ADRIAN BRIDGE

One of Andreas Papandreou's chief dissidents inside the Greek Socialist Party, the Industry Minister Costas Simitis, stormed out of the cabinet and the party executive yesterday in a row over the future of the country's largest shipyard, writes Andrew Gumbel.

Shipyard joins the space race

I THINK we may have got off to a bad start last week. Caring, marshmallow stuff about little men and their sad lives, you may recall. Or not. Frankly, it isn't my problem. It's 102F in my workroom, so to hell with your memory problems, your newspaper-buying habits, and to hell with the little man.

From Mrs Jean Sutton

JAMES BETHELL

The Brodsky Quartet QEH, London

BY RUSSELL HOTTEN

REAR WINDOW: THE LAUNCHING OF LINERS

Tallinn - Amid fingerpointing over what led to Europe's worst ferry disaster this century, members of the commission investigating the accident said yesterday they were not prepared to pin the blame on anyone.

Grass-roots Labour supporters gave Tony Blair a rousing reception in his North-east heartland last night as the Labour leader began a national crusade to modernise his party's constitutional commitment to public ownership.

TALKS to save Tyneside's Swan Hunter shipyard broke down in acrimony yesterday as the receiver announced plans for the piecemeal sell-off of the assets.

PROSPECTS for a takeover by British Aerospace of the Trident submarine builder, VSEL, may be threatened by a pounds 40m contingent liability relating to VSEL's privatisation in 1986. The liability is the maximum additional amount payable to British Shipbuilders, the state-owned company from which VSEL emerged, and depends on the performance of the company for the six years to 31 March 1992.

AN ENGINEERING professor at Cambridge is set to be the biggest individual winner from any sale of VSEL, the shipbuilder that announced it had received a takeover approach last week.