PLANS TO cut the hours of junior hospital doctors, and phase in a 48-hour working week, will be announced by the European Commission today. The initiative could herald the resolution of one of the longest-running and most contentious staffing issues in the National Health Service.
The measure will be proposed in a new directive extending the 48-hour week enjoyed by most workers to many still excluded, including junior doctors and transport workers. Mr Penfold had been in London when an arms embargo was implemented and he should have made it his business to obtain a copy. The High Commissioner should also have been more cautious in his contacts with Sandline, Sir John said.”Some things that have happened are not a particularly pretty picture. There is no point in any pretence about that.”Sandline accused Sir Johnlast night of a breach of confidentiality..
The second was to spell out the sanctions in place against the former Yugoslavia.Sir John also told MPs yesterday that the conduct of the British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Peter Penfold, during the “arms to Africa” affair had left something to be desired. The first was to sound a warning over “undesirable” contact with a foreign businessman. However, Tony Buckingham, the patron of Sandline, is also a shareholder in DiamondWorks.Sir John told the MPs Mr Spicer had been in touch about “rumours” he had heard over the missing Briton, Jason Pope.A Foreign Office spokesman said Mr Spicer had been nominated by DiamondWorks to represent the company in discussions with the Foreign Office.In July and September officials had meetings with Mr Spicer. Union sources said the men were angry that a safety representative, who had pointed out deficiencies in fire alarms at London Bridge, was one of those transferred.Peter Mandelson, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, who is responsible for the completion of the Dome, is trying to ensure that the link is open in time for the celebrations. Sandline was investigated for shipping arms to Sierra Leone’s exiled government in breach of a United Nations embargo, but was never prosecuted because it emerged that officials had been kept informed of its plans.Sir John’s revelation of contacts with Mr Spicer over last week’s attack on the DiamondWorks mine in Angola was surprising because Sandline is not supposed to have anything to do with the operation. Tim Spicer, who runs Sandline International, contacted civil servants only last week to pass on information about the kidnapping of a British citizen in Angola, MPs were told.
On two further occasions the Foreign Office contacted Mr Spicer – a former lieutenant-colonel in the British Army – at the behest of Robin Cook to warn him off potentially hazardous deals, according to Sir John Kerr, Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office.Sir John told an inquiry into the illegal shipment of arms to Sierra Leone that all recent contacts were carefully logged and ministers informed.He was appearing before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee to give evidence about the affair. THE MERCENARY chief at the centre of the “arms to Africa” affair has had contact with the Foreign Office three times on other matters since the scandal broke in May, a senior official revealed yesterday.
When I start to talk about him I can picture his face again.”. You were their hired killer.”A bright, loving child, Dillon touched many people, including Bill Handforth, head teacher at Pikes Lane School, where he had been a pupil for four months.”He was a lovely lad, unusual for his age because he had such a personality,” Mr Handforth said.”He would come up to me and chat about things that were going on He was very good at general knowledge. “Time and again I pleaded with Jane to change her lifestyle for Dillon’s sake,” he said.The court had heard that the drug gang decided to kill Mr Bates because he had refused to work for them after moving from Blackburn, where he could buy drugs more cheaply. It had been intended as a warning to others that the gang intended to hang on to its territory.Seddon was given a concurrent 20-year sentence for attempting to murder Mr Bates. The judge told him: “I realise that we may never know precisely who or on whose behalf you were acting when you attacked Mr Bates.”I have no doubt, however, your attack on him was carried out in order to further the interests of those dealing in illegal drugs in the Bolton area. But we have always known that Dillon was a happy child – loved and well cared for.”Codie was born three weeks before the tragedy, but remained in hospital, where he was weaned off the heroin substitute methadone. Robert Hull, though, said he had known that the little boy was at risk.
He remained in hospital, drastically underweight, and never entered the family home while Dillon was alive.Social services in the area admitted that the family was known to them because of Codie’s condition, but said they had never been concerned about Dillon’s welfare.The Area Child Protection Committee held an inquiry into his death, but its chairman, Dr John Ellis, ruled that there was nothing that the authorities could have done to avert the tragedy. The family had moved from Blackburn to make a new start while Jane Hull was pregnant with Dillon’s half-brother, Codie.Det Supt Ellis said: “It is clear that Jane Hull has had problems in her life. “What we should not lose sight of is the fact that a five-year-old boy has lost his life and everything he had to look forward to.”The court heard that it was never in doubt that Dillon had been loved and well cared for by both his mother and step- father Mr Bates had accepted him as his own son. We’ve got to try to get back to normality now, but I still think about Dillon very much.”Detective Superintendent Peter Ellis, who led the murder investigation, said that the crime had sent shockwaves through the nation.”There has been no doubt in my mind as to who was responsible for the murder of Dillon Hull,” he said.
