Fog and a heavy cold prevented me from attending the
Hampton Court dinner of the European Movement. This was just as well. I would have found it difficult to stomach the Prime Minister saying on the one hand that they were building in Europe a community whose scope would eventually cover "the whole field of collective human endeavour" and on the other hand that a directly elected European Parliament would be misconceived. Sicco Mansholt, the other speaker, in an honest, depressed and depressing speech, spoke from a more relevant experience as outgoing President of the European Commission, when he contradicted the Prime Minister, saying that the Community "badly needed" an injection of democracy, and that it had failed to improve conditions generally for the great mass of its population. But the most pertinent comment thus far on the Common Market came at Ipswich Cattle Market, the same day as the Hampton Court banquet. Beef prices went through the ceiling and, at £22 a cwt are now within 50p of the Common Market price. In the shops: another 3p for a pound of beef. The East Anglian Daily Times which keeps an expert eye on such matters, suggests that much of the beef bought at the market will be surreptitiously exported to Europe.
Gall of the G.M.C.
Unbelievable effrontery. When the General Medical Council, off whose medical register doctors are struck for grave professional misconduct, had determined to charge doctors £5 a year for the privilege of keeping their names on the register, I thought this was pretty disgraceful. When many doctors refused to pay their due, in order to force the Government to institute an independent inquiry into the General Medical Council, their action was obviously sensible, and deserved its success. Now that the Government has given way, and that Dr Alexander Morrison, the Vice-Chancellor of Bristol University, is to chair an inquiry, most doctors have coughed up their dues. You might think that there the matter would have been allowed to rest.
Not a bit of it. The General Medical Council has decided to issue fortnightly lists of doctors struck off their medical register for not paying the £5 fee to keep on it — and, in addition, is offering this fortnightly list at an annual subscription of no less than £15 a year to organisations employing doctors. These subscribers are presumably local authorities, hospital boards and the like.
Abuse of patronage
I think it would be a good idea to strike the General Medical Council off the list of reputable and powerful private bodies masquerading as public ones. Flogging a blacklist of doctors at £15 per annum to potential employers is one of the nastiest abuses of power and patronage I've come across. Doctors should refuse to pay their £5 annual registration fees. What other profession blackmails members into payment of dues simply in order not to be struck off?
This, of course, is only a minor irritant as far as the medical profession is concerned. A much graver problem is the condition of the National Health Service itself, discussed this week by Dr John Linklater in our Welfare State section.
Gutter or glory
Congratulations to Hugh Cudlipp on his knighthood — although some may think the honour a trifle mean, considering that people from the old Mirror-Herald stable like John Beavan and Alma Birk, who are regularly to be seen paying court to Cudlipp, have become well-established life members of the House of Lords. Cudlipp would have made a fine lord: he's much more a lord than a knight.
It is said that Don Ryder, overlord at Reed International of the International Publishing Corporation whose subsidiaries include the Mirror newspapers and the biggest women's magazines, intends to replace Cudlipp. A crucial decision has to be taken by whomever runs the Mirror. It is a blot on Cudlipp's record that he hasn't taken it. The decision is simple: whether to compete in the gutter with Rupert Murdoch's Sun, or to forget about booby prizes and go after the Express and the Mail, and once again produce a vigorous intelligent Mirror in the process.
No bones broken
While on about the Mirror, what about this understatement of the week, from last Friday's issue? A news story described how one Thomas McLinchey had been dealt with by the underworld, and concluded thus: "His, teeth had been pulled out with a pair of pliers and his testicles had been crushed.
" McLinchey was interviewed by senior detectives at St. Leonard's Hospital, Hoxton, where his condition was said to be satisfactory."
Football transfers
We read much about very expensive football transfers, with players being bought and sold for sums reported to be £200,000 and more. Many such deals are, I am told, complicated bartering. Less hard cash changes hands than might be assumed from the quoted figures. One very famous club, so I've heard from expert first-division boardroom authority, bought a very pricey player for cash. Its cheque bounced. What very famous club could that be, do you think?
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