against children". There was no sign of Venables having done more than allegedly look at porn images.

By yesterday, the Venables case had merged with another youth abuse case, that of Peter Chapman, groomer and murderer of the teenage Ashleigh Hall. The Sun linked the two and declared: "Mothers Betrayed: Two Women Let Down by Justice." Bulger's mother, with publicist in tow, went straight to the point, "hitting out at government handling". Ashleigh's mother, Andrea Hall, "blasted cops" and felt "let down by those who were supposed to be monitoring" the killer, a known sex offender. The implication in both cases was of "government" being somehow to blame.

Straw and Johnson did nothing to disabuse this implication. They could have de-escalated the affair by firmly leaving the Venables case to the judge who let him free, Lady Butler-Sloss, the probation service and the police. Either the police should have brought charges or the matter could have been left to burn itself out. Cases involving children are emotional, but there is no reason for politicians and the press abetting each other to make them more so. Venables had shown remorse and is said to be a candidate for rehabilitation. He may not be entitled to the benefit of any doubt, but justice is entitled to its dignities.

Instead, Venables' prosecution has been rendered near impossible. Straw agreed to meet and consult the original victim's mother, Denise Fergus, who was demanding "justice" and the "right to know". Why victims' families should enjoy special rights long after a case is over is not explained. The history of justice is of the channelling of personal vendetta and communal revenge into the rule of law. Now the law seems to be going backwards, towards the lynch mob.

The press campaign for greater transparency in public affairs has been noble, but is not unqualified. As the former director of public prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, said in the Guardian yesterday: "Like the right to speak freely, the right to know can never be absolute." Excessive transparency can lead authority to install a battery of defensive mechanisms, defences that are becoming a blight on good government.

As was seen after the Bulger, Soham, Baby P and Doncaster cases, ministers react to each apparent failure not by acknowledging risk but with laws and regulations to minimise blame. The system becomes hyper-safe, risk-averse, regulation-happy and power-hungry. Public expectation of the state is raised to impossible heights. No parent is ever to blame, rather the authorities who claim to be responsible for parenting. Britain is quietly abrogating to the state both personal and parental responsibility.

Press and politicians may complain bitterly of the regulation, surveillance and control that now emanate from Whitehall and town hall. Yet the same press and politicians demand ever more control when the slightest thing goes wrong. Heads must roll and lessons be learned. Power is sucked from councils, prisons, schools, police forces. Responsibility is sucked from teachers, probation officers, doctors and social workers. We all protest, but we cannot bring ourselves to accept the risk of relinquishing such control.

In the case of the death of Baby P, the real scandal appears to be not so much the failure of the family ? families "fail" every day ? nor the failure of supervision. The scandal seems to lie in why that supervision failed. A local agency of government was so hard-pressed by regulation and monitoring that its social workers spent 60% of every day in front of a computer safeguarding their information trails, rather than doing the job of looking after children.

The reality is that ministers never knowingly shed power. When anything goes wrong they demand more to put it right. When the press cries "something must be done", they try to do even more. It is the default mode of those who lack the political courage to stand up to pressure, to take a risk and trust others. As Pope said, it is thus that "we bring to one dead level every mind".

The cliche holds that revealing the most lurid details of decisions about individuals is the price we pay for a transparent democracy. This is rubbish. Transparency that contributes to injustice, failed rehabilitation and eventually even greater secrecy is bad transparency. The Labour government's obsessive lack of trust in public servants and its yen to de-professionalise their work with targets cannot be in the public interest. Nor was this week's handing of justice over to the tender mercies of the press.

British Airways cabin crew warn walkout is looming, with Easter weekend the likely target for rail workers

Industrial action is threatening to disrupt the travel plans of millions of rail and air passengers over the next month as disputes at Network Rail and British Airways move towards strike action.

A walkout by BA cabin crew is possible after the airline asked for an extension to talks until tomorrow afternoon in order to consider a last-ditch offer of a 2.6% pay cut by flight attendants. The Unite trade union has ruled out striking over the Easter holidays, but a strike could be called for next week if discussions fail.

