The car industry is taking the UK consumer for a ride and treating us with utter contempt

The car industry is taking the UK consumer for a ride and treating us with utter contempt. The Government must get off the fence, take on the car industry and end the Great British rip-off."This week, car manufacturers have failed to attend a public inquiry into an alleged monopoly, reserving their right to speak for a series of confidential hearings The detailed survey looked at 75 cars from the 15 EU member. BRITAIN IS still the most expensive place to buy cars in Europe, a European Commission survey showed yesterday. Of the 75 best-selling models 62 cost more in the UK than in any other EU country. British buyers paid 80 per cent more for the Honda Civic than customers in Denmark and the Rover 214 model cost an extra pounds 3,000 in Britain compared with France, a price gap of 61 per cent. The findings were condemned by the Consumer Association. Its senior policy researcher, Phil Evans, said: "These new figures show the rip-off is getting worse.

An EC spokeswoman said the raids were part of an investigation into whether Coca-Cola was abusing its dominant market position.A spokesman for Coca-Cola said: "We believe we are within full compliance of all competition laws and regulations, and we are co-operating fully with the authorities."The investigation was welcomed last night by Coca-Cola's arch-rival Pepsi, which lodged its own complaint last year.Last month Coca-Cola was at the centre of a health scare, when dozens of Belgian children complained of stomach pains and nausea after drinking coke.. Complaints have been lodged by Virgin Cola, Pernod, Pepsi and the Italian supermarket chain Esse Lunga.Coca-Cola yesterday confirmed the raids on its offices in Austria, Denmark, Germany and in Hammersmith, west London. Others stem from 1989 when the EC launched an investigation in Italy into Coca-Cola's pricing policy. Mr Branson and other European competitors have complained about the drinks giant's alleged tactics against its rivals. Allegations before Karel Van Miert, the EC competition commissioner, include claims that Coca-Cola has used a range of anti-competitive practices, such as rewarding retailers for only stocking Coca-Cola products and giving them lucrative bonuses for hitting targets set by Coca-Cola executives.The complaint by Richard Branson was made in 1996. RICHARD BRANSON'S Virgin Cola was one of the complainants that sparked raids by European Commission investigators on Coca-Cola offices in four European countries, The Independent has learnt.

He turned to cannabis after side-effects from conventional drugs left him "devastated".It was the first prosecution in a British court for the supply of the drug for medical reasons, although other people have been acquitted for possession on the grounds of illness.. Colin Davies, 42, who started growing cannabis in his flat after suffering severe spinal injuries in a fall, was acquitted at Manchester Crown Court of cultivating, possessing and supplying the drug after a three-day trial. The court had heard that Mr Davies, a former joiner, of Brinnington, Stockport, formed the Medical Marijuana Co-operative with the aim of helping sufferers of serious and terminal illnesses. THE GOVERNMENT last night faced new calls to legalisecannabis for medical use after a man who set up a co-operative to supply the drug was cleared by a jury in the first case of its kind. "RSI must now be recognised as an industrial injury to compel employers to protect their staff," said chief executive Phil Gray.. "This judgment shows that RSI is a very real industrial injury and employers are liable for the damage they cause to their staff," said a negotiator, Linda Gregory.The union said the outcome will strengthen its call for RSI to become a recognised industrial injury.The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy said the judgment reflected the growing weight of evidence that RSI was a real medical condition. "We have been vexed by inconsistent decisions of the High Court. It is good news that the Court of Appeal has given guidance on this issue," he said, adding: "Medical science has not caught up with the nature of the condition."The women's union, Unifi (formerly Bifu), also welcomed the judgment.

The problem was that that awareness, for some reason, had not reached those in charge at Frimley."Peter Woods, a litigation partner at the law firm Stephens Innocent and the lawyer who advised the Financial Times journalists last year, said yesterday that the decision was a real boost to all RSI sufferers seeking compensation. They said that they were given six months' training and were then expected to reach a required speed or they would be sacked.Midland argued at the Court of Appeal test case that the painful condition was "psychogenic" and not caused by any physical or organic factors.The women operators, who worked on encoding machines, had not established that they had suffered any injury compensatable in law, William Stephenson QC, for the bank, told the court.But Lord Justice Stuart-Smith said the bank's appeal must fail after Judge Byrt QC ruled in the Mayor's and City of London Court that the injuries were physical.He added: "There was abundant evidence that the defendant [the bank] was well aware of the risk. Last year the High Court ruled against five journalists who brought claims of RSI against the Financial Times. This followed a decision in October 1996 when Judge Prosser, in a claim brought against Reuters, famously declared that RSI did not exist.The five women employees, who worked part-time for the Midland bank (now HSBC) at its processing centre in Frimley, Surrey, successfully argued in a lower court in May last year that they developed pains in their necks, arms and hands after being asked to reach high speeds typing data into computers. Upholding a pounds 60,000 damages claim by five former Midland Bank employees, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith threw out an argument by the bank's lawyers that the injuries were psychological in origin. Medical negligence lawyers welcomed the decision which, they said, now settled the matter of the legal status of RSI.