But the strikes have left their mark

But the strikes have left their mark.Yesterday the Metro seemed to be in a time-warp. "The least they could do," muttered one woman, "after all we've been through."Passengers, at first few and far between, sometimes cheered as the train came into view. The walls were plastered with the same advertisements as three weeks ago, the dates of the promotions and special offers long since past.Those who tried to push their familiar green tickets into the machines were thwarted, because they were switched off: travel was free. But what is to stop him bringing all the proposals back by a different route once they are back at work? On Thursday the Industry Minister, Franck Borotra, said the SNCF plan had not been abandoned.So far as the transport strikes are concerned, however, the end is in sight. Mr Juppe says he has abandoned plans for any changes in public-sector pension arrangements, suspended the restructuring plan for the railways - sacrificing in the process the head of SNCF, Jean Bergougnoux, who resigned yesterday - and agreed to the contentious "summit". Belatedly, they want the meeting brought forward and "broadened". Employers' organisations may not even turn up: they fear an unsatisfactory discussion could spread the public-sector disputes into the private sector, and want the whole thing called off.This dispute adds to doubts about what the public sector has won from the protests.

Mr Juppe's decision, announced last Sunday, to hold such a summit was regarded by unions as a key government concession. But they did not look carefully enough at the small print.What Mr Juppe has offered is a "jobs summit" on issues of lesser concern to the unions, such as job creation and cutting working hours, rather than on welfare reform and pensions. The unions have realised in addition that the planned date - Thursday - is the penultimate working day before Christmas, leaving them little time to act if they do not like the outcome. The incipient return to work, already spreading, and the proximity of Christmas mean marches will probably be a gesture rather than a real threat to the government, but they still have potential to cause trouble.The government is facing unexpected procedural difficulties getting its welfare-reform legislation through parliament, despite its 80-per- cent majority; the Prime Minister, Alain Juppe, may not be able to get the laws through by Christmas, as he had hoped.The most immediate dispute has erupted over the "social summit" - a round-table of ministers, trade-union and employers' representatives that was demanded by the unions as part of any settlement.

The first high-speed train left Lille and by afternoon half the Paris Metro and suburban railway lines were operating a limited service. The occasional bus could be seen amid the still-clogged cars and the sun shone after almost a week of gloom.But if the mood on the streets had lightened and there was the first real hope of a return to normal life, the political conflict between the government and the public sector was far from over. Even before the return to work was fully under way, more battles loomed, any one of which could damage the chances of industrial peace.The two big unions that have led the strikes, the Force Ouvriere and the CGT, confirmed plans for more national street demonstrations today to insist on total withdrawal of the government's plan for welfare reform. There is every indication that, come April, something will have to give.. MARY DEJEVSKY Paris France started to emerge from hibernation yesterday as isolated sections of the transport network creaked hesitantly into gear after the three- week shutdown.

Desperate remedies are being mentioned - for instance that people should be sent to the Arctic breeding grounds to prick thousands of eggs, so that they never hatch.Can it make sense that taxpayers should shell out nearly half a million pounds a year to foster the increase in numbers of birds which are no longer threatened? The Islay farmers are in little doubt that this is conservation gone mad - and nobody can say what will happen next spring, when the current agreement with Scottish Natural Heritage is due to end.Scottish Natural Heritage has hinted that the rate of compensation must be brought down; the island's farmers insist that it must go up. Farmers now find it impossible to plant cereal crops in autumn, since the emerging shoots are immediately eaten off and killed.Nor is it only farmers who are worried. Mr Lilley himself acknowledges that "there is concern all round, not least in Scottish Natural Heritage". One fear is that sheer overcrowding, and the pollution of the fields by droppings, will bring on some form of epidemic. The 4,000-acre RSPB reserve at Gruinard, in the north-west of the island, relieves pressure to some extend, but the huge flocks, 500 or even 1,000 strong, often prefer to feed elsewhere - especially on the lush pastures of Craigens Farm, next door, where the tenant, Tony Archibald, has to manage his excellent dairy herd "round the geese".Almost everybody has had to cut down substantially on numbers of sheep and cattle, such is the grazing competition. Scottish Natural Heritage employs a full-time Goose Project Officer, Ross Lilley, who in turn brings in a dozen other counters, operating with binoculars, telescopes and clicker- counters from four-wheel drive vehicles, to help him assess numbers.At present farmers are paid pounds 9.50 per head per annum to entertain geese on their land, but they claim that the money is nothing like enough to compensate them for the losses they are suffering. This kept the goose population to a reasonable level; but since a ban was imposed on shooting, numbers have risen to a barely tolerable pitch.The highest tally last year was 40,000 birds, but the first full count this winter has already shown a total of 43,000, made up of 29,000 Greenland Barnacle and 13,000 Greenland Whitefront.

Meanwhile, however, on the larger island of Islay, to the south of Tiree, a crisis is building up simply because no culling can be done.There the dominant geese are the Greenland Barnacle and the Greenland Whitefront, both fully protected in Scotland. The Islay migrants represent between a half and two-thirds of the world population of the two sub-species, which at one stage were considered to have become endangered.Both species nest in the Arctic and come south for the winter. Islay attracts them particularly because, lying in the Gulf Stream, it has a moderate winter climate, and the grass (on which the geese mainly feed) continues to grow throughout the year.Most of the island belongs to four large estates, and in the past the owners or their factors (agents) used to meet every year to decide what the annual cull should be. In the first half of this century the greylag was only an occasional visitor to Tiree. Then in the 1970s the birds began to nest on the island in substantial numbers.