Unite's cabin crew branch, Bassa, warned members last night that a walkout was looming. "It would appear that at this stage it is also increasingly unlikely that an agreement will be reached," said Bassa representatives in an email.

Network Rail, the owner of Britain's rail tracks and stations, also warned yesterday that a national strike could follow straight after a BA walkout ? with the bank holiday weekend the likely target. Maintenance workers and signallers at the RMT union are being balloted over job reductions and changes to working conditions, with the poll results due in the next week.

Robin Gisby, Network Rail director of operations, said he expected 5,500 signallers and thousands of maintenance staff to strike over Easter, in what would be the first national rail strike since 1994.

"Our guess is that it will come together this Easter weekend," he said, but indicated that the company would not back down over the changes to shift patterns and voluntary job cuts underpinning the dispute. "I cannot live with the RMT holding the whole country to ransom."

Gisby also accused the RMT of using the imminent general election to strongarm the company. "The timing of this dispute and the clinical attempt to bring together ops and maintenance issues at the same time is an obvious political move by the RMT to maximise pain for passengers over a holiday period ? Easter ? and to disrupt a potential election campaign."

Gisby admitted a strike by signallers would cause significant problems, possibly shutting down the busiest parts of the network, because major signalling centres would be left unstaffed. Network Rail believes it can withstand a strike by maintenance workers for a week, but anything longer could see speed restrictions imposed, with some branch lines being shut down. The RMT said the cuts would make a rail disaster an "inevitability".

Meanwhile, the BA dispute inched towards a conclusion yesterday as officials at Unite and Bassa haggled over cost-cutting proposals. Unite tabled a package including a pay cut this year and reductions in perks such as telephone allowances. Unite claimed the proposals exceeded the airline's annual savings target of £60m, but the airline was still mulling them over as the 5pm deadline for ending the talks passed. BA requested the extension, which was accepted by the trade union. If it fails to produce an agreement, a walkout could take place as soon as next Wednesday or Thursday once the union has given BA the obligatory seven days' notice. According to a poll on the Bassa website, nearly one-third of BA's 12,000 cabin crew want a strike lasting longer than 10 days.

A draft agreement between both sides, waiting to be published in the event of a deal, contains a pledge to "rebuild the trust damaged by the recent dispute". However, that will take some effort after months of increasingly bitter wrangling.

BA has drawn up plans to break any strike with 1,000 volunteer cabin crew drawn from the ranks of its 38,000-strong workforce and a fleet of 23 chartered jets. Willie Walsh, the chief executive, last week said he hoped to operate a "substantial proportion" of the airline's Heathrow long-haul operations and a "good number" of short-haul flights.

BA will operate its entire schedule from London City airport during the expected strike, and has also claimed more than two-thirds of its Gatwick-based crew will work normally.

The airline operates 650 flights a day with its 239-plane fleet, mostly from Heathrow, but has not said which routes would be kept open by the stand-in workforce. Meanwhile, the Irish national carrier, Aer Lingus, yesterday said it would have to fire a quarter of its cabin crew in order to stem losses.

Party donor will comply fully with law change requiring Lords members to pay full UK taxes

The Labour peer and donor Lord Paul today pledged to give up his non-dom status to pay full UK taxes, and suggested that all members of the House of Lords should be made to publish full details of their tax returns, dating back 20 years.

The peer has come under intense pressure from the Conservatives and has been the main target of their counterattack to criticisms over the tax status of Lord Ashcroft, the Tory donor and deputy chairman. Last week Ashcroft revealed he had renegotiated the terms of his peerage to remain a non-dom without senior figures in his party knowing for nearly a decade, triggering accusations that the leadership had failed to deal with the controversy properly.

Lord Paul has always declared his non-dom status but had not indicated how he would comply with new rules that compel all members of the Lords to become full UK taxpayers, leaving it open for him to resign from the Lords to avoid paying extra tax on his multinational steel company earnings.

Announcing he would remain in the upper house, he told the New Statesman: "On the issue of taxation position of peers, of course it goes without saying that I'll be fully complying with the change of law which the government is bringing forward. I strongly support the government proposals in relation to the taxation status of peers and MPs and the membership of the House of Lords and the House of Commons."

