Europe Follow

Remember Tony Blair's promise to raise health spending to the European average? He's forgotten it! A study by the London School of Economics and the respected Kings Fund shows that New Labour will need to spend an extra £38 billion a year to reach the target that Blair says he aspires to.

BSE-"mad cow disease"- has suddenly become a key issue right across Europe. In France, Italy, Greece, Spain and, above all, Germany, beef consumption has slumped by up to 40 percent in the wake of a sudden rise in BSE cases.

The Holocaust is the greatest crime in European history. There have been other horrors-terrible wars, mass killings, the dropping of the atomic bomb and the forced movement of peoples on all continents. But the Nazis' systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others during the Second World War is barbarism without parallel. They used up to date industrial techniques to set about annihilating the entire Jewish population of Europe.

The internet is a curious and contradictory thing. A sign of the times in France is a useful website called lesgreves.com (strikes.com), which gives a detailed and long list of strikes taking place each day around the country. The main sponsor on last week's home page was Opel. Opel is the German subsidiary of the giant General Motors car firm. Hopefully the firm will feature in a different way in a round-up of strike reports later this month when workers across Europe join a day of action against GM.

The truth is finally beginning to emerge about radioactive weapons used by Western forces in their wars against Iraq and in the Balkans. The revelations on depleted uranium come as the tenth anniversary of the start of the West's 1991 Gulf War against Iraq approaches this month. Several European governments that are part of the NATO military alliance have launched inquiries into depleted uranium weapons.

TURKEY: The Turkish state murdered 30 left wing political prisoners in a military assault on 20 prisons just before Christmas. The massacre was so savage that it brought condemnation even from European governments that are keen on Turkey joining the European Union. The roll call of the dead and how they died is harrowing:

Strike to shut Ford across EuropeOccupy Rover to keep out alchemyStop New Labour giving in to the fat cats

A DEVASTATING report into British abattoirs reveals "severe deficiencies" in the production of food, according to a report by vets working for the European Commission. The vets inspected a number of factories producing chicken, which counts for around 40 percent of all the meat consumed in Britain. The process used dirty equipment in run down buildings and with little inspection from qualified vets. The report also concluded that government inspections at the factories are failing. It revealed factory bosses are pressurising the inspectors into giving them a good hygiene report. Food safety expert Tim Lang says this smacks of "the worst time of the 1980s when the ministry's reflex was

TONY BLAIR was off swanking at the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland last week. He lectured European business and political leaders that they needed to copy the flexible, free - market model offered by British and US capitalism. "Does Europe continue with the old social model, that has an attitude to social legislation rooted in the 60s and 70s, or does it recognise that the new economy demands a redirection of European economic policy for the future?" Blair asked.

MULTI-MILLIONAIRE Carl Cushnie was one of the glittering stars in New Labour's constellation of businessmen. He appeared in New Labour's party political broadcast for the European elections last year after a personal appeal from Tony Blair. Now the financial company he headed, British - based Versailles, has gone into receivership and is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. It increased its apparent turnover by setting up paper companies and swapping loans between them. An accountant told the Financial Times last week that money laundering was a possibility. He said, "Money was going out of these accounts via one of the client accounts. "It was repeatedly going into bank a

AUSTRIA'S FAR right Freedom Party was close to entering government as Socialist Worker went to press. It was in talks with the Tory People's Party over forming a coalition government. The prospect of a far right party holding ministerial office in Europe for the first time since 1945 should sound alarm bells. Jörg Haider's Freedom Party is viciously anti - immigrant. It claimed during last autumn's general election campaign that Austria suffered from "Überfremdung" (foreign infiltration). Hitler's Nazis put this word at the centre of their propaganda in the early 1930s. By inviting Haider's party into government, the Austrian Tories have given respectability to open racist scapego

FRANCE SHOWS another face of Europe, how workers can take on bosses and governments, marginalising the far right and the Nazis. Over 10,000 health workers united to march in Paris on Friday of last week. Thousands joined similar protests in other cities around the country. They were demanding increased funding and more staff. More protests were planned this week. Four years ago the Tory government attacked France's welfare provision, including health. This was beaten back, and strikes and protests ensured a left wing coalition government was swept to power.