If they change their mind about a purchase, they press the "minus" button and it is deleted from the list.Goods are put straight into green boxes and after paying at the check- out using the loyalty card, the boxes can be lifted out of the trolley and into the car.The scheme seems open to abuse from the unscrupulous, but Safeway denies that it is a "shoplifter's charter". The "Shop and Go" scheme means that they can whiz through tills without the bother of unloading and repacking the trolley. The scheme has been tested in 24 of the group's 370 shops. It will be extended to a further 36 by August and then be rolled out nationally.Safeway's marketing director, Roger Partington, said: "We know our customers want to spend as little time as possible at the check-out. The supermarket group is introducing self-scanning, which enables customers to price their own shopping with plastic, space-age "guns". The cut in capital expenditure reflected the Government's desire for projects to be funded through private sources, it added.. Trolley rage and the never-ending queue at the supermarket check-out could become things of the past under a new national scheme at Safeway. "Without a change of policy there will be death and suffering in the next century which could have been avoided," he warned.The Department of Education and Employment said in a statement that in spite of a tough budget research funding had been maintained.

Dr Andrew Williams, head of clinical pharmacology for Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, said multi-national companies could well direct funding to countries which were maintaining or even expanding their research base, he said.Professor Sir Michael Thompson, chair of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors' medical committee and vice-chancellor of Birmingham University, said the effects of the cuts could be felt for a long time if they were not reversed immediately. At the same time funds for teaching were being cut by pounds 10m to pounds 190m and staff jobs were bound to be lost.Britain is in desperate need of more doctors, the vice-chancellors said. The number of doctors per thousand people in Britain puts us 23rd out of 24 in a league of countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), better only than Turkey.There were also warnings that Britain could soon find itself in a downward spiral from which its medical research could not recover. Teaching, research and patient care are an inextricable triad and if you weaken one you weaken the others," he said.The meeting was told that medical schools had agreed to increase the number of students from 22,500 to 24,000 by the end of the century and also to introduce a new curriculum which would need smaller classes. While Britain's 22 medical schools should be recruiting an extra 250 staff to meet an increase in student numbers they will probably have to shed up to 100 positions this year, the chair of the vice-chancellors' medical committee said. The quality of patient care is bound to be hit by the loss of academics who spend much of their time treating patients, by huge cuts to major research projects and by a larger classes in medical schools which could hit training, a meeting in London was told.Ministers cut 5 per cent from universities' total budgets this year and plan to cut spending on buildings and maintenance by 50 per cent in the next three years.Among the major building projects which may be delayed or cancelled are a cardiovascular research unit in Cambridge, a institute of health sciences in Oxford, and a human anatomy resource centre in Liverpool.The meeting was told that research into BSE at Imperial College, London, and the care of diabetics at Manchester Royal Infirmary could both be affected by the cuts.Comments by ministers that there was no direct link between the funding of medical undergraduates and patient care were dismissed as "a downright lie" by Dr Sandy Macara, chairman of the British Medical Association."It is a lie which we are nailing here and now. University funding cuts have plunged medical schools into crisis and are jeopardising patient care, research and the training of young doctors, vice-chancellors warned yesterday. Defending his honesty, he added: "My career would collapse if anyone in the media thought I told lies."Mr Allason claimed that Mr Campbell's "animosity" towards him stemmed from the successful libel action over a Mirror article in 1991, to which Mr Campbell had made a small contribution The case continues, and judgment is expected next week..

Mr Allason says the article wrongly claimed 50 Labour MPs had signed a Commons Motion urging him to hand over substantial libel damages from Mirror Group to hard-pressed Maxwell pensioners. He says Mr Campbell was behind the Early Day Motion and the story.Mr Campbell, giving evidence, dismissed the MP's claims, saying his only "trade" was to "promote a positive person in a positive way." His former colleague, David Brad- shaw, who has admitted drafting the EDM initially and writing the story, would not play the part of a patsy "even if asked," Mr Campbell said. Rupert Allason, the Tory MP, who is suing Mr Campbell and Mirror Group Newspapers for malicious falsehood, claimed the former political editor's "stock-in-trade" was "disinformation, half-truths and sophistry". He told Mr Campbell: "You will say anything, sacrifice anyone and defend the indefensible to save your future career."In a pointed reference to Mr Campbell's prominent role, the MP added: "You have an awful lot to lose and are prepared to do almost anything to ensure the truth does not get in the way of your ambition." Mr Allason, who is representing himself, accused Mr Campbell of using a former colleague on the Mirror as a "patsy" to take the blame for subsequent events.The Torbay MP is suing over an article in the Mirror on 20 November 1992, when Mr Campbell was the political editor. Mr Scrivener named a man from the girl's home town and said: "You were friendly with him and had sexual intercourse with him on two occasions in 1988." She replied: "I didn't because I was a virgin and I was raped in 1989.".