"You do not have the ability to challenge the decisions of the Secretary of State," she said. "We are told that we are part of a democratic system but that clearly is not correct."We are low in confidence in the procedures but gaining conviction that we should do something about it. Constitutionally we've done as much as we can and this is the sort of thing that leads to more action groups."As far as direct action is concerned a lot of people like myself identify with the people involved. We have children and grandchildren at university with the same philosophy as the activists," she said.Ms Carter, 49, who runs an electronics company and a small farm, has set up supply lines to the eco-troops. Drawn to their ranks by a shared goal, she is picking up some of their ideology, if not their dress code. "I'm now a bit more radical and it is dominating my life at the moment There's a dichotomy in my life.

Should I carry on campaigning or come back and be a housewife? It's a question I cannot answer," she said.Another convert to the cause out yesterday was Jo Carter, a former Tory voter who has lost faith in the political system. "I'm a Conservative voter and I'm in a bit of a dilemma at the moment," she said.Currently Lady Barber is chairman of the Tory Party association in the nearby village of Inkpen. Despite this, her implacable opposition to the road finds her cast in the role of a militant: "I know I'm behaving like one of Arthur Scargill's miners but I've never done anything like this before."Ironically, as a keen fox hunter, Lady Barber would normally find herself confronting many of the activists opposing the road. DANNY PENMAN Amid the "crusties", white rastas and mud-stained tree huggers, Jeannine, Lady Barber, wife of Sir David, the Baronet of Greasley, cuts a curious figure. Shoulder to shoulder, but not too close, with hardened environmental activists, Lady Jeannine and like-minded local members of the supper-partying classes have been turning out daily for the romantically named "Third Battle of Newbury".More disgruntled Tory voter than doughty eco-warrior, she was out again yesterday on the picket lines, 18 months into her own campaign of conscience against the proposed bypass. when he had that kidney inside him," Mr Parroy said.He described Mr Sumners as a "stoical" man who had borne his near-fatal illness with great fortitude, but he had been "psychologically scarred".Mr Sumners said afterwards: "After 10 years, obviously I'm very relieved." Mr Justice Collins is expected to assess the amount of damages due to him next week.A spokeswoman for Brighton Health Care NHS Trust said "a great deal had changed" since the case.. "His close family had a bad history of early death from cancer and the diagnosis was to him a death sentence," he said.Mr Sumners remained on dialysis and under observation until June 1990 when he underwent a second transplant.He is now claiming substantial damages from the hospital's manager, the former Brighton Health Authority, which conceded that he should have been warned earlier of the risk that the kidney was cancerous."There was a total failure to carry out any proper checks on him.

But Mr Parroy said the effect of the combination of dialysis and radiotherapy was to "totally wear down and demoralise" him. But Mr Justice Collins ruled the hospital was not negligent in failing to diagnose the kidney as cancerous, because of the speed at which transplants had to be done.Mr Sumners, from Haywards Heath, West Sussex, had suffered kidney problems since his twenties, eventually undergoing a transplant in June1986, his counsel, Mr Michael Parroy QC, told the court.But after the consultant, who is now dead, chose not to tell Mr Sumners of the cancer risk or remove the organ, the cancer spread and he was left with little chance of survival.The judge said staff at the hospital "could not really have made greater blunders in the way they treated him once they realised that they had put in a potentially cancerous kidney".After believing for months that he was dying, Mr Sumners, against all expectations, went into remission. JOJO MOYES A long-term kidney sufferer went into hospital for a transplant expecting a new lease of life but emerged to find himself facing a prolonged battle against cancer. In a High Court damages action, a judge yesterday yesterday denounced hospital "blunders" which nearly cost Peter Sumners his life when a doctor failed to tell him that a cancerous kidney had been mistakenly transplanted into his body during the operation 10 years ago.The Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, conceded that it was wrong for deciding not to remove the kidney, or tell Mr Sumners, 51, of the risk, despite discovering that it had come from a dead woman who had cancer.The cancer subsequently spread through Mr Sumners's body. The typical account-holder is a successful business person on about pounds 50,000 a year.

Minimum assets of pounds 250,000 are also required, though this is negotiable.. Client managers, of whom there is one for every 150 customers, offer the ultimate in personal service by scanning the announcements pages of The Times and the Daily Telegraph and taking note of their clients' marriages and other happy events.Hoare and Co: two branches Founded by Richard Hoare in 1672. Staff still sign themselves "your obedient servant", and cheque books have a sheet of blotting paper at the front Its black credit card holders have rolled gold edges. Customers need to maintain a minimum cleared credit balance of pounds 1,250; otherwise current account charges are pounds 7.50 a quarter and 65p per entry.Adam and Co: five branches Founded in 1984 to cater for Edinburgh's well-heeled. Among its clients are MPs, pools and lottery winners, pop and sport stars.Child and Co: one branch only, in Fleet Street. They are, in essence, relics of the days when the landed aristocracy still had serious money. Coutts: 19 branches, founded in 1692. Staff, who must be clean shaven, dress in white collars, waistcoats, black shoes and frock coats.

In theory, customers need a minimum income of about pounds 100,000 plus assets of pounds 150,000, excluding property, though these requirements are flexible: for example, Etonians get a Coutts account more or less as a matter of course.Within Coutts is Villiers, the Queen's own branch, and probably the most exclusive bank in the world.A close second to Villiers is Campbell's, Coutts' bank that specialises in HN-WIs (High Net-Worth Individuals). Customers must keep pounds 10,000 in a current account to avoid charges. Voltaire once said that if a Swiss banker fell out of a window you should follow him, since there was sure to be money on the spot where he landed. The seriously rich (ie eight figures) who wish, equally seriously, to avoid paying tax, would bank at Pictet or Lomard Odier in Geneva. Old money goes to private banks in Britain such as Child, Hoare and Coutts, all of which date back to the seventeenth century (and pre-date the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694). He said weaker oil prices and fluctuations in market supply and demand indicated that the kingdom would face an economic crisis, worsened by expenditure on arms from Britain and other Western powers..