The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 27

THE GUiARDIAN Friday Noyembfer 11 1988 If COMMENT AND ANALYSIS 27 A hollow ring to egalitarian claims I know and whose names I recog Richard Bates, a subeditor on the Guardian, was caught in the King's Cross fire on his way home from work. He recalls his escape and his feelings a year on, and, below, his psychiatrist David Sturgeon explains the trauma of victims and rescuers off and after that it became a blur of injections, soothing voices, blurred faces, tubes. I fits from well-off to poor people. It is an audacious trick, because it forces the Labour opposition, the party of equality, into the position of defending the principle that those that have should keep it at the expense of those who don't have. Labour thus runs the risk of letting the Tories appear to be stealing its egalitarian clothes.

But this is all nonsense. Mrs Thatcher's Cabinet are as likely to be egalitarian as the Wee Frees are to embrace the Pope. If any redistribution goes on under this Government, it tends to go from poor to rich rather than the other way round. Freezing child benefit saves the Government 203 million. But only 70 million of this is to be ploughed into help for poor families, with the remaining 130 million going back to the Treasury no doubt to be dished out in more tax cuts for the better-off.

And as has often been pointed out, forcing more people onto means-tested benefits has the effect of reducing take-up and deepening the poverty trap, thus increasing dependency and hitting the poor in direct contradiction of the Government's stated aims. The child benefit freeze, however, was accepted by Conservative MPs who seemed convinced by this apparent outbreak of ministerial social conscience. They have similarly appeared to swallow the proposals for student loans, which have been devised with great cleverness to avoid precisely the kind of middle-class uprising provoked by Sir Keith Joseph when he tried to increase parental contributions, to higher education. By forcing students rather than parents to bear the responsibility, Mr Baker has avoided that elephant trap. In fact, middle-class parents will actually save money through this scheme, with part of their financial burden shoved off onto the shoulders of their offspring instead.

Once again, poorer people will be worse off. Access to higher education will narrow rather than widen; well-educated people earning low salaries will find themselves saddled with debts they can ill afford to repay. If the loans were income-related, the system might have some claim to social justice. As it is, there is none. The Conservatives face a dilemma.

Committed to selectivity and targeting, they are also committed to policies favouring the better off, such as mortgage interest tax relief and other encouragements to private provision. But Labour also faces a dilemma. It is committed to the principle of a universal welfare SUPPOSE it -was the poster fliat. saved my life, "just walked ialohg the platform-for a closer look when -the- policemen shouted at us to get out. I found myself towards the back of the queue for the escalator thinking no one's going to maKe.lt.

Stand on the right as usual. Two strides into the ticket hall it happened. First there was the noise like a blast furnace. Then the flames ripped across the ceiling as if they'd been shot from a flamethrower. Then choking smoke so black and thick it seemed you could grab it by the handful: People who had walked past me further into the hall staggered around unable to see and unable to escape.

Their bodies bumped into me. I got the only one to stagger down the escalator out of that, cauldron where 31 people had just died in a heat so intense it melted metal. I found out later that a fireman was on tlie escalator "alongside, swearing at me to keep me conscious and keep me going. My hair and jacket' were oh fire. I reached the bottom and the fireman, Peter Osborne, shouting at me to.

lie. down. He handed, someone a fire extinguisher which he emptied over me. The two policemen tried to get me out of the station but the gates were lopkej, Afterjive minutes keys were round. Another set of Shuttwenty minutes of shouting, ruling and kicking' the gates by the policemen as frightened and-confused as me.

I walked ground in circles the pain from my imagined the fire snaking its down, the tunnels and' th'ete' I was with my back to I was going to -I And thank God, the desper-atSSWIielp. Suddenly we were out the street and I was walkjiuhft to the front 6 King's Crass vaguely aware' of. people' -jstjaring me, of crowds gathering, of lights and Into ah' ambulance after making the policeman promise to ring; niy. wife. There was a man already, in it.

tie wore an oxgeri gave our names to' the ambulanceman. In hospital a few weeks later suddenly realised I hadn't seen that martagaih. tie had died seventy per cent burns and the. lung-destroying smoke had proved too much. Into casualty at University College just around the corner.

My clothes were cut from my thoughts; there are reminders of some kind every nise only from television or newspaper stones. I came home three days before Christmas. Timothy and Lucy had strung a banner across the wall saying Welcome Home Daddy. Christmas was a rather muted affair but I was aware just how lucky I was to be seeing it. I had to go to hospital every day for physiotherapy.

