News digest 7 September 2010
There’s wide coverage of the BA meeting
yesterday, good news for other airlines is counteracted by bad
safety practice on the rails and cuts to subsidies on the buses,
made all the worse by a slump in car sales. Barclays appoints a
‘casino capitalist’ but also creates some jobs in Scotland while
back in Westminster the first step on the AV referendum is passed,
but the Coulson affair rattles on, there’s also bad news for the
Lib-Dems and the latest in the Labour leadership…
Some talk and possible action
– Most papers report on the meeting of over 1,500 BA cabin crew
yesterday. In the Guardian
(p27) Unite’s Brendan Gold says there may be talks at next week’s
TUC conference, but there is also scope for a ballot for strike
action over the continued bullying and intimidation, sacking of
crew and removal or travel allowances. Many papers report action
could hit the company over the Christmas period. A number of papers
also report more on Walsh’s 12 targets, the Times (p38) says Chile’s LAN
airlines – currently merging with TAM of Brazil – is probably the
top target with Cathay Pacific and JAL also high on the list.
However the Telegraph’s
(p21) Tracy Corrigan argues that a merger may not be the best way
to go saying “BA’s scheming boss has a new plan, but it won’t solve
[BA’s] problems.” (FT p3, Sun p4)
easyJet and Ryanair boosted –
Latest passenger figures show good increases for the low cost
carriers. Ryanair saw 12 per cent rise in passenger numbers to 7.68
million in August, easyJet saw an 8.4 per cent increase to 5.2
million. The Indie
(p40) does however warn that easyJet’s future could continue to be
hit by the turbulence at the top (Mail p67, Telegraph b4).
Typhoon backed – The Mirror (p28) also reports that Ed
Miliband has demanded answers about the future of the Eurofighter.
Leadership candidate Ed Miliband – backed by Unite – argues the
Con-Dem coalition fails to understand the importance of
manufacturing, and argues plans to scrap Britain’s backing for the
jet could cost 10,000 defence jobs as well as 30,000 more in
support.
Trouble on tube – Down on the
ground most papers report on the latest tube strike, although quite
a lot of coverage is less negative and focused on the role of the
station staff although the Mail brings out the usual old
chestnut of a ‘this is the start of a winter of discontent ‘while
the strike is due to end at 5pm today, the next walkout is
pencilled in for 3 October (Express p23, Mail p2, FT p3, Morning Star p1, Times p37, Guardian p13).
Cashing in on accidents – And
the Telegraph (p1)
reports that Network Rail’s directors have shared £2.36 million in
bonuses because the company under-reported accidents to workers,
Unite’s Bob Rixham stated that managers were being penalised for
reporting accidents. Chair Rick Haythornthwaite has pledged to
address the concerns over Riddor accident reporting.
Eurotunnel record – Company
announces it has recorded its highest number of car passengers. The
number of cars carried in the busy July/August period was up 17 per
cent on the previous year breaking through the half a million
barrier to 533,238 (Telegraph b4).
Car sales slump – Away from
trains and the latest SMMT figures show that car sales in August
dropped by 17.5 per cent. The end of the scrappage scheme has seen
a big fall in demand for new small cars and the industry is also
reporting that concerns over jobs and the economy is starting to
weigh down on sentiment. The new ‘60’ plate out this month is not
expected to boost demand, although luxury carmakers are seeing a
stronger recovery as the rich escape government cuts (Mirror p44, Sun p41, Indie p34, Guardian p26, Times p39).
GM stays put – The Guardian (p29) also reports on a
new book on the automotive industry which charts the challenge
facing GM, at one point the company wanted to leave Detroit, but
Obama vetoed that option, the book also charts the administration’s
confrontation with the US car union the UAW.
More fares please – Will be
the demand from bus operators as the government signals it will cut
the subsidy for fares. The removal could be expected to see fares
rise by an additional 6.5 per cent (Guardian p28).
Macquarie
slumps – And Macquarie – the Australian investment
house that owns East London Buses – has reported a slump in sales,
blaming the ongoing impact of the recession (FT p22, Indie p36).
Diamond for Barclays –
Elsewhere in the City Bob Diamond is announced as the new boss of
Barclays, the American investment banker currently runs Barclays
Capital and is due to take over by April next year (Sun p15, Guardian p1, Times, p1, Telegraph b1, FT p1). The Sun (p4) and the Mail (p69) also trail the news
that Barclays is pocketing a £6.6 million grant from the
Scottish government for agreeing to create 600 jobs.
Potash price problems – And
the FT (p19) reports that BHP
needs to solve the problem over setting a fair price in its pursuit
of Potash Corp.
Cosalt suspension – And North
Sea oil and gas services provider Cosalt has announced the
suspension of Calum Melville which has also resigned from the
company’s board although Cosalt says there are no criminal or
fraudulent elements to the move (Times p41).
Equitable demand – Chief
executive of Equitable Life makes a last ditch bid to persuade
ministers to honour a manifesto commitment to fully compensate
victims of the collapse (Indie p33) although the
Mail (p66) condemns
Con-Dem MPs who have been sending identical letters to concerned
constituents. A final compensation sum will be announced on 20
October (Telegraph
b3).
NHS jobs boost –
Unfortunately this is about new jobs before the election. A few of
the papers report on the boost to jobs in the NHS earlier this year
with the Mail (p30)
highlighting that the NHS now employs 1.626 million people. The
Sun (p4) has a map of public
sector jobs in the UK showing how in Northern Ireland almost a
third of jobs are in the public sector while in the south it is
just one in six. Seems the Sun wants cuts…
Tax trouble – And as letters
start to drop demanding money from taxpayers over errors in the
system the latest advice from some of the papers is to use a
loophole to argue people should not be penalised for the HMRC’s
failures (Mail p1,
Mirror p8).
Tory trouble – And the
Coulson affairs rumbles on. After Theresa May’s statement in the
Commons yesterday Alan Johnson almost accuses Scotland Yard of
misleading him over the issue and the call for a new enquiry gets
louder (Mirror p20, Indie p4, Guardian p1, FT p1, Telegraph p10).
Referendum backed - The
second reading of the bill on AV passes as Cameron comes back early
from paternity leave to help avoid a defeat, Clegg’s key bill could
face more hurdles at committee stage especially over the arbitrary
size of constituencies (Express p15, Mail p2, FT, p2, Guardian p8, Indie p16).
Scots referendum delayed –
But the referendum on independence planned by the SNP has been
postponed as Salmond looks to secure a second term (Guardian p15).
Postal votes rigged – And
five Conservatives are jailed for between 11 and 21 months over a
plot to rig postal votes in favour of a Conservative candidate in
Bradford, some of the registration forms were dated 30
February.
Lib Dem disaster – An opinion
poll in the Indie (p17)
says four out of ten Lib Dem voters will not support the party
again, one in five would shift to Labour and the gap between Labour
and the Tories is narrowing 34-38 even though Labour is currently
without a new leader.
Labour leadership – As the
Telegraph (p20) hails Ed
Balls as a new hero over his attacks on the government and
particular the economic record, in the Guardian (p14) David Blunkett says
he will give his second preference to David Miliband (he nominated
Andy Burnham), and both Miliband brothers have been flexing their
green muscles arguing over the third runway at Heathrow (David for,
Ed against) and an Emission Performance Standard that Ed dismissed
as climate change secretary (David for, Ed against) …
Edited by Mik
Sabiers
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