News digest 13 April 2011
The digest starts with economic data,
before Lansley is lambasted and Clegg is duffed up and even the
Cabinet Office is carpeted, there are good polls for Labour, but
bad news on the happiness index, while many more will have to work
longer and there’s more on the banking review as AIB announces
2,000 job cuts…
Inflation falls – Slight dip
in RPI to 5.3 per cent as food price pressures ease in the midst of
supermarket price wars, the CPI also drops to 4 per cent (Mirror p10, Sun p4, Express p4, Mail p18, Times p31, Indie p12, Guardian p23, Telegraph p2/b1, FT p1/3, Morning Star p5).
Unemployment dips – UK rate
of unemployment has fallen marginally to 7.8 per cent, but
unemployment among 16 to 24-year-olds stood at 963,000, with the
jobless rate for young people remaining above 20 per cent. The
Times (p1/6-7) follows
six people struggling to find work with mixed results…
Disability cut for kids –
Chancellor George Osborne has been slammed for halving the top-up
element of the child tax credit specifically for disabled children
so while severely disabled children should see a boost, those on
basic disability benefit will get a cut (Mirror p19).
A&E not coping – The
Guardian (p1) leads with
claims from John Heyworth, the president of the College of
Emergency Medicine, that the UK’s emergency care system is being
impacted by the cuts as the health service is shaken up. Particular
concerns have been raised about the steep rise in patients waiting
more than four hours for treatment, the number has jumped by 65 per
cent to 292,502 in just one year, NHS, safe in Cameron’s hands,
don’t bank on it…
Ambulances axed – The London
Ambulance Service says in order to deliver cuts of £53 million it
will have to axe 890 jobs over the next five years, 560 front line
jobs are to go (Express
p11, Indie p2, Guardian p4, Morning Star p3).
Lansley lacks confidence –
Royal College of Nursing passes vote of no confidence in elusive
health secretary Andrew Lansley who is still running scared of
addressing the health professionals’ conference (Mirror p6, Sun p2, Times p16, Indie p2, Telegraph p12, FT p3).
Clegg duffed up – And from
one calamity to another as the man with the reverse-Midas touch
Nick Clegg gets duffed up by Gordon Brown’s favourite pensioner
Gillian Duffy who sums up the Lib Dems with the line:
“Let’s face it, it’s all gone wrong.” and
hitting the nail on the head says the coalition is just making
things worse (Mirror p6-7,
Sun p22, Express p17, Mail p8, Times p4, Indie p19, Guardian p3, Telegraph p4, FT p2, Morning Star p2).
Cabinet Office carpeted – No.
not an office refit, but instead the Information Commissioner has
slammed the Cabinet Office as one of the worst public bodies in
replying to freedom of information requests (Indie p17).
Reverse World Service cuts –
Foreign affairs select committee says shutting parts of the World
Service is a false economy that will hit the service’s global
reputation (Guardian p8,
Telegraph p14, FT p4).
Latest polls – And the
Indie (p20) has the
latest polls which show Labour on 40 per cent, the Tories on 36 per
cent and the Lib Dems on 13 per cent at a national level, but
research from Plymouth University shows that the Lib Dems may do
better at the local elections, expect the party is already being
hit by people not wanting to say they support it…
BNP mayor – Sadly Padiham
near Burnley is to elect the country’s first BNP mayor next year
after local councillors elected John Cave as deputy mayor for the
coming civic year (Mirror
p19, Express p17, Mail p24, Telegraph p10).
AV support drops – But AV
could be off the agenda as the latest polls show the ‘No’ campaign
gaining even with spurious arguments about supporting losers and
the extreme right while others are targeting the cost of the
referendum (Sun p1, Express p6, Mail p10, Indie p18).
Happiness index – And more
polls as a number of papers report on findings from Action for
Happiness which find that the UK lags in the happiness stakes just
as the Office for National Statistics will include four questions
on well-being (Indie
p14-15, Guardian p5,
Telegraph p3).
Work until 70 – No time for
happiness, it will all be work as research from pensions giant
Prudential states four out of 10 people will have to work until 70
because their pensions will be too small to pay the bills (Express p1).
Unilever closes final salary pension
scheme – That’s if you are lucky enough to have a pension
as the food and household goods giant is to begin a 90-day
consultation over closure of its scheme which has 7,000 members and
a £680 million deficit (Mail p64, Indie p35, Guardian p24, Telegraph b3).
Punch slump – Profits plunge
8.4 per cent over last six months as group plans to close 2,700
pubs (Mirror p40, Sun p41, Express p64, Mail p65, Times p37, Indie p38, Telegraph b5, FT p22).
Mutiny on the coaches – Rebel
investor Elliott Advisers turns up the heat on National Express’
chief executive, Dean Finch, about getting backing for a boardroom
shake up (Sun p40, Indie p34, Telegraph b4, FT p20)
Still in deep water – BP
profiled ahead of AGM later this week with shareholders angry over
30 per cent dip in its share value since the spill and the $20
billion compensation fund (Mail p67).
City funds back banking
revamp – FT (p1) says the
interim report on banking is a decent compromise…
Shareholders less sure – But
bank shareholders say the report has dodged the main problem which
they say is dealing with the ‘excesses’ in the investment banking
arms (Telegraph b1).
AIB bail out balloons – 92
per cent state owned Allied Irish Bank is to cut 2,000 jobs as
losses hit €10 billion (Sun
p41, Express p6, Mail p67, Guardian p23, Telegraph b5, FT p24).
Level 7 – And finally from
financial contagion to nuclear contamination as Japan raises the
nuclear risk level at Fukushima to Level 7 which is on a par with
the Chernobyl disaster, well at least things can’t get any worse
now as that is the top of the scale (Mirror p17, Sun p17, Express p35, Mail p28, Times p3, Indie p10, Guardian p1/16-17, Telegraph p17, FT p6, Morning Star p6).
Edited by Mik Sabiers
Subscribe to this post's comments using
RSS
Comments