I still go twice a week and sometimes I see the others who were burned there. I remember Ron Lipsius, a guitarist whose hands were so badly burned they had to be inserted into his side so the flesh would grow, laughingly telling physio Elaine Mason how he had seen a sign saying Alight Here For King's Cross. Then there's Rosalind whose friend died but whose strong, unshakeable faith in God has carried her through the ordeal; Damon, the young Scot who had only been in London for a few days and was on his way to see the Christmas lights in Oxford Street; Mariella, whose boyfriend died and who only survived after weeks of battling in intensive care; Steve, the tough Guardsman turned policeman who is still deeply affected by what he saw and heard that night- King's Cross is never far away from my thoughts; there are reminders of some kind every day. There are the special gloves I have to wear for two years to flatten and protect the grafted skin. People stare but you get used to it.

Going back on the Tube is harder to get used to. Shortly after coming home 1 went with Sian, going through King's Cross. The next time I decided to get out and just stand inside the burned and blackened ticket hall. I stepped off that escalator and to my horror saw groups of policemen and firemen. All I could think of was getting out and went straight down to the platform.

A train arrived and I sat there willing if to leave but it didn't. A policeman rushed on to the platform and shouted that no one was to get off. Surely the horror couldn't be happening again? For the next few minutes I sat there rigid, holding Sian's hand and forcing myself to think of something, anything. Eventually we got going; I found out later that a workman's welding torch had 'started a small' blaze among some rubbish near an escalator. I have a strong sense of vulnerability.

After all, an accident is no longer something that happens to other people. I avoid risks of any kind. Immediately after leaving hospital I found myself hugging the inside of the navements. keeping close to buildings. I do not dodge through tramc to cross tne road; I wait for the green man to flash, aware of quizzical stares sometimes as I stand stubbornly alone on the pavement.

When I visit a restaurant, a cinema or concert hall I make sure I know where the exit is. I has lost relatives or friends in the disaster, or lost family, home, and perhaps physical health as a result of injuries. Although PTSD is useful for classification, it contributes little to our understanding of the suffering and experience of individual victims. Many of the King's Cross fire survivors were extensively burnt and suffered excrutiating pain which required powerful painkillers to control the symptoms. Some required tranquillisers for short periods, and sedatives to help them sleep.

Many were acutely distressed, anxious and confused, and needed the opportunity to talk about what had happened to them. This also applies to helpers and rescuers. One of the anaesthetists on call at University College Hospital on the night of the disaster had the task of identifying the burnt bodies brought to Casualty as being alive or dead. The anaesthetist was used to seeing extensive burns and did what was required. When she ing.

Welsh Labour MPs tabled a motion yesterday, in the wake of the Bunter Law-son versus The Lobby affair, calling for improved technical training for civil servants there, "with special emphasis on the skills necessary to operate tape recorders." NONE of the political parties seems to be very good at this targeting business. Labour's latest appeal to the hearts, minds and pockets of "supporters" bearing Neil Kinnock's signature has just dropped on Gwyn Griffiths, in Crewe. Yes, he leads the Democrat group which holds the balance of power on the local borough council. Meanwhile, in Whitstable, Kent, Matthew Sands has received from the hand of Dr David Owen confirmation that be is registered as a supporter of the SDP "with full member- Melanie Phillips THE MIDDLE classes had better watch out. They have now become the prime target of the Government's social policy rheto ric.

The popular dragons of Tory lolKlore he slain or mutilated the trade unions, local government, the political left. Vested interests are to this administration like a red rag to a bull or so we're told. But the perks enjoyed by the most powerful vested interest of the lot the middle classes have remained an area of the highest political sensitivity, to be tampered with at politicians' peril. Academics and others have long remarked on the phenomenon that the middle classes make disproportionately high use of the welfare But attempts in the past to limit their use have left ministers with singed eyebrows and an earful from the Prime Minister. Now all this appears to be changing.

The Chancellor's ill-fated remarks about the need for better targeting of pensions go to the heart of the new approach. The principle of universality, once the core commitment of the welfare state, is being consigned to a public pyre. We are now being told that it is unfair, because people who can afford to pay are getting free benefits while as a result really needy folk are having to make do with less. The middle classes are being branded as the new spongers. This opinion lay behind the restructuring of the benefits system, which was supposed to tareet more money to the poor est people.

