IN BRITAIN TODAY Militant farmers form protest group

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32406, 19 September 1970, Page 23

IN BRITAIN TODAY Militant farmers form protest group

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter Copyright Cable News' Digest)

LONDON. I A new militant farmI ers’ group that will fight I for more Government aid to balance rising costs has been formed in Britain. The organisation, known as the Fanners* Federation, came into being at a meeting in Birmingham. I The new group will not break away from the National Fanners’ Union but accuses the N.F.U. of timewasting and ineffectiveness, and of “failure to exploit the situation.” The chairman of the new federation is Mr Wallace Day, a Devon dairy fanner who last winter was involved in protest action which involved driving tractors into market towns to disrupt traffic, and parading pigs along I main streets. Mr Day says that if there iis no satisfactory Govem- ! ment action by the next monthly meeting of the federation, further protest demonstrations can be expected. ■" “There is going to be far more distress among farmers this winter than during the agricultural depression between the wars,” said Mr Day. "People are going out of fanning—they are going bust. , . . “While the farming industry is faced with fixed prices for its produce, it has to battle with inflationary trends in the costs it has to bear. The industry is affected by inflation as everyone else is, but we have to face it with fixed prices. “There has been an absolutely unprecedented rise in feed costs, for instance, yet there are fixed prices for stock and milk.” The “Financial Times,” in an editorial commenting on the new federation, sympathises with the plight of Britain's farmers, but says that in the short run the Government may feel forced to stand against the demand for more cash so that it can proceed with its plan for reducing Government spend-

ing. In the long run, however, the “Financial Times” sees the Government implementing its proclaimed policy of replacing deficiency payments by a system of import levies. “At the time,” the newspaper says, “the N.F.U., presumably prodded on by Mr Day and his colleagues, will find itself preoccupied with urging the highest possible import levies and the best possible system of guaran-teedfall-back payments.

"If the Government wants to hold back inflation it will resist such pressure to the best possible extent compatible with the eventual meshing-in of the new system with the policies of the European Common Market.” N.F.U. NOT SURPRISED The president of the National Farmers’ Union (Mr Henry Plumb) said that he was not surprised by the breakaway move. “It’s been threatening for a long time,” he saii “If they feel that I have lacked leadership, they had better say so loud and clear, and if they feel that they can make a better case with Mr Prior, the Minister of Agriculture, and obtain improvements for the industry, they should go ahead and try.” Mr Plumb was speaking before he himself saw Mr Prior about the situation in which many fanners find themselves.

Fighting fund BRITAIN’S UNIONS are planning to establish a film fund to - fight legal actions brought under the Conservative Government’s proposed industrial relations legislation, the “Daily Mail” reports. The fund will be built up from a |d-a-week levy on the country’s 9) million trade unionists, and will be used to deter employers from bringing actions for breach of contract. Under the Government’s scheme, unions would be required to register and conform to strict rules for dealing with disputes. They would have to prove they had taken all possible steps to get unofficial strikers back to work, or face deregistration and loss of legal immunity. The bill also envisages the enforcement of industrial contracts, a "cooling-off’ period for disputes, and secret ballots for major disputes. . . , With a large legal fund at the disposal of unions, small employers could be deterred from fighting cases through the Appeal Courts, and so the effect of the legislation could be blunted. New judicial system mooted A series of “people’s courts,” with counsel, designed to handle small claims of up to £lOO has been suggested by the Consumer Council, writes a Press Association correspondent. Such courts have been proposed because the council feels that many people with just cases are put off taking egal action by the high cost of court proceedings to those whose case is dismis-

To win £lOO in a full court case, the council says, a consumer has to face the prospect of paying out £250 if he oses, made up of £125 for his lawyers and witnesses, and a similar sum for those of the defence. The scheme has the basic support of the Law Society, whose members are reluctant to accept small claims cases because .they are uneconomic.

But the society says that scheme proposed by the Consumer Council will require some amendments, and it still has to be proved that the public really wants to pay the various costs of the suggested type of courts. In its report, the Consumer Council envisages the people’s courts as special divisions of the existing county courts.

