The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 1

45p Monday October 16 1995 Published in London and Manchester Labour 'No regrets' by Portillo despite new attacks faces GPs' revolt Group (after the left-wing Tory chancellor Iain Macleod) are expected to warn Mr Rifkind that his predecessor, Douglas Hurd, would not have permitted the Defence Secretary to damage British interests. A former foreign secretary, Lord Howe, led the criticism of Mr Portillo yesterday. "In his own interest and that of his party and of the nation, he must learn to speak with a great deal more maturity and a great deal better sense of judgment on the issue if he is to talk at all." But Mr Portillo, rejecting Tory pro-European calls for him to be gagged from talking about Europe, said: "You cannot exclude a defence minister from talking about European defence. I expressed government policy robustly. I poked fun at the European Commission.

I think one is entitled to do that They should not be above having a little fun poked at them." The row is likely to spill into the Commons today when Mr Portillo opens the defence estimates debate and the pro-European Michael Heseltine fields his first 15 minutes of Commons questions as Deputy Prime Minister. Mr Portillo conceded yesterday he supported practical moves fpr greater defence cooperation by European countries, including within the Western European Union, particularly over peacekeeping, but he did not support such co-operation occurring under the aegis of the European Union since this would reduce politicians' control over their own defence forces. "The essential element of British defence policy will continue to be the Atlantic Alliance. It remains for me unimaginable to think about the defence of Europe without considering the interests of the US and the Canadians." Patrick Wlntour, Chief Political Correspondent ICHABL Portillo yesterday defied a renewed spate of criticism from pro- European Tory MPs and the European Commission president, Jacques Santer, by asserting he did not regret a single word of his fierce and sometimes abusive attack last week on the dangers of a common European defence policy. The Defence Secretary echoed former chancellor Norman Lamont by insisting: "Je ne regrette Speaking on BBC TV's On The Record, he explained: "I stripped away all the waffle and fudge and any Euro-speak, and I said that any Conservative government is not going to allow Britain to be drawn into a European superstate." Mr Santer yesterday described his response to Mr Portillo's speech to the Conservative Party conference last week as unrepeatable on British soil, adding that he agreed with his officials' view that the speech had been grotesque and deplorable.

Mr Santer also unnerved Tory Euro-sceptics by predicting that the Maastricht timetable of a single currency by the beginning of 1999 would be achieved, even asserting that Britain would join when the majority of other EU countries decided to do so. The European infighting just what Tory business mangers did not want as Parliament returns from its summer break today will be underscored tomorrow when up to 50 pro-European backbench MPs see the Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, to demand he regain a grip on policy towards Europe. The MPs, some of whom have regrouped under the new banner of the Macleod vHHLaS BBBBBSSBtBSB' i i rS BB local health authority the cash to pay for hospital and community services for their patients. By April, more than half the English population is expected to have a fundholding doctor. Dr Morris, who chairs the fundholding association, said his members were "dismayed and very upset" by Labour's attitude, which appeared to have hardened in recent months.

Fundholders had become accustomed to exercising control for the benefit of their patients. While they would, accept the mandate of a Labour government, they would not sit back and watch that control slip away. "What doctors don't like is being told by a government that they can or cannot do something." said Dr Morris, who is a fundholder in Ivy-bridge. Devon. "What happens in such systems is that a black market in medicine develops.

That happened in eastern Europe and it will happen in this country. You will see the development of private primary care." He said fundholders' ability and willingness to switch business from hospitals and community had proved how to drive up the quality of care. Critics, however, argue that fundholders have won advantages for their patients only at the expense of others. The latest instance of such two-tier care is in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where the local health authority is unable to buy any more care until April. The only non-urgent patients being treated by hospitals are those sent by fundholders.

The new Bupa scheme will meanwhile be widely seen as the start of a determined move by private health insurers to break into the primary care market, hitherto regarded as the great strength of the NHS. Toby Harris, director of the Association of Community Health Councils, warned that the scheme could lead to the break down of general medical practice in some parts of the country, leaving patients with little choice but to go private. Davfd Brindle, Social Services Correspondent THE leader of Britain's fundholding family doctors warned yesterday that they will leave the National Health Service if a Labour government carries out the party's threat to end their control over the care of their patients. Rhidian Morris says that scrapping fundholding would create a black market in health care by which the middle classes would pay for the convenience and speed of treatment which fundholding doctors now give them. His warning comes as Bupa, the leading private health insurer, launches a scheme this week enabling people to arrange to see a general practitioner at a time of their choice.

Doctors signing up to the scheme are getting better terms than the health service offers. Bruce Tranter, Bupa's marketing director, said yesterday: "There are no losers. Patients win by having additional choice and the ability to fit health care around their lives, rather than the other way round." The Bupa scheme, called Health Direct, is being piloted in Berkshire, south Oxfordshire and north Hampshire, and is aimed at London commuters, but there are plans to expand it nationally. The scheme will cost 72 a year for unlimited telephone advice from a GP, plus 30 a time for a visit and the full cost of any drugs prescribed. The development adds force to Dr Morris's warning to Labour, coming on the eve of an address by Margaret Beckett, shadow health secretary, to the annual conference in Harrogate of the National Association of Fundholding Practices.

