About their problems. They try to find answers for their problems together. For example

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themselves. On the unused land, the creatures that the bulldozers displaced - moles, voles, mice and rabbits - and those creatures that live on this land - foxes, stoats, owls and birds of prey - have survived. They have created their own success story against all the odds, and now occupy this new land, which is calm among the speeding lines of traffic, safe from any human threat, and where they live and multiply.

In brief, the construction of motorways has been unable to interfere with the life cycle of wild animals. The wheel , it seems, has come full circle. Former nature reserves of field and woodland, once so fiercely protected, have disappeared under the layers of motorway. But now they are on the wasteland alongside the motorways. We preserve endangered species and animal life in such newly-designated 'protected areas.

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CONSUMER PRESSURE

Consumer pressure is one of the natural phases of an advanced industrial society. As a society reaches a certain stage in development, concern over consumer issues makes itself felt. The United States led the way, other countries gradually followed suit.

The Consumers' Union of the United States was founded in the 1920's; Ralph Nader began to make himself known as the American consumer spokesman in the 1960's when he attacked the American car industry in his book Unsafe at any Speed. He succeeded in getting certain cars withdrawn from sale to the general public. He followed this by investigating other areas where the consumer was at a disadvantage as a result of decisions by manufacturers, retailers or government. He has been spectacularly successful, largely because as a lawyer he knows how to function within the American legal system.

His effect on British development has principally been as an example. Very close parallels cannot be drawn, because the British legal system is different. Until recently, confrontation and direct action has not been the British way of settling matters; settlement has been reached by gentlemanly chats and invitations to lunch and a visit to the works or factory afterwards. This combination of factors has a lot to do with the reasons why consumer action in this country has only come alive over the last decade or so. Nevertheless, inflation has also had a hand in it. The price of buying equipment for one's life and home comes to be questioned at a time of rapid inflation and uncertain economic growth. The goods and services are available in ever-increasing abundance but for many individuals the money doesn't go round them all. The pressure on incomes both from inflation and from the wide attractive range of goods on which money can be spent means that people begin to look more critically at prices. Having spent their money, they resent the occasions when there is some cause to complain about goods or services which do not come up to expectations. And on attempting to complain, they find themselves too often defeated by the stone wall of manufacturers' and retailers' indifference to complaints.

So then consumer action started. People with a complaint wrote to a person whom they could identify in some way: their MP, a journalist, a broadcaster. As these letters continued to come in, the politicians and the media began to realise that there was a problem area, an area where people come up against difficulties which they cannot handle. In trying to sort out some of the complaints, they discovered just how difficult the situation is, how hard it is to complain, and how much specialised knowledge is required. This consumer protection action began to achieve a popularity it had never known before and began to attract support from the media and in Parliament.