It also emerged today that Lord Paul is to be the subject of an inquiry into his expenses claims. Scotland Yard has dropped a police inquiry into his claims, but that has now allowed the subcommittee on lords' interests to conduct its own investigation. The allegation is that he nominated an Oxfordshire flat he had never stayed in as his main home, then claimed thousands of pounds for his London property.

Paul told the Guardian that there should be full transparency of peers' financial affairs: "Why not get every member of the Lords to put their tax returns for the past 20 years into the public domain? I would gladly do so; I have nothing to hide." In the US all legislators have to provide full financial disclosure of their accounts.

Ashcroft is likely to be ordered to give evidence to a Lords inquiry into his appointment to the upper house, it was announced today, following a complaint from the Liberal Democrat Lord Taverne. In a letter to the subcommittee on lords' interests he called for an investigation into whether Ashcroft had breached the code of conduct and principles of standards in public life, saying that if the original undertaking Ashcroft made to become a full resident had been broken, it "would be a serious breach of the code of conduct and the principles of standards in public life".

Management insists business is performing strongly after difficult month that saw its stock market flotation plans pulled

Merlin Entertainments, the debt-laden theme park operator which last month stalled plans for a stock market flotation, has insisted the business continues to perform strongly at an operating level, with comparable sales increasing by 6.4%.

The Luxembourg-registered group behind Legoland, London Dungeons, Madame Tussauds, the London Eye and Alton Towers is among a handful of large private equity-owned groups backed by US buyout house Blackstone whose flotation plans are being watched. A London stock market listing for the private equity group travel booking business Travelport was postponed last month. Exit plans are yet to emerge for Blackstone's investments in United Biscuits and Tragus, the restaurant group behind Cafe Rouge and Strada.

Blackstone has in recent weeks been among the buyout firms to have attracted criticism over the level of IPO fees sought from prospective investors. Some $140m had been sought in connection to aborted attempts to list Travelport in order to help cover transaction advisory costs.

Merlin, which has external net borrowings of about £1bn, today published selective figures for the year to 26 December, which it said showed "the resilience of our business model". It is not expected to publish its statutory accounts for some months. Chief executive Nick Varney said: "We are delighted with Merlin's performance in 2009. In the midst of a deep global recession we welcomed over three million more visitors to our attractions."

Asked about plans for a stock market flotation, Varney said: "News of the demise of our plans to IPO are somewhat premature." With no major debts maturing before 2012, he claimed Merlin was "under no immediate pressure" to find an exit route for its private equity backers.

It emerged last month one of Blackstone's fellow investors in Merlin, Dubai International Capital, had quietly sold two-thirds of its 18% equity holding in the business to the founding Lego family, led by Kjeld Kirk Kirstiansen, as long ago as last summer. The transaction saw the family increase its interest to 34%, making it the second largest investor behind Blackstone, which has 50%. Merlin does not own the Lego toy brand, which remains under family control.

About £100m in proceeds from the reduction in DIC's holding were reportedly used to support other troubled leveraged companies in Europe backed by the Dubai sovereign wealth fund including budget hotel chain Travelodge, engineering group Doncasters and the packaging firm Mauser.

Merlin management's public optimism about the performance of the company comes after a difficult month. Not only was it forced to pull its float plans but a worker at its SeaWorld theme park in Florida was killed by one of the park's killer whales.

Merlin said it increased comparable revenue to £720m, up 6.4% on an underlying basis. It also generated cash of £234m from operations. Of that, £101m went on capital investment, a similar amount on interest payments, and a further amount on paying down a revolving debt facility.

Leader of Traditional Unionist Voice teases former rebels for relenting to agreement with Sinn Féin

While Stormont was bathed in early spring sunshine, a snowman came back to haunt Northern Ireland's first minister, Peter Robinson, and the Democratic Unionist party.

Jim Allister, hardline unionist and the DUP's most trenchant critic, wore a snowman on the lapel of his pinstripe suit as he claimed to everyone he met at the Northern Ireland assembly that his former party colleagues had melted away.

