When predator and prey are of similar size, as in this case, the chances of success are further reduced. Indeed, neither side has spent mcu time on running their companies since the bid was launched. If Granada wins, however, guests of the Posthouse hotels can look forward to Sky TV in every room.So are bids a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?More often than not, a Bad Thing, say most academic studies. Shareholders of the target company do well, but those of the predator tend not to. The merchant bankers, underwriters, lawyers, spin-doctors and other advisers will collect over pounds 130m in fees. Forte shareholders should do well if they play their cards right But nobody is thinking much about customers. Robinson, they claim, is trying to cash in on the groundwork already done.

Robinson, however, argues that Forte has managed its assets badly and has too many luxuries such as its corporate jet and sponsorship of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe horse race.Are the roadside breakfasts safe?No. Granada has installed Burger King franchises in its motorway service stations and would do the same with some of the Little Chefs and Happy Eaters, either converting them wholesale into fast-food outlets, or at least tacking on a fast-food counter.So is anybody benefiting from this takeover battle?Yes. But his supporters say it is only in the past couple of years that he has thrown off his father's shadow and in that time he has knocked Forte into better shape. It remains a worry that future increases in fuel bills may influence elderly people to use heating even more sparingly, placing even more of them at risk."Archie Young, professor of geriatric medicine at the Royal Free Hospital, endorsed this view.

"It is an entirely reasonable hypothesis," he said.A Department of Health spokesman said, "We do provide information to the elderly which points out that they can get help and cold weather payments, and income support was uprated for pensioners. The advice we give is that keeping warm is vital if you are to stay healthy. If you can't afford to keep your house or flat warm in every room, you should keep one room warm.". ONE hundred and three years to the day since Keir Hardie launched the Independent Labour Party, Arthur Scargill followed in his footsteps yesterday with the formation of his Socialist Labour Party.

This time, the founding fathers met in a three-star hotel in central London, rather than a draughty hall in Bradford. About 30 gathered behind closed doors and drawn curtains. In 1893, few would have given much for Keir Hardie's chances of changing the course of British political history. Fewer still are likely to judge the birth of "Arthur's army" in the Great Northern Hotel, King's Cross, as a watershed.The miners' leader said Socialist Labour would be officially launched on 1 May, when party officials would be selected.It would stand for free health care, education without public schools, a society where unemployment is banished and an end to homelessness. The party colour would be red, Mr Scargill said - "as red as red can be".Members wanted to see a return to public ownership - Labour's ditched Clause Four commitment - and "a return to true socialism abandoned by the Labour Party" The would-be party leader had no doubts. "We hope to have 5,000 members within 18 months and that will be enough to sustain a national party," he said.Last night a relaxed Labour leadership said Mr Scargill's party would send out a powerful signal that Labour had modernised. A spokesman for Tony Blair said of Mr Scargill: "Labour has changed dramatically, while he is locked in the politics of many years ago."One issue for discussion was whether the SLP would field a candidate in the Hemsworth by-election on 1 February. Mr Scargill has twice been worsted by the Labour Party hierarchy in the constituency.

His miners' union-sponsored candidates were excluded from contesting the seat.The NUM president is now reportedly thinking of running his wife, Anne, as the socialist standard-bearer in the constituency, which was once dominated by coal-mining but no longer has a working colliery. The left-wing journal Tribune said: "Anne Scargill has been circulated as someone who could draw electoral support for traditional Labour values."However, the name of Pat Sikorski, a hard-left member of the executive of the rail union RMT, has also been mentioned.There were no household names at the meeting apart from Mr Scargill. But reporters identified Frank Cave, vice-president of the NUM, and Tommy Sheridan, charismatic leader of Scottish Militant.At King's Cross station, the veteran socialist and former Greater London Council deputy leader Illtyd Harrington was travelling to Leeds to watch opera "I'd rather go and see La Boheme," he said "I've joined enough lost causes in my time Arthur is a blind prophet.". THIRTY-THREE years after Sylvia Plath's suicide, her publishers are trumpeting a "new" book by the controversial poet. The It Doesn't Matter Suit, a children's story found among the poet's papers at the Lilly Library in Indiana University, has created a buzz of excitement among publishers around the world.