It lay behind the freeze on. child benefit, with John Moore making touching reference to his desire to do more for the neediest in society. It lay behind the imposition of charges for eye and teeth examinations, with Mrs Thatcher conjuring up the vision of well-off people desperate to pay for these services at long last to free money for more deserving bits of the health service. It lay behind Mr Lawson's comments on pensions, for regardless of what he did or didn't say to the parliamentary lobby, both he and John Moore said that there were some pensioners who were so badly off they deserved more than the rest (where that leaves income support, now loudly trumpeted as the perfectly targeted mechanism to rescue people from penury, itself becomes an interesting question). And it lay behind Kenneth Baker's intention, announced this week, to impose top-up loans on students in higher education.

The idea here is that by making potential high-earners pay back at least part of the debt they owe to a society which has enabled them to reach such a privileged position, it will enable more students from lower-income homes to get into the system. The result of all this is that a positively comical political cross-over has taken place. The Conservatives are now the party committed, on their own account, to redistributing bene- IT WAS the logical step, considering the qualities of the two nominees. Esti Hirlap, Budapest November 10 BUSH'S win inspires a feeling of trust and confidence rather than any great expectations. Berlingske Ttdende Copenhagen November 10 THE DEFEAT of Michael Dukakis will be like a broken dream for Africans.

LeSoleil, Dakar, November 10 BUSH'S conservatism will not be an obstacle to the development of Soviet-American relations. Trud, Sofia, November 10 REGARDLESS of whether the presilent is a Republican or a Democrat, America's true rulers have always pursued suppression and plunder against the Third World. Tehran Radio, November 10 BUSH TRIUMPHED hot only because he pledged to follow the Reagan line but also because he was an accomplished veteran of high office, a known quality unlike Dukakis. Diario de Noticias, Lisbon November 10 remember the plastic surgeon telling tne nurse to cut an my hair off. I drifted in and out of consciousness once I opened my eyes and saw a bishop at the end of my bed.

Then my wife, Sian, was there. Fortunately she had been warned what I looked like. My face had ballooned to the size of a football. Mrs Thatcher arrived. Sian told me later she'd said some very kind words.

The operation followed, slicing a layer of skin off my left thigh and laying it on both hands. The burned skin was peeled off my face layer by layer. There followed five weeks in the burns ward where I received wonderful care from everyone, from plastic surgeon Michael Brough to the tea lady. Sian's mother arrived to look after the kids. Friends rallied round, helping to bathe me and feed me and doing what they could for Sian who came to the hospital 35 exhausting nights in a row.

There were the cards and messages; from children in schools all over the country, from strangers, from old friends, from Manchester United, from the Queen. I shrank away from newspapers, radio and television in case the fire was mentioned. I told myself I would sooner or later have to accept what had happened but that it was more important to channel my energies and thoughts into physical recovery. Then one night I inadvertently discovered how many people had died. This was so upsetting I asked to see psychiatrist David Sturgeon the next morning.

He has his say below all I can say from a patient's point of view is that those early sessions were vital in reducing the trauma. Our conversations over the last year have helped me come to terms with what happened and have got me used to the realisation that my life will never quite be the same. I have never felt grief or guilt both apparently common emotions experienced by those who survive disasters. No grief because, thank God, I never lost anyone that night. No guilt, either my actions had in no way influenced anyone else; those people who walked past me tc their death had made their own decision on how to escape.

I feel desperately sorry for those who lost loved ones but the dead are people I do not persisting after-effects in those who have experienced disasters. (A disaster is taken to be a stressful event that is outside the range of usual human experience and would be markedly distressing to almost anyone.) For some time after the disaster, the event is re-experienced in vivid dreams, intrusive recollections and flashbacks. Short-lived hallucinatory experiences may also occur. The affected person tends to avoid situations which could be reminiscent of the disaster, which in turn can lead to withdrawal and unresponsiveness. The person may also experience increased arousal, which was not present before the event.

This includes difficulty in falling or staying asleep; irritability or outbursts of anger; difficulty in concentrating and an exaggerated startle response. Guilt about survival and memory impairment may also be present. It may, of course, be associated with other symptoms such as those of depression and grief if the survivor particularly want to hire a megaphone (when Jim Calla-ghan was adviser his work was conducted almost entirely behind the scenes). You can also take it tbat several MPs have already thrust themselves forward. The resistable nature of some of these offers is indicated by the fact that soundings continue to be taken.