Up until the Hillsborough agreement last month, up to 15 out of the DUP's 36-strong assembly team were known to be sceptical about a deal with Sinn Féin that would lead to the devolution of policing and justice powers.

When the rebels relented and accepted the deal the DUP leadership had urged on them, Allister said that these "no-men" had been transformed into snowmen who would melt under pressure.

Every time he presses the flesh and knocks on the doors of electors in unionist redoubts during the general election campaign, Allister will draw that comparison.

Allister, the leader of Traditional Unionist Voice, poses a formidable threat to the DUP in what was once its safest seat in Northern Ireland ? North Antrim. In the last general election Ian Paisley was returned to the House of Commons with a majority of more than 18,000 votes. Since then the Big Man of Ulster politics has retired both as first minister of Northern Ireland and as DUP leader. On Monday, the DUP in North Antrim said farewell to Paisley senior and nominated Ian Paisley junior to replace him as the party's candidate in the general election.

In the last European elections Allister polled more than 70,000 votes across Northern Ireland. According to tallies in the North Antrim constituency, he appeared to have put in a strong performance, strong enough even to challenge the DUP for the Westminster seat.

Allister hopes to do what Paisley, Robinson and the DUP did to David Trimble in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The DUP portrayed Trimble and his UUP as traitors for agreeing to share power with Sinn Féin following the Good Friday agreement of 1998. Eight years later the DUP appeared to be following Trimble down the same path when they also agreed to a new power-sharing process that included Sinn Féin.

Robinson and his party can argue that the TUV has no alternative other than a return to direct rule, with heavy influence on the governance of Northern Ireland from Dublin.

In addition, the DUP can also contend that many key security powers will not fall into the hands of local politicians.

The DUP can point to the fact that the justice minister and his department has no control over MI5, which has the leading role in counter-terrorism policy in Northern Ireland. Moreover, the PSNI no longer has a drugs squad and the counter-narcotics strategy is now under the Serious Crime Agency ? a body that answers to the home secretary rather than the Northern Ireland justice minister.

But despite these important nuances in security policy, the DUP is still vulnerable to charges of sell-out from its rightwing flank.

Tabloid accused of buying silence after persuading celebrity PR agent to drop case over interception of voicemail messages

The News of the World was tonight accused of buying silence in the phone-hacking scandal after it agreed to pay more than £1m to persuade the celebrity PR agent Max Clifford to drop his legal action over the interception of his voicemail messages.

The settlement means that there will now be no disclosure of court-ordered evidence which threatened to expose the involvement of the newspaper's journalists in a range of illegal information-gathering by private investigators.

The case had potentially important implications for Andy Coulson, media adviser to the Conservative leader, David Cameron, who edited the News of the World at the time of the illegal activity and who has said that he does not remember any of his journalists breaking the law.

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, who has asked questions in parliament about the affair, said: "This is a clear attempt to buy the silence of people who had their phones hacked by the News of the World's reporters. It would make more sense for the newspaper to come clean. The trouble with cover-ups like this is that they give no reassurance that the guilty parties have really changed their ways."

The settlement with Clifford is understood to be worth just over £1m, including legal costs and substantial personal payments which will not be described as "damages", leaving the News of the World free to claim that it has admitted no wrongdoing. It brings to more than £2m the amount paid by News International to victims of phone-hacking to secure their silence: in a separate case the paper paid more than £1m to suppress legal actions brought by Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, and two others who had sued the paper over the interception of their voicemail. The paper had always denied all involvement but paid for a secret settlement after a judge ordered disclosure of paperwork which implicated some of its journalists.

The two men at the heart of the scandal ? the paper's former royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire ? also have been paid money by the News of the World in settlements of unfair dismissal claims, the terms of which are believed to compel them not to disclose what they know about illegal activity at the paper.

Goodman and Mulcaire were jailed in January 2007 for intercepting the voicemail of a total of eight victims, including Clifford and Taylor. The News of the World originally claimed that it had no knowledge of any of the illegal activity. Coulson resigned on the grounds that he carried ultimate responsibility.

