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TENANTS AND trade unionists are preparing for a major lobby of parliament against council house privatisation on Wednesday 24 January. The lobby has been called to demand that New Labour drops its attempt to end council housing and force through the privatisation of all remaining 3.2 million council homes in Britain.

A FORMER spy for the British secret service and a product of the establishment has written a brilliant novel that rails against the power of multinationals. John Le Carré is best known for books of British and Russian government intrigue during the Cold War like The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

A FORMER soldier has confirmed that he will give damning evidence to the Saville inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, when the British army killed 14 people.

FORMER MI5 secret service officer David Shayler returned to Britain on Monday and was immediately charged with various offences. But the government has not directly taken up his most embarrassing allegation-that British agents were involved in a plot to assassinate Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi.

The cooperation between the military, industry, ex civil servants and ex-ministers has forced Tony Blair into hurried action. Blair has imposed a ban on a Sir David Davies, former Ministry of Defence chief scientific adviser, giving commercial advice to Britain's leading military firm, British Aerospace.

TUBE privatisation will threaten safety, says a private letter from the government's chief rail inspector.

The pay of Britain's top bosses rose by 16.5 percent last year, four times the average wage increase.

THE economic boom is passing millions of workers in Britain by. That is the conclusion of a study in the Financial Times this week. For some people this is proof that there is a growing "north-south divide" in Britain.

An outbreak of Loyalist in-fighting in Northern Ireland hit the headlines this week as two Loyalists were killed and British troops were returned to the streets.

Manchester BUS SERVICES around north Manchester and Lancashire were brought to a halt again this week as drivers in two of Britain's leading bus companies went on strike over pay. Around 1,750 drivers on Manchester's First Group buses were on strike on Friday of last week and Monday of this week. The battle is over two issues-a decent pay rise and to get rid of the differences in pay rates that drivers get. This is the fourth time the drivers, members of the TGWU union, have taken action.

HUNDREDS OF workers at a BAE Systems plant, formerly British Aerospace, near Manchester have voted to take strike action over pay. The 620 workers at the Woodford factory in Greater Manchester voted by a huge 93.95 percent for strike action.

SOME 120 workers for British Gas Services in London held a strike last week in a dispute over pay. The engineers, members of the GMB union, are demanding the firm pays all the workers the £100 inner London allowance which only a section of the workforce gets.