[facing a £2,000 bill for legal costs as…]

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facing a £2,000 bill for legal costs as a result of its unsuccessful legal tussle with its 43,000-strong upstart rival of the same name.

The original SDP has not exactly had an illustrious history since its formation in 1979.

Its leader, Donald Kean, contested the Glasgow Central by election-but his campaign produced only ten votes out of 19,000.

Judge James Fitzhugh unkindly declared that it was inconceivable that Roy Jenkins and the Gang of 3 were now passing themselves off as members of Kean's It is not known if any links exist between the two, but as an Anti-Soviet Society leaflet says, it will cooperate "enthusiastically with other organisations with similar aims and attitudes"

The Freadom Association and sunil! bihe: orzanisa=sce years.

But recent events 17 and the threat of intervention coupled with Thatcher! Reagan warmongering have provided a new impetus.

Is it a bird? Is it a bullet? Is it Superman?

No. It's the sky-rocketing costs of keeping an almost totally useless supersonic aircraft in the sky.

Concorde, the dream of the sixties; the cash-guzzler of the seventies has become the embarrassing white elephant of the eighties.

A Commons committee on Industry and Trade has recommended that its future be investigated-and pointed out that the cost of cancelling Concorde (about £40 million) would be less than the cost of continuing to run it for the next five years (£123 million).

Concorde has long been a depository of jingoistic rhetoric. Can the nation which brought the sonic boom to five continents be all bad?

It is of course that boom means inat C:30:% a00: 1: superso: cie: and-zhich has rendered the technological advances in Concorde virtually useless.

Capitalism has abused its technological knowledge to produce an tircraft which can fly at a speed which can't be used, consuming fuel that can't be afforded.

Inside the plane the fawning first class service convinced jaded businessmen that this is the only way to travel.

It gets them there early enough to grab a few hours sleep to work up an appetite again after the excesses of the flight.

Concorde was defended by Labour as well as Tory governments. For the Tories it was the physical embodiment of British supremacy. For Tony Benn it was a glorified job creation scheme -useless work at a high price.

The press prefer the Tories' apology. BA advertisements and gutter press copy become interchangeable- 'Fly the flag'.

The Daily Express tried to recapture the golden days of its imperial past with a lead story entitled "Hands Off Concorde".

Both the Express and the Mail compared Concorde to the latest episode of American Star Wars-the space shuttle Columbia (cost $35 17 E: million per voyage).

The shuttle flight-which makes even Concorde seem cheap-was seen as somehow paying the world back for all the USA's humiliations in the last ten years.

The argument put forward by the press to defend Concorde are similar to the arguments for increased arms spending.

The sugar on the pill is patriotism, chauvinism and nationalism. Underneath is the drive for profits and with Concorde the state's bosses are private industry's profits.

Only the Observer-ever a critic of Concorde-said the right place for it was a museum.

While millions are thrown on the scrap heap, capitalism promises a glittering future but offers only a heap of useless metal.

The unemployed stand outside the gates of the bosses' amusement arcade as millions of pounds are spent to offer the bourgeoisie a joy ride in one of the world's most sophisticated liabilities.

Fly the flag' has become "Fly the White Elephant"

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