Since then it has emerged that other News of the World journalists were involved in handling illegally "hacked" voicemail messages and that there were numerous other victims. Three mobile phone companies found more than 100 customers whose voicemail had been accessed in the previous 12 months by the two jailed men.

Scotland Yard has admitted that in material seized from Mulcaire, it found 91 pin codes, which are used for the interception of voicemail, and that it warned people in government, the military, the police and the royal household that their messages may have been intercepted. Known victims include Prince William, Prince Harry, the former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, the MP George Galloway and the former executive director of the Football Association, David Davies.

The Clifford case threatened to bring important new material into the public domain. In preliminary hearings, Mulcaire insisted that, contrary to the News of the World's denials, he passed information from the hacking of Clifford's voicemails to journalists on the paper. He did not identify them but on February 3, Mr Justice Vos ordered him to do so. The settlement means that Mulcaire is no longer required to name the names.

The judge had also ordered the Information Commissioner's Office to provide material seized from a second investigator, Steve Whittamore, which according to an ICO witness statement reveals "a widespread and unlawful trade in confidential information commissioned by journalists of the News of the World".

Through its barrister the News of the World accepted that contrary to its previous claims, Goodman's purchase of confidential personal information from a private investigator had not been an isolated incident. The ICO material would have identified individual journalists, but that, too, will not now be disclosed.

Finally, the settlement means the News of the World is no longer required to disclose the terms of its secret settlement with Taylor, nor the agreement with Mulcaire that is alleged to have bought his silence.

The settlement is unlikely to mark the end of the affair. Clifford's lawyer, Charlotte Harris, of JMW Solicitors in Manchester, said last night: "There are a number of public figures who are now contemplating issuing proceedings against the News of the World." Politicians, leading actors and sportsmen are believed to be among those who are preparing to sue. And MPs on all sides of the house are watching closely for the effect of the scandal on Coulson.

The House of Commons media select committee last month accused witnesses from the News of the World of "obfuscation" and "collective amnesia". A Labour member of the committee, Paul Farrelly, said last night: "This seems to be another settlement by the News of the World that preserves the cloak of secrecy and confidentiality around its affairs. It all mounts up to give the impression that silence is effectively being bought. People will draw their own conclusion about what are the real motives behind the settlement."

The News of the World declined to comment. Clifford said he was very happy with the outcome: "I'm now looking forward to continuing the successful relationship that I experienced with the News of the World for 20 years before my recent problems with them."

Airbus parent company warns losses could rise due to three-year delays in delivery of Hercules replacement

The parent of European aerospace giant Airbus lost ?763m (£692m) last year after paying ?1.8bn in penalties and extra costs over its controversial new military transporter plane.

EADS also warned that the losses could be much bigger because it has not finalised agreements to compensate European governments which are set to receive delivery of the transporter planes three years late.

Following its failure to deliver the new A380 super-jumbo on time and on budget, the news strikes a further blow to Airbus' reputation for being able to handle major programmes.

The A400m transporter plane was designed to replace the "workhorse of the skies" favoured by the military all over the world, the Hercules, lifting heavy kit like tanks and helicopters into warzones.

But the programme to build 180 of the planes, originally supposed to cost ?19.1bn, is already billions of euros over budget and has seen scores of contracts cancelled. The UK government, which had ordered 25, recently indicated it was scrapping two or three planes, which cost over ?100m each. The Airbus factory at Filton near Bristol is responsible for making the wing tips of the plane. EADS' military aerospace division in total lost ?1.7bn last year, mainly because of the A400m provisions.

EADS also blamed the weak dollar for the losses, because many of its sales are booked in dollars while it reports revenues using the euro, which has strengthened against the US currency. The company also said that new orders more than halved last year because the global economic slowdown sapped demand for civil aircraft. Excluding currency impacts and the A400m provisions, the company earned ?2.2bn before tax, down by a third on the 2008 figure. It also said it would not pay a dividend.

EADS, which employs about 13,000 people in the UK, also confirmed that it was pulling out of the competition to provide air tankers to the US military because it decided that rival bidder Boeing would be favoured.