Just imagine if these were directed at, say, Barry Sheerman, Labour MP for Huddersfield just at the precise moment that he was accepting a front bench home affairs job as Roy Hattersley's number two, dealing with the police, prisons and probation. It wouldn't be on, would it? Oooh, the frustration. THE TREASURY branch of the Union of Magnetic Tape Operatives, Off-the-Re-cord Briefing Handlers and Allied Trades must be smart- Kifigts Cross lessons for the battle against trauma King's Cross is never far away day' Richard Bates (right) try to sit oh the end of the row. I remain uneasy in confined spaces such as aeroplanes from where there is no immediate way out. It's almost a year since the disaster and I am keen to put it behind me and to get on with living my life although the requests for interviews intensified with the publication of the inquiry report looming.

It is only right to say here that the Press, much maligned and often deservedly, have been very good. With only one exception all those seeking inter views and pictures have been considerate, courteous and understanding even though they've gone back to their went home the next day, she burst into tears and wept uncontrollably. On reflection, she felt it must have been the number of bodies, one after another, which had been so overwhelming. The trauma of that night is something which remained with many of the hospital staff for a long time. If those involved can be encouraged to express their feelings early on, this may not only bring much relief at the time but may also prevent the development of PTSD later on.

One of the features common to many of the King's Cross victims is anger that this should have happened at all. Disasters involving fire occur in peoples' homes every day but there is frequently some element of personal responsibility involved a pan left on the cooker, a cigarette in bed not properly extinguished. Those at King's Cross were helpless and innocent victims. And those of us who were not there can so easily identify with them. We all travel on the Underground.

We all find it ship rights" at no charge at all. And, yes, he is, in real life, policy co ordinator for the Green Party of the UK. NOW FOR a brief word about the Democrats. The ballot is going on for the committee of its organisers' and agents' association. Candidates include David All-worthy, whose biographical details insist that he's been "full-time agent in North Wiltshire since August, 1877." A SIGH of relief among backers of Bill Miles.

They sponsored his day's outing to raise money for Save the Children but, fortunately as it turned out, didn't agree to pay by the mile. He left home In Thorpe Bay, near Southend, at tea-time (destination unknown) to see how far he could travel in 24 hours without spending any photograph: alan reevell to make-the Tube any safer in future. It takes more than the putting iip of a few No Smoking signs to run a railroad-Money has to be spent, not on automatic ticket barriers that actually make stations even more difficult to escape from in the event of a fire, but on extra staff, equipment and trains. But investment on the scale that's needed will need Government sanction and that is the crunch. It's all very well for Mrs Thatcher to turn up at disaster after disaster with kind words but what we really need is for the Prime Minister for once to put people before pounds.

Otherwise the next disaster is just around the corner. Disasters change peoples lives. The stories we want to hear are about people who have suffered but who have won through. But we must not forget those who are battling still, those whose physical and mental scars persist and continue to burden their lives. Those for whom a normal existence cannot be resumed as soon as possible.

For them, the anger, the futility and despair continue. As the psychological consequences of disaster become more clear the need for a permanent core team of people who can respond immediately arid nationally to such tragic events becomes more urgent. We must not go on re-inventing the wheel, leaving the local on-the-spot people to sort it out as a one-off occasion. Help and intervention needs to be organised immediately and effectively by the core team if some of the crippling long-term effects are to be avoided. David Sturgeon is a consultant psychiatrist at University College Hospital, London.

"Questions are being raised by the Directorate on certain expenses," it says. Those exceeding 400 are referred to that body, it seems. And it's pretty clear that some tight-ening-up is required. "Where you are dealing with alcohol, call them refreshments and charge daily." Is that perfectly clear? WHO'S this being stopped at the Old Palace Yard entrance to the Commons? Hauled up by a policeman who, not recognising the face, demanded sight of an official pass. Why, Bernard Ingham, chief press wallah to Her Indoors.

IT'S time to say we're over the moon, Brian, about sending greetings to Southend United's dressing room and the soccer club's treatment of injuries officer. Buster Footman. and psychiatrist, David sturgeon newsdesks empty-handed. A legal battle with London Transport may lie ahead. My feelings towards those in charge are perhaps best saved for a court of law if that is what the claim for compensation comes to.

