His officials said Mr Mandelson was acting in "a facilitating role". IIn his quasi-judicial capacity as Secretary of State, it falls to him and him alone to sit in solemn judgement and decide whether to refer the bid or not.General Pinochet and Longbridge, on the other hand, fall into a slightly different category. Both are subjects on which the Secretary of State chose to intervene, although he did not need to.Indeed, in the case of Longbridge, the management and unions had been making rather good progress towards stitching up a deal until Mr Mandelson chose to drive up to the Birmingham Motor Show with his two-pennies-worth.Mr Mandelson then proceeded to hold meetings first with the top brass from Rover and its parent company BMW, then with the unions, during which the big stick was brought out again. He has to listen to the advice of the Office of Fair Trading but he does not have to act on it. But it is still not clear what they were disputing, the Guardian's assertion that he would block the deal or its assertion that he would allow it through.Now, the fate of BSkyB's bid for Manchester United is not one that Mr Mandelson can dodge. This will ameliorate the loss of comparative stock market information when Wessex Water plc's market quotation disappears.. PETER MANDELSON has attracted even more newspaper column inches this week than usual.

It began with the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry's outburst over the "gut wrenching" General Pinochet. Having limbered up on a Chilean dictator, he then trained his sights on the workforce at Rover's Longbridge car plant, telling them to "sharpen up" their act if they wanted to keep their jobs. Mr Mandelson's week ended with a sadly confused story in the Guardian proclaiming that he intended to back the sale of Manchester United to Rupert Murdoch by, er, referring the deal to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.His department chose to issue a denial. My objective is to ensure that the business operates in the interest of customers of Wessex Water and that I have access to information to enable me to regulate effectively," said Ian Byatt, director- general of Water Services. "Wessex Water will issue a variable rate bond linked to its credit rating not later than 31 December 2000 and will use all reasonable endeavours to list it on the London Stock Exchange. THE WATER watchdog, Ofwat, yesterday invited comments by 27 November on proposed amendments to Wessex Water Services' licence. The proposals, which are intended to safeguard regulation, have been agreed by Enron Water as a condition of its takeover of Wessex Water. "Wessex Water will become part of the [US utility] Enron group and I must ensure that I am able to continue to gather information about how it is carrying out its duties, and the costs incurred to give me a clear view of its performance. According to the original numbers, earnings growth had been above the critical 4.5 per cent threshold throughout 1998, peaking at 5.4 per cent in April.

According to the new numbers, earnings growth did not creep above 4.5 per cent until the spring, and peaked at 5.2 per cent in June.. Earnings grew by 5 per cent in June and by 5.2 per cent in May, the ONS said, not, as previously thought, by 4.7 per cent and 5 per cent On 14 October, the ONS changed the numbers again. The June figure was revised up to 5.2 per cent, while the May figure was cut to 5 per cent - the same number as first published in the summer.More significantly, on 14 October the ONS also altered its estimates of earnings growth earlier in the year. The controversy surrounds two revisions to official statistics - one on 6 October and one on 14 October.On 6 October, the ONS took the unusual step of revising earnings growth data in advance of its regular labour market briefing. Since then the shares have plunged as low as 7p, although they rallied yesterday climbing from 8.75p to 13.25p.Comment, page 21. THE CHANCELLOR of the Exchequer has asked the deputy governor of the Bank of England and the head of the Treasury to conduct a wide- ranging review of the official earnings data, it emerged yesterday. Mervyn King, deputy governor, and Sir Andrew Turnbull of the Treasury will work with Martin Weale, director of the respected National Institute of Economic and Social Research, to try and establish the true nature of trends in UK earnings. Bank and Treasury officials are said to be furious about recent revisions to the earnings data - one of the most important indicators used by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) when setting UK interest rates.It is feared the MPC may have wrongly raised rates in June on the basis of data supplied to them by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - the independent agency responsible for compiling the data.In a letter to Giles Radice MP, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, Chancellor Gordon Brown says: "Given the scale and impact of these revisions, I believe the proper course is to have an external review."Meanwhile, the ONS said it had appointed its own expert, Ray Chambers of Southampton University, to "quality check" its statistical techniques.

He promised that an announcement would be made as soon as possible about a refinancing but he would not comment on the number of partners it was talking to or their identity.Ionica was floated on the stock market in July last year for 390p, valuing the group at pounds 659m. Ionica announced this summer that it was seeking a strategic investor after its banks refused to provide any further funding because of its failure to increase customer numbers quickly enough.Mr Coleman told the annual shareholders' meeting in London that Ionica had sufficient funds to continue operations until January next year. A press release on headed Vodafone paper has been sent to at least one national newspaper falsely claiming that Vodafone has agreed to become a strategic investor in Ionica However, the announcement was exposed as a fake. It also contained a number of spelling mistakes. Tony Coleman, the Ionica chairman, said yesterday that he remained confident of announcing a financial rescue of the group before the end of the year. ATTEMPTS HAVE been made to ramp the share price of Ionica, the troubled wireless telephone company, by claiming that the mobile operator Vodafone has agreed to mount a financial rescue. "This is a company with a great history and a great reputation.