News digest 12 August 2011
The aftermath of the riots continues to
dominate all the papers. The economic cost to the country could be
as high as £1 billion, and after parliament was updated on the
riots a defiant Osborne admitted growth is slowing, says the cuts
must continue and signals wholesale change to workplace rights is
coming this autumn. Elsewhere pay for pilots is dropping, airports
are seeing record passengers, as are very overcrowded trains, Boris
is told to back Bombardier while UK bus services could be on the
verge of collapse and finally there is an interesting twist in the
hackgate affair that could expose the source of the
scandal…
Riots: The aftermath – The
aftermath of the riots continues to dominate the papers. The focus
ranges from the courts which have stayed open overnight to deal
with the backlog of cases with rioters including a ballerina, an
Olympics ambassador, law students and teachers. The plea for peace
from the father whose son was killed in Birmingham. The estimated
cost of the damager which could be as high as £1 billion and the
recall of parliament for the first time in almost a decade. Cameron
pledges a crackdown on violent disorder, yobs and social media but
is still sticking to the cuts to the police, many Tories lined up
to say the police were too timid and slow to respond to the riots,
pot and kettle springs to mind. Neglecting to note that legislation
introduced in haste can often have the wrong consequences over
100,000 people signed an epetition calling on parliament to axe
benefits for convicted rioters. The country does remain a lot
quieter as the enhanced police presence stops a repeat of the
vandalism and looting (Mirror p1-9, Sun p1/3-9 Express p1-5, Mail p1-11, Times p1-11, Indie p1-9, Guardian p1-13, Telegraph p1-7, FT p1-3, Morning Star p1-3, ).
Osborne: I am right –
Chancellor addresses parliament on the latest financial storm and
uses the occasion to say that growth is slowing, but the events in
other countries have vindicated his cuts strategy even if it has
created stagflation. Trying to turn the crisis to his advantage
Osborne did signal that there would be a revised strategy in the
autumn, however, it is no ‘Plan B’ it is the continuation of the
ideological ‘Plan A’ as the multimillionaire chancellor said he
will take on the vested interests of trade unions by overhauling
employment laws. Rules on redundancy, dismissal and workplace
discrimination could be relaxed or repealed, is that the way to go?
Interestingly on the overall economic front Jeremy Warner in the
Telegraph (b5) says he is
in agreement with the economic analysis from shadow chancellor Ed
Balls of what went wrong and also argues that the UK is lucky to
have got away with so much so far… (Mirror p22, Sun p2, Express p15, Mail p12, Times p17, Indie p11, Guardian p28-29, Telegraph p1, FT p2, Morning Star p4)
Europe split over short
selling – France, Italy, Spain and Belgium have banned
short-selling of the shares of banks and other financial companies
as they look to limit the market turmoil, but other European
countries -including the UK – said they had no plans to impose one.
The markets generally started to recover yesterday, buoyed by some
positive US payroll figures, news that any possible downgrade in
France’s credit status was not imminent and investors looking for
bargains after the see-saw falls of late (Sun p44, Express p66, Mail p65, Times p37, Indie p32, Guardian p29, Telegraph b2, FT p1/5).
British banks ordered to disclose
debt – And Osborne may need to be careful as the Indie (p32) reports that the
Financial Services Authority has stepped up scrutiny of the
exposure of UK banks to foreign government debt and is looking to
maintain consistency in the stress-tests on their business.
UK bank warning – Banking
analyst Ralph Silva is reported in the Sun (p44) as saying that it could
take 15 years for taxpayers to get their money back from the £50
billion bail out of Lloyds and RBS.
Energy fall out – From banks
to power and after E.ON announced that it was planning 11,000 job
cuts across Europe Unite called for a meeting with Dr Paul Golby,
the company’s UK chief executive (Morning Star p4, Unite
release).
Airline pay bill down – And
pressure on jobs has seen average pay rates for pilots and cabin
crew at Britain’s airlines drop for the first time in five years.
BA has meanwhile launched a recruitment drive for more than 800
pilots to be in place by 2016 (Times p43, Indie p37).
BAA soaring higher – Good
news for the airport operator as passenger numbers at BAA hit 11
million last month driven by long haul flights. A record 6.9
million people passed through Heathrow although the company’s
strategy director, Andrew Macmillan, complained about government
taxes on air travel saying it put UK airports at risk (Mirror p56, Express p66, Mail p66, Telegraph b3).
Crush hour – From planes to
trains as overcrowding on Britain’s trains is getting worse.
According to government figures released yesterday the lines to and
from Paddington station are the most overcrowded with morning
services some 18.5 per cent overcrowded, might be nice if they
built longer trains (Mirror
p10, Sun p12, Express p17, Times p16, Guardian p18, FT p2)
Boris told to back Bombardier
– The Mirror (p10) reports
London mayor Boris Johnson, also chair of Transport for London, has
been told to back Bombardier workers by adding a ‘social impact’
clause to the contract that will be tendered to build the 600
Crossrail carriages.
Profits accelerate at Jaguar Land
Rover – Back to the road and the luxury car maker saw
profits jump 17 per cent to £408 million for the last three months
(Mirror p56, Sun p44, Express p66, Mail p65, Times p43, Indie p37, Guardian p27, FT p16).
Britain’s bus service
on verge of collapse – The Morning Star (p5)
highlights the transport committee’s report which says bus services
around the country face the greatest financial challenge for a
generation as government cuts, the end of subsidies and inflation
busting fares hit use and the viability of routes.
Average student debt to
double – The average debt of students that graduate after
the increase in fees next autumn is set to reach £53,400 according
to the annual Push student survey, those starting courses this year
are likely to owe £26,100 by the time they finish their studies
(Express p27, Telegraph p10, FT p2).
Stella flat, but Cidre
bubbles – Not blaming poor students but brewing giant AB
InBev has seen a 16 per cent slump in UK sales as UK lager drinkers
decline, it has had some success securing a 16 per cent share of
the premium cider market with its new Cidre brand (Mirror p56, Sun p44, Express p67, Guardian p17, FT p17).
Organic turn off – The
Guardian (p16) reports
that the organic tide has tuned as demand for organic foods fell by
5.9 per cent last year and the amount of land converted to organic
use has fallen by 67 per cent in the last four years.
Hughes sues – And finally in
the Indie (p20) and
Guardian (p18) hackgate
takes another twist as Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes has
become the first coalition MP to launch a damages claim against
News International. This is interesting as the man who hacked into
Hughes’ phone has already been convicted of targeting Hughes’ phone
so he will not be able to use the right not to incriminate himself
if he is asked to name who asked him to intercept messages, will we
finally see how high it all went?
Edited by Mik Sabiers
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