But I believe King's Cross was a disaster that need not have happened and that 31 people died because those entrusted with the safety of London's public transport system abrogated that responsibility in the over-zealous pursuit of cash savings in an eagerness to please political masters. Worryingly, I see no evidence that those same people have the commitment or the competence slightly unnatural and wonder if it's really safe. Many of the telephone calls to the support teams after the fire were from people seeking reassurances that it couldn't happen again. The greatest difficulty for those who were badly damaged in the fire, physically and psychologically, is getting back to some sort of a normal life. All experienced the problems and difficulties of day to day living before this event.

The fire and its aftermath has deprived many of those severely hurt of the good things the pleasures and fulfilment of playing an instrument or experiencing the subtlety of touch because of appalling injuries to their hands. Some have found that attitudes and reactions of friends and relatives toward them has changed leaving them more isolated, and that their own ability to socialise and be involved has become impaired. And having been so close to death, priorities may need a dramatic restructuring which can potentially have a positive effect. money on fares. By 4pm the nnvt Hav he 100 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, having covered 6,170 miles and lived up, somewhat, to his name.

Travel costs: nil. Mr Miles, aged 66, retired a year ago as Sogat's national officer responsible for Fleet Street. The greater part of his jaunt was made possible by union contacts at British Airways, who arranged a complimentary flight. He was home yesterday, reckoning that his trip raised between 10,000 and 12,000 for the children's charity. Suggested headline: Briton goes 6,000 miles without spending penny.

HERE'S a gas leak. I pass on, without comment, the contents of what appears to be an internal memo circulating in the pipelines department at British Gas. The subject: expenses claims. state. But it is also committed to redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor, a commitment which must cut across the universal principle.

If it is to resolve this dilemma, it must decide what a welfare state is for egalitarianism, or the relief of poverty, or the imposition of minimum standards for everyone. These aims are not wholly compatible. For example, if redistribution or wealth is tne overriding aim, then it is clearly wrong for well-off people to draw child benefit. If, however, the main aim is the relief of poverty, then it may be better to put up witn tne rela tive unfairness of the rich drawing it in order to avoid deepening ine poverty trap ana disincentives to work. If the Opposition doesn't sort out what it wants a welfare state for, it will continue to be hoist on its own petard.

And the result of that will be a free rein for the Government to continue dismantling the universal principle of welfare on the spurious grounds that it is motivated by ideals of social equity rather than its obsession with reducing public expenditure. BY PUTTING himself forward as the heir to his master, Bush pocketed the rewards that made the difference between him and a Michael Dukakis forced to play the prophet of doom. Le Monde, November 10 FIRST and foremost, George Bush guarantees foreign policy continuity. This is no mean thing, considering the problems which unpredictable moves by Carter and Reagan caused the Europeans. Siiddeutsche Zeitung November 10 THE SOVIET Union welcomes the election of the new US president and proceeds from the fact that elections in any country are, first and foremost, the internal affair of any nation.

Tass, November 9 THE Miracle Didn't Happen: Dukakis Lost. Eleftherolypia, Athens November 10 THE NEW presidency of Bush does not seem to have much importance for us. Kathimerini, Athens. November 10 MR BUSH is an intellectual. -Belgian Radio, November 10 us remember the Aberfandisaster in 1966 when the waste from a gianf tip above the village suddenly collapsed on the village scnooi, Killing lib cnn-dreh.

Although almost every family in the village was bereaved and we know that the effect on all the inhabitants persisted for months and years, it w'laraely-fjnaftcial arid social Helpr these families received rather than psychological. However, the Bradford football stadium fire of 1985 changed the emphasis and may have been a turning point in the way health-care professionals and the public view disasters. Perhaps this is because millions of "TV viewers witnessed this disaster and were able to identify moire easily with the victims and their families, recognising the psychological and longer-term consequences of such an event. Psychiatrists, especially those in the US, have coined the term post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to describe the Andrew Moncur POLICE throughout Britain are seeking an MP; a substantial reward is being offered. The public is distinctly not being asked to have-a-go.

The Police Federation is aboiit to advertise at Westminster, for the first time, to find an MP to succeed Sir Eldon Griffiths who speaks on police Issues at the drop of a helmet as its parliamentary adviser, a post which.carries a "generous" You can take it tbat we're talking figures not a million 'miles removed from the starting pay of a police constable, viz: around 10,000 a year, with room to negotiate. Party persuasion is immaterial and they don't.