The interesting thing is how few line managers turned up

The interesting thing is how few line managers turned up." Earlier Mr Blair had pledged to leave the Conservatives' industrial relations and enterprise reforms of the Eighties unchanged but offered a new agenda on education, welfare reform, the infrastructure, Europe and competition policy.Mr Heseltine then took the platform and launched a withering assault on both the commission and its report, accusing it of "seriously understating" the Government's achievements, failing to recognise the threat posed by the left, using out-of-date and selective statistics, and ignoring the trade unions, save for two brief mentions."I must in honesty, go further. I question the motives of those who cloak their political intentions with academic respectability," he said.Afterwards, John Monks, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress and a member of the commission, described Mr Heseltine's attacks as "pretty disgraceful". He said: "It shows how out of touch he is with the agenda for the future ... he is fighting the battles of the Seventies and Eighties."Last night the commission members fired off a letter rejecting any suggestion that they had any political agenda, pointing out that they were drawn from across the political spectrum and saying they were "rather surprised" at his comments.Mr Heseltine did not let up, however, later writing to Mr Blair urging him to "come clean" on his plans for a windfall tax and enclosing a check- list of privatised utilities with the suggestion that the Labour leader tick those he intended to target. Labour's deputy, John Prescott, wrote back suggesting that Mr Blair's trip to the Netherlands offered "another opportunity to make a complete fool of yourself", and adding: "Always remember that just because you're losing power, it doesn't mean you have to lose the plot."Comment, page 19. The Royal Bank of Scotland is to set up what it claims is the first full Internet banking service in Britain, marking an important step on the road towards virtual banking and the cashless society. The move could lead to a stampede from other banks in Britain to offer such services, and may hasten the demise of the branch network which is already under threat from telephone banking. Retailers already allow shoppers to buy a wide range of products on the Internet and while other banks in Britain do offer services on personal computers, notably the TSB, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) claims its service is different because it is Internet-wide and more sophisticated.RBS, based in Edinburgh, said it intended to roll out the Internet service to its half-million telephone banking customers in the spring Some 50,000 of its customers have access to the Internet.

To join, customers will need a personal computer, a modem and Microsoft software.RBS, which pioneered telephone sales of insurance through its Direct Line subsidiary a decade ago, claimed to have overcome the security problems of internet banking. A spokesman said it would take "longer than the universe has been around" to break in.The human face of banking is gradually disappearing as new technology, including telephone banking, allows customers to move cash and to pay bills without visiting their branches. The number of bank branches in Britain has been slashed by 3,000 to about 10,000 in the past six years and NatWest alone has announced the loss of a further 10,000 jobs. But RBS said Internet banking did not mean more job cuts.Experts say that this type of banking could eventually be used to provide a full banking service, including the transfer of cash into electronic purses, but this is likely to be many years away.Internet revolution, page 18. Doctors' leaders will today press for a U-turn over plans which could allow supermarkets to open doctors' surgeries, at a meeting with Department of Health officials. The BMA is threatening to attack the Government in the general election campaign for "privatising" the family doctor service, unless the Secretary of State for Health, Stephen Dorrell, backs down.

Such a charge would infuriate ministers, but leave the Tories highly vulnerable. Labour has been accusing the Government of planning the privatisation of the NHS for some time, but the backing of the doctors would make the charge stick. Ministerial sources said they would be seeking a compromise by offering movement on other issues, including a BMA demand for a proper timetable for pilot schemes in primary care, before they are introduced nationally. But the government sources appeared to rule out any retreat on the proposals to allow private companies to hire GPs.The plan is part of the NHS Primary Care Bill, which is due to go through its final stages in the Lords tomorrow before starting its passage through the Commons on 11 February. If there is an early election, there is a strong chance that Mr Dorrell will be forced to concede to Labour to get the rest of the Bill on the Statute Book..

Labour last night denied reports that it was planning to strip the BBC's governors of most of their powers. A party official said he would be telephoning to assure the corporation that Labour had no plans to merge the Independent Television Commission and the telecommunications regulator, Oftel, to create a new Office of Communications. The shadow Broadcasting minister, Lewis Moonie, was quoted in the Guardian newspaper as saying: "I would not like to call the BBC governors a failure - but they have to wear two hats, which has ensured they have done neither job very well in the past.". The oldest survivor of the Titanic disaster, Edith Haisman (left), has died aged 100. Only five survivors of the disaster now remain - all of them well into their 80s and 90s. Mrs Haisman was 15 when she made the fateful crossing with her family, who were hoping to make a new life in Seattle. Her father, Thomas Brown, perished with 1,522 others on 14 April 1912 when the liner hit an iceberg.

Along with her mother, Elizabeth, Mrs Haisman was one of the few who found space on a lifeboat Throughout her life, Mrs Haisman was haunted by the memory. She said last year: "It was a long time ago that it happened, but you do not forget it I had it for years on my mind. It never goes away." She also remembered that her father had a presentiment that something awful would occur. She last saw her father standing on deck, with a glass of brandy in one hand and a cigar in the other He waved and said: "I will see you in New York.". An attempt by a headteachers' union to challenge government plans to publish primary school league tables was defeated in the High Court yesterday.