THE SINGLE currency could cut euroland’s inflation rate by a quarter of a point as greater transparency and competition force prices downwards, according to new research. But the EU’s statistics office will not publish figures which allow direct comparisons of prices for different goods across member countries.
It is due to release 1996 figures at the end of this month but reports prices in one country as a ratio of the average. This will reveal whether prices are moving closer together but not whether they are converging upwards or downwards.The Commission will be monitoring the unpublished data. It is running a “rounding down” campaign to encourage retailers not to exploit confusion caused by the launch of the euro to push through price rises.The new report, published today by ING Barings, the City investment bank, predicts that as long as the single currency leads to a levelling down of prices towards the lowest prevailing, it could reduce the inflation rate by 0.25 per cent a year. This would represent a significant fall from today’s already low euroland inflation rate of 0.8 per cent.According to Mark Cliffe, the author of the report: “The potential significance of price convergence is underlined by the sheer scale of the price differentials.” He noted that the European Commission has always seen cheaper prices to consumers as one of the key benefits of monetary union..

GORDON BROWN, the Chancellor, may scrap tax breaks for company- car owners as part of a strategy for reducing pollution, ministers hinted yesterday. John Reid, the Transport minister, gave the clearest signal so far that an increase in taxes for motorists to get more people on to public transport would be part of the Budget on 9 March.
At question time Dr Reid said Mr Brown took an “enlightened and rational” view and concerns “would not have fallen on stony soil”.”I can confirm that two areas, the tax breaks which encourage people to drive more business miles, on the other hand the disincentive by taxing as benefits in kind those employers and employees who benefit from buses, for instance, being laid on to bring them to work, have been subject of discussions between our departments,” he said. Well, maybe wits isn’t the right word, but Mr Taylor’s little joke melted Ms Jackson further – after serving up her usual portion of procedural small print in reply she added that he shouldn’t have said bald – the correct term was “follicularly challenged”.I could have sworn from the smile on her face that she was actually enjoying herself.. Mr Winterton speaks as though the committee members are in the Upper Circle of the Royal Albert Hall, rather than just a few feet away, and manages the business with a choleric joviality, booming his catchphrase – “As many as are of that opinion say AYE!” – in the unmistakable cadences of Bruce Forsyth.His brisk bark can be unsettling: “Mr Chairman, you’re so frightening I’ve completely forgotten what I was going to say,” confessed John Taylor, after he’d risen to intervene during a discussion about ensuring that the Mayor’s staff represented the diversity of London’s citizens.After a few seconds to recover his wits he made his point – bald people should not be discriminated against either. Because later in the afternoon Ms Jackson was addressing Standing Committee A, considering the Greater London Authority Bill, the legislation which paves the way for a London mayor.Of course the transformation isn’t magical – for long periods she wears the sort of expression you might summon if asked to mime “Witchfinder- General listening to a plea in mitigation” – but the vigour of the procedures does seem to exert a broadly mollifying influence.Standing Committee A would lighten anyone’s mood, being conducted by its chairman, Nicholas Winterton, as if it is an odd kind of legislative game show. When she assures the House that “every penny” of road charges “will be spent on improving road services in London” you can’t imagine that anyone would dare to spend a penny in any other way.That this impression might be misleading was revealed by closer inspection in one of Westminster’s salles privees.

On her showing in the Commons she would make a formidable maitresse, the features sculpted into a mask of implacable severity, the stern voice with that nasal topnote, which operates like auditory cat-o’-nine-tails, flicking at whichever cringing MP has risked a question.She does smile now and then, it’s true, usually when a frontbench colleague has stung the Opposition, but what a chilly and transitory thing that smile is – more a flickering contemplation of cruelties to come than an expression of warmth. Any masochists in the house – and one assumes there must be a couple – will have recognised with a secret thrill that her talents lie in quite the opposite direction. He had invited her, should she be at all that way inclined, to indulge in the delicious degradation of a rail trip to Ramsgate, a journey that she would have to make in “an antediluvian carriage knee-deep in filth”. When I see Ms Jackson in the house I’m afraid I can’t help but think of Oliver Reed, wrapped around her like a freakishly hairy boa constrictor, but Mr Ladyman’s choice of phrase provoked quite another flashback. Surely these were the very words used by Mary Whitehouse to describe the notorious “Tchaikovsky’s wedding night” scene in Ken Russell’s overheated biopic about the composer – a scene in which Tchaikovsky failed the nuptial assay of his manhood, looking on aghast as Ms Jackson writhed unsated on the floor of a Tsarist sleeper carriage, like a Connex South East commuter who has finally gone mad.
Dear me, how different she is today. “OPEN-MINDED though I am, masochism has never had any attractions for me,” confessed Glenda Jackson, responding to an impertinent inquiry about her private appetites from Dr Stephen Ladyman.

