LAWSON SAYS BP SHARE OFFER GOING AHEAD
  U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel
  Lawson said the Government was going ahead with this month's
  flotation of British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L> shares despite the
  collapse on international stock markets.
      "We are going ahead because the whole issue has been
  underwritten - we had it underwritten because there is always a
  risk of this sort of thing happening," Lawson said in a BBC
  radio interview.
      Lawson's remarks came as renewed selling on the London
  stock market took BP shares down a further 33p to 283, well
  below the 330p price set for the around seven billion stg
  issue.
      Lawson said the U.K. Economy is fundamentally sound and
  added that stock markets had reflected that recently.
      "I profoundly believe in the market system as the best way
  for securing economic prosperity (but) that does not mean to
  say the markets are infallible."
      "My advice to small investors...Is to remain calm. There is
  absolutely no reason not to do so," Lawson said.