Although Labour has said it would keep some key parts of the Government's NHS market, it intends to phase out the fundholding system which gives GPs instead of the James Murray in the ring on Friday. He died yesterday after being knocked out during the fight photograph wattie cheung The noble art now than a bloody way seems little more of making money' OUR AIR CON IS NO CON. -ncitE tumkihc, of snrpf; ir. Hoeeoti eon killed iaici-t Fury at 1 lunatic' book price war as Delia Smith sales soar larger gloves filled with substances which inflict less damaging blows, and at the same time revive some of the boxing skills now so badly lacking. The board's counter-argument is likely to be that this would put British boxers at greater risk in international fights, and that overseas boxers would not want to fight in this country with such gloves.

But a start has to be made somewhere. When I reported my first fights in 1946, the training methods used by boxers had hardly changed during this century: the heavy punching bag, the punch-ball, shadow boxing in front of a large Victorian mirror and tuition from the trainer and sparring with big gloves and a headguard. Most of that is still part of the paraphernalia, but in recent years fighters have moved into intensive weight training with sophisticated equipment; they have added strength and greater speed to their punching. Putting those assets together causes more damage to the opponent's brain. That danger has been magnified because the Turn to page 3, column 7 James Murray's death in a Glasgow hospital yesterday after his British bantamweight title fight against Drew Docherty brought fresh demands from doctors for boxing to be banned.

And after 49 years of reporting the sport, Guardian correspondent JOHNRODDAisnow close to agreeing with them HOW MUCH longer can boxing hang its head until the funeral is over or another wheelchair found for a victim of brain damage? The protagonists will soon return to what was once a noble art and now seems little more than a bloody way of making money. After 49 years of writing about boxing I recoil along with many of my journalistic colleagues when a fighter dies. It is no longer the occasional accident; death in the ring or irrepa- ald McLellan or Bradley Stone, the Board could be facing a popular protest group which takes the issue into a wider public domain. The argument that boxing would go underground is hard to support, for it would then not generate the money which makes fighters take the risk they do. There is unlicensed fighting on a very small scale but that is hardly likely to survive if boxing is made unlawful.

The increasing danger in professional boxing comes from a combination of factors: the decline in amateur boxing; the more sophisticated training methods now used by professionals; and a suspicion that some fighters are using banned substances such as anabolic steroids. The British Boxing Board of Control has failed to halt the increase in death and damage. Its insistence on ambulances and paramedics at every fight and doctors at the ringside may be seen as no more than a sop to parry critics. Caring for the injured has to be maintained, but preventive measures can no longer be ignored. What it must do is devise Media 13 John Ezard THE cookery author Delia Smith delivered a publishing record yesterday, selling more than 500,000 copies of Winter Collection in its first week more than her publisher had hoped for by Christmas.

But it brought as much sadness as joy, for it was thanks to the collapse of the Net Book Agreement and savage price-cutting of an author who has been the mainstay of small bookshops in the gift-buying season. Book Warehouse is selling Winter Collection as a loss-leader at 9.99 a cut of 6, and 41p cheaper than independent shops can buy it wholesale. Woolworth, Salisbury's and W. H. Smith are selling it for 10.99.

Tim Godfray, chief executive of the Booksellers' Association, said: "There could be a veritable bloodbath for small, vulnerable shops." An association member, Jim Shawcross, owner of the century-old Burgess' Bookshop in Brentwood, said: "This is a heavy blow. Our people work on such small margins that they rely on Delia Smith to pull them through. Until now they could rely on selling maybe half a dozen copies a day." The price war is despite BBC Books' refusal to sell Winter Collection to chain stores at special rates. Chris Weller, the company's head, said: "What is happening seems completely unsustainable. I don't want to be part of this unrealistic, lunatic price war.

I want a prosperous book trade. Delia's book could have contributed strongly to that." Asda's offensive, page 2 News 2 Obituaries 11 rable damage is happening too often and the drip, drip, drip on my conscience has finally taken me close to the point where I believe it should be banned. The number of deaths and serious injuries has been rising worldwide for the past 15 years. If the British Boxing Board of Control cannot accept the need to devise measures giving fighters greater protection then it must stop defending the indefensible. Unless it acts before another James Murray, Ger IN THE ESPACE RT ALIZE IT'S STANDARD, SO YO( I DON'T PAY ANY EXTRA.

THE ESPACE RT ALIZE FROM JUST 18,580: DRIVE AN ORIGINAL DRIVE AN ESPACE. TELEPHONE 0800 52 5150. RENAULT CARS uiilTFTAIR i kunjt h-f 'ft "dM rg" it lb Alicft Ot'i'. "jMia ii'i. Letters 12 Andrew Moncur 4 Weather 22 Profile 4 Crossword 23 Women 6 Radio 23 Arts 8 Television 24 Comment 12 Financial news 14 Pi, 770261 "307316.