He will meet George Bush Jr, the Governor of Texas and son of the former US president, who broadened Republican appeal through “caring” policies such as a big drive to improve literacy in schools.Mr Hague will make speeches on “the right way” – his response to Tony Blair’s trumpeted “third way” and on “common sense Conservatism”.The Tory leader will stress that “compassion” does not necessarily mean higher spending, adding that, while adequate funding is an issue, new ways must be found to tackle social problems.. “Conservatives do not worship the market as an end in itself; they value it as a useful means to an end.”The report continues: “The Government should stand ready to intervene in the market in the interests of economic efficiency or because some other aspect of our well-being depends upon it – provided that a strong case can be made.”During his trip to the United States, Mr Hague will hold talks with Republican strategists and politicians in the hope of learning lessons on how the right can fight back against the centre-left, now in the ascendant in Europe and America. The Tory leader, facing growing criticism from his MPs after failing to slash Labour’s commanding lead in the opinion polls, will argue that the party can no longer rely on its traditional economic competence to propel it back into power.
He will say that the Tories must convince people that they hold the right values and the new policies to tackle social issues such as health, education, welfare, crime, the inner cities and the underclass.”In the 1980s, the problems facing Britain were on the economy, but today there are different challenges,” said an aide yesterday.Details of Mr Hague’s new agenda emerged in an internal party report, leaked to The Independent, which suggests that the Conservatives will water down their long-held support for the free market.”Although the market is one of the most useful tools we have, it is just that – a tool,” says the report, sent by Conservative Central Office to local activists as part of a policy consultation exercise. WILLIAM HAGUE will answer his Tory critics by unveiling a new brand of “caring Conservatism” during a five-day North American tour starting tonight. All will be revealed on 21 March.Nominees For Main AwardsBest Picture: Elizabeth; Life Is Beautiful; Saving Private Ryan; Shakespeare In Love; The Thin Red Line.Best Actor: Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful; Tom Hanks, Saving Private Ryan; Sir Ian McKellen, Gods And Monsters; Nick Nolte, Affliction; Edward Norton, American History X.Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth; Fernanda Montenegro, Central Station; Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakespeare In Love; Meryl Streep, One True Thing; Emily Watson, Hilary and Jackie.Supporting Actor: James Coburn, Affliction; Robert Duvall, A Civil Action; Ed Harris, The Truman Show; Geoffrey Rush, Shakespeare In Love; Billy Bob Thornton, A Simple Plan.Supporting Actress: Kathy Bates, Primary Colors; Brenda Blethyn, Little Voice; Dame Judi Dench, Shakespeare In Love; Rachel Griffiths, Hilary and Jackie; Lynn Redgrave, Gods And Monsters.Director: Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful; Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan; John Madden, Shakespeare In Love; Terrence Malick, The Thin Red Line; Peter Weir, The Truman Show.Foreign Film: Central Station, Brazil; Children Of Heaven, Iran; The Grandfather, Spain; Life Is Beautiful, Italy; Tango, Argentina.Screenplay, written directly for the screen: Warren Beatty and Jeremy Pikser, Bulworth; Vincenzo Cerami and Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful; Robert Rodat, Saving Private Ryan; Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare In Love; Andrew Niccol, The Truman Show.Screenplay, based on material previously produced or published: Bill Condon, Gods And Monsters; Scott Frank, Out Of Sight; Elaine May, Primary Colors; Scott B Smith, A Simple Plan; Terrence Malick, The Thin Red Line..

The Oscars are quintessential show business, and marketing is increasingly the prime force in that business.Having won the battle, though, Miramax now has to win the war – or rather hope that its versions of war (Life is Beautiful) and love and war (Shakespeare in Love) win out over the darker, more brooding visions of conflict on offer (Saving Private Ryan and Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line). Not only was their Shakespeare in Love the biggest winner of the morning, but Life is Beautiful, Roberto Benigni’s bittersweet concentration camp comedy, garnered an astonishing seven nominations – the biggest cull ever for a foreign (Italian) film, including nods for best film, best actor (Benigni), best director (Benigni) and best screenwriter (Mr Benigni again).This coup was no fluke – Miramax has been promoting both films with extraordinary energy since the start of the year. Is there a client on this list, they all wondered, scouring the small print of awards for make-up, sound editing and best documentary.Amid the confusion, the folks from Miramax looked particularly smug. The producer-director of Saving Private Ryan, up for 11 awards, was on his way to the Berlin Film Festival to present The Last Days, a Holocaust documentary he produced.As the more obsessive Oscar watchers pointed out, while he is there he will find it hard not to run into Private Ryan’s arch-rival, Shakespeare in Love (13 nominations), which is showing in the festival competition.The brief show over, the real scrum began as publicists ran for the full nominations lists being handed out at the back of the theatre. There were cheers and applause for a few of the popular nominees – Cate Blanchett and Lynn Redgrave obviously have their fans among the foot-soldiers of the big networks – but the affair was treated largely as a mechanical exercise in media logistics.”Let’s call James Coburn at home!” murmured one TV executive as his name came up for best supporting actor in the Paul Schrader movie, Affliction.”Where’s Steven Spielberg? Have we figured out if he has left for Berlin yet?” asked another. The main object of the exercise was to pack as many freshly honoured nominees on to the breakfast television shows as possible.As the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Bob Rehme, stepped out onto the stage with his celebrity co-host, Kevin Spacey, producers and publicists nervously cradled their mobile phones in one hand and fingered their list of key phone numbers in the other.The presenters did not bother read out the whole list, just the nominees for acting, directing, screenwriting and best film – proof, if any was needed, that Mr Spacey set his alarm clock and donned his best suit not for the benefit of the assembled hacks but to brighten the feeds to the morning news magazines. In fact, apart from the odd culprit carrying a plastic coffee cup past the “no food or drink beyond this point” sign, there was barely a murmur of haste or undue anticipation.