It suggests that the courts should be open during the evenings, with a rota of lawyers and court registrars acting as adjudicators. Each side would state its case without lawyers.

Complaints could be brought only by individuals, not by businesses. The adjudicators could be given some powers to make further inquiries if dissatisfied with the evidence given by the two parties.

Generally, the cost to the plaintiff or defendant could be limited to between 10s and £2, but the courts would have the power to levy a substantial fine on anyone bringing a frivolous case before the adjudicators. There would also be some costs to the Crown. The result of almost two years of work, the council’s report says that solicitors do not welcome clients with small claims, and frequently they are shuffled from one lawyer to another. Inquiries showed that few individuals used the county courts to press claims, and 89 per cent of the cases coming before those courts were originated by businesses. The report suggests that almost all types of complaint concerning less than £lOO could be brought to the courts. Cases would include personal injury, faulty installations, bad servicing, accident damage, tenant action against landlords for not carrying out repairs, and landlord action against tenants for causing damage. The courts would be run informally, but in an office or meeting room, not in a courtroom.

The council’s chairman, Dame Elizabeth Ackroyd, who is soon to be succeeded by a New Zealander, Mr Desmond Wilson, said that some people feared the proposed courts could lead to rough justice, but this was better than no justice at all. Her council itself handled over 5000 complaints a year, while other bodies, like the Citizens’ Advice Bureau network and the Automobile Association, received more than 100,000 complaints a year. The system of small claims courts without lawyers and full judges had been tried successfully in parts of America, Dame Elizabeth Ackroyd added. The Consumer Council’s studv is now with the office of the Lord Chancellor, who heads the judicial system in Britain. The office gave considerable assistance in the compiling of the report. Welcoming the study,’ the Law Society said that there was certainly a need for some procedure to deal with claims which, inevitably.

were priced out of the judicial market. But the proposals did not say exactly how sufficient funds would be raised to pay for the work that someone, at some stage, would have to do to make sure the adjudicator was basing his decision on the right facts. “Any sort of justice takes time, and time costs money,” a spokesman for the society said. “The basic principle of the courts is good, but the community must decide whether or not it really wants to pay the costs of this sort of justice.” Explosion in Londonderry 'THE wave of bomb attacks x in Ulster have spread for the first time to Londonderry where an explosion shattered windows in the Roman Catholic Bogside district this week. However, the bomb, placed in a transformer station at the edge of Bogside, caused only slight damage to the equipment there. It was the 102nd explosion in Northern Ireland this year. Most have been aimed at installations and offices in Belfast, the capital, and the blame for them has been placed on Protestant extremists dissatisfied with Government reforms intended to remove the grievances of Ulster’s Roman Catholic minority. Ordered out 'THE West German leftwing student leader, Mr Rudi (“Red”) Dutschke, has been ordered to leave Britain by the Home Office. Mr Dutschke came to England in 1968 for medical

treatment after being shot in West Berlin by a Right-wing sympathiser. He had hoped to remain, to study at Cambridge University, but the Home Office says his stay was extended “on compassionate grounds, solely for the purpose of convalescence.” He has been refused permission to remain after September 30. Moves against ship hijacks The principal shipping lines on the North Atlantic route have ordered a tightening of security checks on passengers in case Arab guerrilla hijackers turn their attention from aircraft to ships. A spokesman for Cunard, whose luxury 65,000-ton liner Queen Elizabeth II sails on a weekly service between Britain, France and New York, said that, in particular, passengers who booked less than 72 hours before sailing were being watched. Luggage was being searched and documents carefully checked at both Southhampton and Le Havre, the European ports of call. Similar checks are being made on the 66,000-ton France, which shares the weeklv New York service with Cunard. But a spokesman for Peninsular and Orient Lines, whose liners sail round the Cape and on Mediterranean cruises, said they were satisfied with their on-board security. The Cunard spokesman said that the bookings last week were extremely good, but he could not say whether this was the result of passengers shying away from air travel after the spate of air piracy.