Sources close to the business secretary, Lord Mandelson, warned the US government last night against embracing protectionism and said that the decision by EADS and its partner Northrop Grumman to pull out over bias fears struck a "bitter blow" for free trade. He wrote to the White House recently, along with other senior European politicians, expressing concern over the competition. EADS is understood to have spent hundreds of millions of euros trying to win the contract. It would also have created hundreds of jobs in the UK.

The debacle over the super-jumbo programme claimed the jobs of the then Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard and other senior managers.

Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners, said: "Certainly EADS will be carrying the can for past mistakes and program arrogance, such as that on the A400M and A380, for many years to come. But we are today looking at a very different and much better EADS and Airbus to those that we had been looking at in the bad old days of previous management."

Gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg has been unable to get into Britain for the last three years, but his troubles may soon be over

Age: 38.

Appearance: Anywhere he likes now.

Eh? An immigration tribunal has just overturned a three-year ban against the gangsta rapper entering the UK.

But he looks like exactly the kind of lovable eccentric Britain is crying out for. And his jewellery could cut the national debt by half. Why is he banned? Is it because he is, you know, ah . . . "urban"? No, It's because last time he came here, in 2006, he and five of his entourage were arrested at Heathrow for violent disorder.

Well, who hasn't got a little rambunctious when faced with the horrors of air travel? They smashed up the duty free area and injured eight police officers when they were told those with economy tickets could not go into the first-class lounge. Snoop was cautioned, although he was also seen on film taken at the time entertaining children at the airport.

Fo' shizzle my nizzle! Don't. Just don't.

Sorry. Still ? a total ban seems harsh. If we stopped every celebrity who threw a strop during an international flight we would have no Gillian Anderson, no Amy Winehouse, Peter Buck, Diana Ross or Naomi Campbell. We'd be a cultural desert! Well, thanks to Snoop's legal team, who successfully argued that the ban affected their client's right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act, we look set to remain a lushly green and fertile land.

Hurrah! And what will he be freely expressing, d'you think? His further thoughts on Hoes, Money and Clout or Payin' for Pussy, perhaps, if tracks from his 1998 album are anything to go by. Or on Break[ing] a Bitch Til I Die (2001's Duces'n Trayz)?

Hmm. This human rights thing is a little tricky sometimes, isn't it? It is. But Snoop still needs a visa. And his previous multiple convictions for drug and gun offences may mean he is refused.

I didn't know about those. And although he was cleared, the murder trial in 1993 probably won't help either.

Gulp. Can I shizzle my nizzle now, please? Yes. Yes, you may.

Do say: "Snoop, how lovely to see you ? it's been too long!"

Don't say: "Snoop! You haven't come here to kill me, have you?"

Eight artists shortlisted for UK's richest visual arts prize

The work of eight artists competing for the UK's richest visual arts prize went on display in Wales today ? and none could be accused of triviality.

There was no sight of a light being turned off and on at the preview opening of the fourth Artes Mundi prize exhibition in Cardiff. This was big subject art tackling subjects from post-communist social order to consumerism and globalisation.

The prize of £40,000 is one of the most lucrative in the world and the biggest in the UK. It is presented every two years and, while it may have a lower profile than the Turner, for example, its status and importance in the world of contemporary art seems to grow each time.

Importantly, the prize provides a platform for international artists yet to make a big name for themselves in the UK. This year, nearly 500 were nominated from 80 countries.

Tessa Jackson, founding artistic director of Artes Mundi, said one aim had been to increase "the level and scope" of contemporary art on display in Wales, and one direct result has been the decision to create a dedicated space for it in the national museum from next year.

"There has been an enormous thirst for what we do and it has been one of the national museum's most popular exhibitions," said Jackson. "Beyond Doctor Who and dinosaurs even."

It will be an impressively well-versed visitor who knows the names or work of any of the shortlisted artists. Jackson said: "It has been a very conscious decision to bring together artists who aren't necessarily part of the London or commercial scene. We want a different range of players. People don't necessarily know the names of the artists, but they get very engaged with the work and the content of it and what it's about."

