Feather evades wages issue

TUC general secretary Victor Feather claimed yesterday that the £3.40 figure mentioned in the economic committee report endorsed by the General Council should not be taken as a norm for pay increases.

But he was at a loss to explain why if the TUC is opposed in principle to the idea of a norm the report spends two of its 11 pages, and the whole of a threeVictor Feather, TUC secretary page appendix arguing against the government arithmetic behind Heath's f2 figure.

'It's just to show that we can do arithmetic as well as them, he said. 'Perhaps it was a waste of time ; • perhaps it is extraneous.

Few of Britain's 10 million TUC members will be impressed by his evasion.

The report puts forward several proposals. It says there should be a 6 per cent growth rate in the economy, rather than the government figure of 5 per cent, calls for statutory action on prices and a cut to 74 per cent in the planned 10 per cent rate of Value Added Tax.

Rent increases due in April and October next year under the 'fair rents' Act should be abandoned.

One further suggestion is that the proposed threshold clauses in pay agreements should be triggered when prices have risen 5 per cent, rather than 6 per cent as the government proposes.

BRITAIN'S solicitors warned the government yesterday that suggestions to change the criminal laws would make it easier to convict an innocent person.

It is more in the public interest that an innocent person should be acquitted than that a guilty one convicted, said the British Legal Association, representing the solicitors, in submissions to Home Secretary Carr, on proposals by the Criminal Law Revision Committee.

WEATHER SOUTH and south-eastern districts of England will be cloudy, with rain at times. Eastern England and Scotland will be cloudy, with some drizzle and coastal fog patches. All other areas will be cloudy at first, with some bright spells developing. It will be rather cold, generally.