News digest 10 August 2011
The digest is again dominated by rioting
which has spread across the country, although the capital remains
subdued rather than silent as 16,000 police officers take to the
streets. On the international front violence continues in Syria,
Fox is on Libyan manoeuvres in Spain, oil prices are dropping as
are pensions but the stock market has seen a recovery. The UK trade
deficit widens, Lloyds sneaks out news of cuts, BP is in bother and
Apple comes out on top as Young’s calls time and while pilots
accept a pay offer planes are grounded at Gatwick…
Riots spread across the
country – As more details emerge of the scale of the
violence in London on Monday the cancellation of all police leave
and thousands more police on the streets saw the capital remain
calm. However rioting and looting spread to other cities with
Manchester and Liverpool hit and the death of three men who were
trying to protect their property in Birmingham. Prime minister
David Cameron, finally back from his holiday, recalls parliament
and puts more troops on the streets, Boris (also back from holiday)
is barracked in London as he bumbles his way through a photo
opportunity rather than listens to what people are saying. The
clean up is expected to cost upwards of £100 million, although in
many communities people have come out with brooms and brushes to
help clean and reclaim the streets. Unite general secretary Len
McCluskey said: "This is a time for calm. Those who
bring turmoil to our cities must understand that their actions are
unsupportable. Rioting solves nothing - all it does is bring
ruin to people's lives and fear to working-class
communities.” (Mirror p1-11, Sun p1/4-13, Express p1-7, Mail p1-13, Times p1-9, Indie p1-15, Guardian p1-11, Telegraph p1-9, FT p1/3, Morning Star p1-3/8-9,
Unite
release)
Assad launches more attacks –
The violence in the Middle East continues with the latest estimates
saying over 2,000 people have been killed by the Syrian
authorities. As tanks overrun towns and soldiers start looting not
enough is being done by the international community with Human
Rights watch calling on the UN security council to call on the
regime to end the attacks on peaceful protesters (Mirror p19, Times p28, Indie p24, Guardian p21, Telegraph p15, FT p6, Morning Star p5).
Deckchair general – The
Mirror (p20) and Sun (p19) report that defence
secretary Liam Fox is directing the wars in Afghanistan and Libya
from his sunbed in Spain. Fox was criticised for flying out five
staff – at a cost of £15,000 – so he could keep a ‘deployed office’
running to deal with any issues that come up, presumably he also
took along some toy tanks and plastic soldiers to play with in the
sand.
Oil slump – And not that the
conflict in Libya has anything to do with oil, but the price of
crude hit a six month low yesterday tumbling below $100 a barrel
for the first time since February, although levels bounced back in
afternoon trading. The consistently lower level can be expected to
see a dip in the price at petrol pumps (Indie p34, Guardian p24, Telegraph b5, FT p26).
Pensions’ pressure – As the
Morning Star (p4)
follows up on the paucity of pensions for ordinary people a number
of papers highlight the hit the fall in the stock market is having
on people on the brink of retirement who will lose up to £100 a
month as a result of the market collapse and the National
Association of Pension Funds released figures showing that £120
billion has been wiped off the value of Britain’s pension funds in
the last month (Express
p15, Mail p18, FT p14).
Stock markets recover –
Shares rose for the first time in a week yesterday, although the
Dow Jones in the US and Dax in Germany bucked the trend and saw
further dips. The FTSE was the best performer rising by 1.89 per
cent, although the markets remain volatile (Sun p2, Express p51, Mail p57, Indie p37, Guardian p25, Telegraph b1, FT p1/28).
US recovery remains
in doubt – One reason behind the volatility was fears over
the US economy and the ability of the Obama administration to deal
with solving the deficit crisis. As the Federal Reserve rules out
more quantitative easing it did highlight plans to keep interest
rates on hold in the long term, analysts expect no rise in rates
before 2013 and the odds on Obama’s re-election look to be
lengthening (Sun p2,
Mail p57, Times p16, Indie p17, Guardian p14-15, Telegraph b1, FT p1/9).
UK trade deficit
widens – Chancellor George Osborne was hit by two setbacks
yesterday as output figures revealed a shuddering slowdown in
industrial production (down 0.4 per cent) as well as a widening
trade deficit in goods to £4.5 billion, the biggest this year. The
Mirror (p25) quotes Unite
assistant general secretary Tony Burke: “The Tory-led
government … is failing British manufacturing, and failing to
protect and create the jobs which are so crucial to our economic
recovery.” (Times p36, Indie p33, Telegraph b3, FT p2, Unite
release)
Burying bad news – Indie (p35) notes that Lloyds
yesterday slipped out an announcement of ‘organisational change’
which was code for job losses as another 1,300 staff in the bank’s
risk, insurance, retail, wealth and international, operations and
corporate affairs sections learned where the axe will fall as part
of the bank’s strategic review. Unite national officer David
Fleming said: “Unite is demanding that the Lloyds
Banking Group puts to an end the widespread practice of employing
agency and temporary staff while making thousands of permanent
employees redundant. This approach is abhorrent and instead Lloyds
should be redeploying and retraining its existing workforce to
limit the impact caused by its restructuring plans.”
(Sun p43, Express p15, Mail p59, Times p37, Morning Star p4, Unite
release)
HSBC to sell card operations
– Bank has entered talks to sell its US credit card business worth
some £19 billion. Capital One Financial Corp is understood to be
the main suitor for the business - HSBC Finance - which ceased
making new consumer loans in 2009 (Express p51, Mail p59, Indie p38, Guardian p25, Telegraph b8, FT p15).
Npower doubles profits –
German owned energy giant banks £306 million, but is still expected
to increase prices for consumers in the short term (Mirror p40, Times p31, Indie p, Guardian p, Telegraph b2, FT p2).
BP back in bother – More
Russian troubles for the oil company as it has accused one of its
Russian joint venture partners of breaching a shareholder
agreement. BP plans to sue Renova in a Stockholm arbitration court
over running independent oil operations (Times p39, Indie p34, Telegraph b3, FT p1).
Apple overtakes oil –
Technology giant Apple is about to become the world’s most valuable
company as its market capitalisation is expected to surpass that of
Exxon Mobil today. The oil company has been hit by worries over
global oil demand while Apple continues to add to its range of
i-prefixed products (Sun p2,
Mail p57, Guardian p24, Telegraph b1).
Young calls time – From
apples to ale and possibly a case of too much tonic and not enough
alcohol after 180 years Young’s & Co has called time on its
brewing business after selling its stake in the joint venture with
Charles Wells that makes its ales (Sun p43, Express p50, Indie p33, Guardian p24, FT p14).
Conflict of interest - From
ale to rail as the Bombardier story continues to rattle along the
rails, today the Mirror
(p24), Times (p36) and
Morning Star (p5)
report a possible conflict of interest as consultants that advised
Network Rail on the Thameslink rail project also advised Siemens in
its attempts to win the £1.4 billion rail contract, is this why the
government refused the freedom of information request?
Virgin deal signed – From
rail to planes and the Morning Star (p5) reports
Virgin Atlantic pilots yesterday voted to accept the revised pay
offer bringing an end to a year long dispute.
Gatwick grounded – And the
Telegraph (p13) reports
that flights at Gatwick Airport were briefly grounded yesterday,
but this was not down to striking baggage handlers or pilots, but
due to the discovery of a second world war hand grenade found by
workmen at the airport, rumours that defence secretary Liam Fox has
asked for it to be added to the MoD inventory have yet to be
confirmed…
Edited by Mik
Sabiers
Subscribe to this post's comments using
RSS
Comments
