“Wouldn’t she be in more trouble in that case?” But Ms Harman said she was surprised Mr Sykes was not rising to complain to the Health Secretary, Stephen Dorrell, about the fact that 7,546 hospital beds had been closed in his own health region.”I believe that is what his constituents want him to be speaking up about in this House of Commons, rather than making cheap points.”She effectively passed the test with a witty riposte to Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman who, after repeated attempts to intervene were ignored, accused her of sex discrimination. “It is about the hundreds of patients who wait on trolleys for emergency treatment. It is about the thousands who are denied the treatment they need.”The jeers of Tory backbenchers in a House unusually well attended for an Opposition debate, suggested otherwise. Noting the packed benches opposite him, David Shaw, Conservative MP for Dover, said Labour MPs had been banned from the Commons tea room.Later, Mr Shaw came close to be ordered out of the chamber after shouting out that Tony Blair was a “hypocrite”, but finally withdrew the accusation under pressure from the deputy speaker, Michael Morris.The Labour leader, and his deputy, John Prescott, were on the crowded Opposition front bench to support Ms Harman, while her husband, union official Jack Dromey, watched from the public gallery.John Sykes, MP for Scarborough, was one of the first Tories to try to trip up the Labour health spokeswoman. And he avoided answering a question by the MP Keith Hampson about the Cyprus memorandum.

Instead, Mr Kock paid tribute to Government officials administering the export licensing system.. Harriet Harman last night proved to her Labour colleagues that whatever they might think of her judgement in sending her son, Joseph, to a grammar school, she is a doughty Commons performer under pressure. Opening a Labour-initiated debate on the health service – scheduled before the schooling row broke – Ms Harman managed both to stifle Tory attempts to embarrass her and to mount an effective attack on “privatisation by the back door”.
“This debate is about the crisis in our National Health Service,” Ms Harman began. He admitted keeping in contact with the security services while on the BMARC board.After Mr Kock accused Gerald James, the former BMARC chairman who claims his fellow directors did know Lisi was bound for Iran, of “always looking for spooks under the bed”, Martin O’Neill, the committee chairman, replied that Mr Kock was “a spook above the bed”.Mr Kock also denied the company ran “a secret order book”, as alleged by Mr James. He was accused by the MP Ken Purchase of having “a selective memory”.MPs repeatedly questioned Mr Kock about his own background in the defence industry, the armed forces and intelligence. In a session that became heated at times, Mr Kock downplayed Lisi, claiming it was not “a very large project” He admitted, though, it had been discussed. Board minutes did not include much mention of Lisi – possibly, it was revealed, because the minutes had been doctored.While Major-General Isles said he had heard factory rumours that the Lisi guns were going to Iran, Mr Kock said he had not heard them.

At the same time as BMARC was using this device to arm Cyprus, shipments were being made to Singapore as part of Lisi.The memorandum emerged as MPs quizzed Stephan Kock, another ex-BMARC director. It details how the firm had failed to obtain an export licence for Greek Cyprus in 1987. As a way round the embargo, the ammunition was ordered by Oerlikon, BMARC’s former Swiss parent, from the company’s Grantham factory and sent to Singapore, from where it was shipped to Cyprus. That change was also reflected in more than twice as many union members saying they believed unions should have a larger say over management’s long term plans. “Job security is seen as a major concern,” the report says.But while work is shrinking for men, it is rising for women, a reflection of more part-time jobs, but also women having fewer children, delaying having them and are more likely to return to work after having a child.9 Social Trends 1996 HMSO; pounds 35.95. CHRIS BLACKHURST

Westminster Correspondent
The defence company at the centre of the arms to Iran affair was also using Singapore as a way of avoiding a British embargo against supplying Cyprus, the Trade and Industry Select Committee was told yesterday.A former director of the company was also accused by an MP of having a “selective memory” after denying he had not even heard factory rumours arms were destined for Iran.A memorandum to senior executives of BMARC reveals Singapore was being used as a conduit for ammunition for 35mm guns – the same role it played in the supply of 140 naval guns to Iran in defiance of a United Nations blockade.Jonathan Aitken MP, who sat on the BMARC board, has denied knowing Iran was the final destination for the naval guns order, codenamed Project Lisi.In evidence to the select committee, which is investigating the Lisi deal, other ex-BMARC directors, William McNaught and Major-General Donald Isles, have maintained they did not know the artillery pieces were heading for Iran or that Singapore was a stop-off.Dated 4 January 1989, the memo was sent by Mr McNaught, BMARC’s managing- director, to five colleagues, including Major-General Isles. Of men unemployed for a year, about 60 per cent of those aged 50 to 64 had been out of work for a year or more compared with 45 per cent of those aged 20 to 29.

“Redundancy is a real fear among people,” Social Trends records, even though redundancy rates have fallen in recent years.The changed work patterns have also brought a marked shift in people’s attitudes over the role of trade unions. Seven years ago, in 1989, 28 per cent of those questioned listed improving pay as the most important thing they thought trade unions should do By 1994, that had changed dramatically. More than twice as many (37 per cent) wanted unions to concentrate on protecting jobs, against 15 per cent listing improving pay as their most important task. Older workers – along with the young – are the most likely to be made redundant. And once out of a job, older workers are the least likely to get back into one. Only a fraction more than half (51 per cent) of men aged 60 to 64 now work, against four out of five in 1971, and the proportion is expected to fall below a half by 2000.Some of the dramatic decline reflects earlier retirement made possible by the growth of occupational pension schemes But some is forced retirement.

By 18, barely half are still in education against four-fifths in France and Germany. In addition, more than one-third of UK participants are part- time when in other countries education and training is almost all full- time.As education lengthens, however, working life, particularly for men, is being squeezed at the other end. In the three years to 1993- 94 the number of full-time students increased more than 40 per cent in higher education and 50 per cent in further education – increases greater than over the whole of the previous decade.But despite such dramatic growth, the UK still lags behind other countries. But despite an educational and work revolution which is tending to shorten working lives while the population ages, young people still quit formal education much more quickly than in many competitor countries Education is starting earlier. More than half of three- and four-year-olds now attend school full- or part-time, compared with one-fifth 25 years ago.
The proportion staying on at school past 16 has almost doubled since 1980, and there has been a “spectacular” growth in the number of 18-year- olds entering further and higher education. Britons are becoming better qualified, retiring or having to give up work earlier, and spending longer in education, according to the latest edition of Social Trends, writes Nicholas Timmins.