Pierre Guidoni, France’s ambassador in Spain from 1982
to 1985 – when GAL hitmen assassinated more than 20 suspected Eta terrorists on French soil – said it was “psychologically implausible, politically absurd and technically impossible” for the Spanish government to have known anything about GAL.But it was possible, Mr Guidoni conceded in yesterday’s El Pais newspaper, that Spanish anti-terrorist police took matters into their own hands.Mr Guidoni said he was instructed by President Francois Mitterrand to achieve a rapprochement with the newly elected Socialist government to negotiate Spanish entry into the European Community. Mr Guidoni says he was in intense and daily contact with thePrime Minister.France and Spain had long been at odds over Basque terrorism. France objected to cross-border raids from freelance hit-squads of Francoist origin such as the Basque Spanish Battalion and the Triple A. Spain complained that France provided a safe haven for Eta suspects.Madrid opted for dialogue with Paris as the way forward, Mr Guidoni recalled yesterday,culminating in a visit by President Mitterrand to Madrid in June 1984 that paved the way for Spain’s EC entry in June 1985.It would have been “absurd, demented” for the government in Madrid to have risked destroying the close relationship it was building, Mr Guidoni said.n Suspected Eta terrorists shot dead Gregorio Ordonez, an opposition Popular Party leader, in San Sebastian yesterday, the first such attack on a political figure for more than two years.. Governments and healthcare organisations have been happy to pick up the tab, shielding the customer from the high costs of these products.No longer.

Ever since the war, prescription drugs have been a largely protected industry. The pace of change has taken even the most perceptive of observers by surprise To say a revolution is taking place is no exaggeration. In fairness to Sir Paul, it would almost certainly have been a mistake. However, in a fast-changing world Sir Paul’s alternative strategy – steady as she goes in the hope that the boffins in research would discover another Zantac – looked like a formula for stagnation.
It is a favourite joke of Sir Richard Sykes, his feet now firmly under the table, to talk about the “good old days of the pharmaceuticals industry – as in about 18 months ago”. That proposal – a merger with Warner Lambert – was different in nature and concept from what is now proposed. The only comparable cases in recent British corporate history are all in the field of retailing – Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. The last of Sir Paul’s foot soldiers to suggest anything as vulgar as an acquisition, Ernest Mario, was quickly dispatched back to hisUS homeland, a £3m cheque in his pocket.

Sir Paul’s great achievement and boast was that he transformed Glaxo from the small, unfocused “quoted university” it was in the 1970s into Britain’s largest company in terms of stock market worth entirely by means of organic growth. The strategy discussion and decision-making that led up to yesterday’s blockbuster £8.9bn bid by Glaxo for Wellcome came too late for Sir Paul Girolami, the uncontested genius behind Glaxo’s success, to participate in. Sir Richard Sykes, his successor and the man whose show this is, insists that Sir Paul undoubtedly would have gone along with it and he may be right None the less, it would have stuck in the gullet. Dr Pepper merged with Seven-Up in 1988 and has about 8 per cent of the US soft drinks market.. Cadbury owns 25.3 per cent of the common stock of Dr Pepper/Seven-Up, based in Dallas, acquired at an average cost of $15 (£10) a share.Cadbury said yesterday that it intended any “business combination” would be financed by both debt and equity.A takeover would make Cadbury the biggest non-cola soft drink supplier in the world. Many City pundits felt Cadbury’s official statement to the Stock Exchange was prompted by widespread leaks of the transatlantic tie-up.
A Cadbury spokeswoman said this was “not necessarily”the case, but said:”We wanted to make sure that the market was informed at an early stage.”She declined to comment on the speculated price of any takeover of Dr Pepper/Seven-Up, or the likely timing of any further announcement.One broking analyst said that Cadbury’s hand was probably forced on disclosure by takeover speculation and leaks.However, there was no logical objection to a merger, he said. Cadbury’s shares, also affected by the general market fall yesterday, were hit by the confirmation that any deal would probably involve issuing new shares to raise £500m.