In the long-run, taking into account the refitting of the ferries, the contract over 20 years could be worth £1bn.Ministers are expected to meet local MPs and yard representatives this week. The MoD has said an announcement will be made by the end of the spring.Mohammed Sarwar, the Labour MP for Govan, said yesterday: "It would be a grave mistake for the Government not to consider allowing this contract to go to the Govan shipyard The cheapest tender is not necessarily the best. Everyone understands how much all this matters to jobs on the river Clyde." Mr Sarwar claims to have been told by a ministerial source that the order will probably go to Germany, a decision that would be a blow to the political reputation of John Reid, the Secretary of State for Scotland, who claimed much credit for saving the yard last year.Labour is sensitive over the future of the shipyard - it sits in a marginal constituency the Scottish National Party is keen to win to show Labour's heartlands are vulnerable. If the ferries were classified as war ships, the Government could simply award the contract to a British yard.However, because they are technically for commercial shipping, EU rules that favour the lowest bidder apply.Jamie Webster, yard convener for the GMB union at Govan, said: "The Government must intervene and listen to what people are saying The manufacturing base is being destroyed around them.".

A shortage of skilled staff in the booming financial services industry is at its most severe for two years, according to a survey published yesterday. A shortage of skilled staff in the booming financial services industry is at its most severe for two years, according to a survey published yesterday. Firms such as insurers, banks, building societies and securities traders have become markedly more worried about the impact that problems in recruiting qualified employees will have on their business.The survey, by the Confederation of British Industry, found that shortage of labour as a constraint on business prospects had risen to its highest level since June 1998. It is linked to growing fears that IT systems cannot deal with the rapid technological changes in the financial services industry.Businesses were worried about the shortage of both professional and clerical staff, indicating that recruitment problems are common across the economy. But financial services firms said IT staff were in very short supply.Ian Dilks, head of European insurance at PricewaterhouseCoopers, which sponsored the survey, said: "Firms cited the lack of properly qualified staff as a constraint and there's some suggestion of concern about the ability to recruit IT professionals."The quarterly survey came a day after Incomes Data Services highlighted an inflationary wage spiral in the internet-based business sector. Signs of skilled labour shortages in the key areas of finance and IT will add to existing concerns about the tightness of the labour market.Headline earnings are rising at 5.9 per cent a year, driven by a 6.9 per cent rise in the private sector. The Bank of England believes 4.5 per cent is consistent with its inflation target.

The Office for National Statistics yesterday said it would introduce a new index for private sector earnings this month to help the Bank analyse this crucial area.The CBI survey found that, overall, financial services firms remained upbeat. Optimism about the business and economic situation continued to improve, with confidence growing for the fifth consecutive survey.Despite this confident mood, concerns increased about constrains on prospects for the coming year. The level of domestic competition remains the biggest constraint and is at its highest level for almost a year. However, the impact of legislation and the adequacy of IT systems are both increasing concerns and are at their highest levels for six years.. Supermarket group Tesco is to create 6,000 UK jobs under expansion plans announced today. Supermarket group Tesco is to create 6,000 UK jobs under expansion plans announced today. The UK jobs will be part of 20,000 being created worldwide.The expansion includes plans to build new stores in "regeneration areas" in Britain. The first of these will open in Leeds in September.The schemes in regeneration areas will create 2,000 of the new posts, Tesco said.Other jobs will be created over the coming year through store refits and extensions and an expansion of the Tesco Direct home shopping service.The group, the UK's biggest supermarket chain, also announced plans to spin off its Internet business as a separate subsidiary company.The subsidiary, Tesco , will include the group's online home shopping operation and its own Internet service provider.Tesco said its home shopping business was now the largest in the world, with annual sales of £125 million.The group said it would spend around £35 million on its e-business in the current financial year.The plans came as the group announced full-year results better than market expectations.Sales in the year to February 26 reached £20.3 billion, up almost 10% on the previous year.Profits before tax hit £933 million, up from £842 million.Tesco saw its fastest expansion overseas, with sales in continental Europe up almost 19% and sales in Asia up 200%, although both regions remain a small part of the business..

A memory pill to help old people learn new tricks is being developed by scientists who believe they will soon discover an antidote to amnesia. A memory pill to help old people learn new tricks is being developed by scientists who believe they will soon discover an antidote to amnesia. Medical researchers said yesterday that they may have found an explanation for why memory begins to fade in later life, a discovery that couldlead to the development of a memory-enhancing drug. The research is focused on a strain of laboratory mouse that is remarkable for its ability to learn and remember new things in old age better than it could in its youth.Karl Giese, a memory scientist at University College London, said the mouse lacks a gene that plays a crucial role in learning when the animal is young but which is positively harmful for its memory in later years. The same gene exists in humans and probably has the same function in causing forgetfulness in middle age.By blocking the gene's activity in people older than 50, it should be possible to improve their memory "The idea of a memory pill is very exciting," Dr Giese said.

"It would be fantastic if this turned out to be the beginning of the development of a memory pill for the elderly."I can foresee that we will be able in the future to improve learning and memory abilities in old age - basically to restore them to a young age," he added. "This would have very important implications for society, because the average lifespan is increasing and, along with lifespan, we want to increase the quality of life."Mice, like humans, suffer a decline in the ability to learn and remember new things as they grow old. The scientists at UCL's Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, working with the University of California, Los Angeles, found that the gene, which is involved in the transmission of nerve signals, appears to play a key role.It is not known why the gene is beneficial for learning in young mice, yet hinders their memory in older age. However, Dr Giese said blocking the gene in older people would have clear benefits. "We want to use pharmacology to mimic the same effects, to test the idea [that] we can, ultimately, develop a memory pill for the elderly," he said.Dr Giese warned that bringing a memory pill to market could take another 10 years of research, but the benefits would be significant for an ageing population. "Such a pill should bring your learning and memory ability up to that of a young age," he said.. The Celtic Film and Television Festival may have been going for 21 years, but that didn't stop the organisers of this year's gathering at Aberystwyth inquiring in the final session: "Who are we? Did the Celts ever exist?" Among those supplying answers were two of the writers who have done most in recent times to enrich the answer to those questions, the historian Norman Davies and Simon James, the author of Atlantic Celts.