Jackson agreed that all of the artists tackled serious subjects, but said the show was not po-faced. "There is amazing humour in some of the work," she said. "I don't fish, but there's a bit of tickling going on here."

All of the artists this year were shortlisted for their skill in reflecting the politics that surround them, and there was a strong showing by artists from formerly communist countries, including the Albanian Adrian Paci; the Bulgarian Ergin Çavusoglu; the Russian Olga Chernysheva; and Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev, from Kyrgyzstan.

The latter pair, who explore ordinary life on the new Silk Road, were not at the prize preview after they were denied visas. The other artists are the Peruvian Fernando Bryce, who has lived in Europe for almost 20 years; Chen Chieh-yen, from Taiwan; and Yael Bartana, from Israel.

Many of the exhibits show the continuing strength of film and video art. Bartana, for example, has on display her most recent work, a film called Wall and Tower, in which she imagines the return of the 3 million Jews who lived in Poland before the Nazi occupation.

We are the "same but changed" says the orator as Bartana re-enacts the building of a wall and tower in the heart of Warsaw. This new Jewish settlement quickly has barbed wire round it and although it has a welcome sign, it is anything but.

Bartana has called herself an "amateur anthrologist" and examines tricky subjects. "I've been exploring anti-semitism, the Jewish and Polish relationship, the economy of responsibility and guilt," she said.

So far, Bartana said she had managed to avoid hostility to her work. "The Polish project is more complicated and touching on some deep wounds. I'm expecting some more difficulties than before, maybe."

The exhibition at Cardiff's national museum, which opens to the public tomorrow, provides a snapshot of each artist, but they will be judged on their work over the last five to eight years. The winner will be announced on 19 May.

As the Conservative candidate in a marginal seat, I see that while BNP support is a threat, the Labour vote has collapsed

Today's national polling is not a true reflection of the voters' intentions in Batley and Spen. I was selected 12 months ago and at that time, outside of a few pockets of support, people were saying they didn't like Labour; this was surprising given that there is a Labour majority of 5,500.

Since the summer of 2009, we have found that the language on the doorsteps has changed significantly. The electorate have moved on from saying they "dislike" Gordon Brown to a palpable "hatred" of him. These are their words, not mine; they are very plain-speaking in Yorkshire. What has been a surprise is the speed at which the Labour vote has collapsed; from a decline in support for Labour to an avalanche away from them. The people in Batley and Spen understand that we can't go on like this and it is time for change ? again, their words, they are not trotting out our party slogans. I am finding lifelong Labour supporters coming up to me on the streets and saying that they will be voting for me this time as they are fed up with Labour.

Last week, we were canvassing on a small housing estate predominantly occupied by elderly voters. They are still apoplectic over the MPs' expenses debacle and were outraged at the recent increase in MPs' salaries. We explained that neither I, nor my colleague who was standing for the council elections, had stood for election before and are therefore untainted by the recent excesses stories. This calmed them down and we ticked a considerable number of "Conservative supporters" on our canvass sheets.

Unsurprisingly, there is still a large proportion of the electorate who are undecided. However, once they are told that this is a straight fight between the Conservatives and that a vote for any other party is a vote for five more years of Gordon Brown, this usually makes up their mind for them. The Liberals are not mentioned, even in a ward where they have three councillors, but the BNP is a threat. This is not taken into account in the marginal polling.

The BNP voters are not just disaffected working-class Labour voters up here; they are also middle-class. This is not factored into the marginal polling figures, so therefore cannot be extrapolated ? which is why you haven't been reading about it in the national press. But when doctors, nurses, teachers and white-collar workers are thinking of voting BNP, we have a problem.

But what most people want to hear is that we are addressing the top three issues up here: immigration ? which is right up there with the economy and law and order. ConservativeHome editor Tim Montgomerie's recently expressed view that we need to talk about immigration and campaign responsibly on the issue is spot on. I have spent a lot of time on the streets and doorsteps exposing the BNP's vile policies. The good news is that I estimate we have a 90% conversion rate.

Extra money for National Heritage Memorial Fund found soon after announcement that cash was to be cut by 50%

The government today said it would maintain the National Heritage Memorial Fund's grant of £10m a year ? a week after the fund was told the grant was being slashed by 50%.

The change of heart came after the fund's chief executive, Carole Souter, warned that treasures of the kind the fund had helped rescue in the past ? including the medieval Mappa Mundi and the Flying Scotsman locomotive ? could be lost to the nation if the grant was cut.

The money to maintain the funding is understood to have resulted from an end-of-year departmental underspend. The grant will be increased to £15m this year and then cut to £5m next year.

"I am very pleased that we will be able to meet the NHMF's £10m grant next year," the culture minister, Margaret Hodge, said. "It is an incredibly important fund that has helped save many important works for the nation."

The cut would have come at a disastrous time for the fund, which is already heavily committed to grants including staged £10m payments to the National Galleries of Scotland and England for the Duke of Sutherland's Titian, Diana and Actaeon.

Major applications are expected in the coming months, including from the Potteries and Birmingham museums for help in raising the £3.3m needed to buy the Staffordshire hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold.

Chairman of the corporation's governance body insists it is capable of reining in the BBC's expansionist tendencies.

Sir Michael Lyons has hit back against calls for the BBC Trust to be scrapped, a pledge the Conservative Party has made if it comes to power, arguing that the result could be the creation of a "glorified complaints office".

Lyons, the BBC Trust chairman, speaking to the Manchester Statistical Society today, also said he saw it as the trust's mission to stamp out an "imperial compulsion" that has resided in the corporation since it enjoyed monopoly UK broadcasting status in the days of the first director general, John Reith, in the 1920s.

He added that the aim of the strategic review unveiled last week, which proposes shutting digital radio stations 6 Music and the Asian Network and reducing the BBC's web output by half, was to create a "more compact" corporation. But this did not mean the BBC would be "put in a straitjacket and never again allowed to do anything new".

"But, that said, a more compact BBC will undoubtedly mean making some tough choices," he said. "The BBC needs to concentrate on its important and widely valued public role rather than seeking to become an international communications company."

Lyons added that many of the achievements of the often-criticised BBC Trust, the corporation's regulatory and governance body, have been overlooked and that working closely with the director general, Mark Thompson, and the executive board has proved to be beneficial, not detrimental, as some have argued.

"Being part of the BBC keeps us close to the coalface [and] I believe strongly that having the trust as part of the BBC is a strength not a weakness," he said. "When we see things going wrong we can act quickly and decisively to put this right. The public would be short changed if the trust were replaced by a glorified complaints office."

Lyons added that the BBC Trust is not conflicted in a role that critics characterise as being both cheerleader and regulator for the corporation. "What the trust is not is the BBC's regulator. That's the job of Ofcom," he said.

"Our job is to steer that tricky course between independence and accountability," Lyons added, referring to the BBC Trust as akin to a supervisory board.

Last month Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary, reiterated that a Conservative government would look to scrap the BBC Trust in favour of a new "licence fee payers' trust". He has also argued that director general Mark Thompson might be better served by a non-executive chairman.

However, Lyons today defended the trust, insisting it was capable of reining in the BBC's expansionist tendencies.

"There is a view of the BBC that there is within its DNA a kind of imperial compulsion," he said, explaining why the BBC needs "clear boundaries" to emerge from the current strategic review.

"According to this view, the BBC is driven by an insatiable desire to expand, to colonise, to establish its forces in every far-flung corner of broadcasting and publishing. That is not something the trust, as the representative of the public, will allow to happen."

Lyons added that the public impact of an expansionist BBC was a reduction of choice in the market that ultimately was detrimental for consumers. "You, the public, would be the losers," he said. "The trust is clear that the BBC must be a good corporate neighbour to others in the media marketplace."

He admitted that the BBC can seem to be a "pretty big and insensitive presence in the marketplace". But he warned that when some rivals claim to be threatened, such as BSkyB, with its "colossal scale, ambition and financial muscle", "it can be hard to take such charges entirely seriously".

"We have no issue at all with the BBC competing ferociously where it matters, on quality, but the trust has no wish to see the BBC reassume its monopoly position," he said.

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