News digest 1 March 2011
The digest starts with more pressure on
workers and more cuts from councils while Pickles’ plans are not
worth the paper they were written on. There’s confusion over
pensions, faster food inflation but snail like mail before customer
complaints at banks remain high, as do bonuses for the elite and
while the airline industry could be turning a corner, a range of
new cars are unveiled in Geneva and new spin is on its way to
Downing Street…
Battleover squeezed
middle - Workers’ wage crisis looms as low income families
face a bleak future according to new figures released by think tank
the Resolution Foundation. Unite’s Len McCluskey tells the Morning Star (p1):
“If we do not want to force millions of people and
their children to live a life below the breadline, the government
must think again and think quickly about resetting its economic
course.” A number of other papers follow up on Ed
Miliband’s speech at the launch, most of the tabloids dwell on the
issue of allowing too much immigration leading to wages being
driven down (Mirror p7,
Sun p2, Express p5) but others look at the
so-called squeezed middle which is being particularly hard hit by a
mixture of cuts in benefits and support while also facing wage
freezes and job insecurity. Miliband’s answer is to look at raising
the living wage and a focus on education and training to upskill
workers to deal with the impact of globalisation (Indie p14, Guardian p11, Telegraph p12, FT p4).
Broken schools pledge? –
Unite, Unison and the GMB representing school support staff have
demanded that chancellor George Osborne and education secretary
Michael Gove come clean and clarify whether they will honour their
commitment to pay the £250 promised to low paid school support
staff (Morning
Star p5, Unite
release).
Quango cull curtailed? – The
bonfire of the quangos may be more of a slow burn as ministers
dropped new laws to fast track the abolition of 150 bodies
(Mirror p11, Times p14).
End of tenure – And the
Sun (p2) reports that the
government yesterday unveiled the plans that will lead to the end
of tenure for people in council houses, although it will only apply
to new - not existing - tenants.
The axe starts to fall – And
many councils meet this week to set their budgets for the coming
year which will see cuts across the country start to bite. The
Mirror (p7) highlights
Birmingham which will see £212 million cuts this afternoon, 2,500
jobs are to go with pay cuts and freezes for thousands more
workers.
Don’t sleep rough – And woe
betide if you lose you home in Westminster as the local
Conservative council intends to bring in a by-law to make it an
offence to sleep rough in the borough; the council has recently
slashed funding to hostels by £5 million. In a further callous
twist the council also wants to outlaw soup kitchens saying they
encourage people to remain homeless. Someone remind me which
council was fined for gerrymandering… (Mirror p7, Guardian p13)
Savings not possible – And
yes more on cuts as the Guardian (p6) and FT (p3) both report that doubts have been
cast on the savings outlined by communities secretary Eric Pickles
who claimed by merging back office functions councils would not
need to make cuts. Less than 2 per cent of cuts can be achieved
this way, while councils are being forced to make cuts four times
that level…
Don’t trust pension forecasts
- Bad news in the Mail
(p20) which says that pensions forecasts should be questioned as
people nearing retirement are being sent letters which do not spell
out the real worth of their pensions….
Pensions switch attacked –
And as pension activists rally in Westminster today the Royal
Statistical Society attacked the government’s decision to switch
benefits, pay and pensions to the CPI figure not RPI as the former
is not considered a statistically strong enough measure of
household inflation (Telegraph b2).
Faster food inflation – And
the Times (p3) and
Telegraph (p3) also
report that food inflation in the UK is rising faster than in
France or Germany as supermarket giants boost margins…
AB Foods fall – Warning over
UK sales sends shares down even though all divisions expected to
report a profit (Sun
p41).
Burton’s
protest – And over the weekend around 700 people took to
the streets of Wallasey to protest at the planned closure of
Burton's biscuit factory in Moreton. Hundreds of people will lose
their jobs by the end of the year unless the company sees sense
(Granada
news).
Food to go – Sainsbury’s is
planning on challenging Pret-a-Manger on the high street if the
successful trial of its Fresh Kitchen store in Fleet Street goes
well (Mail p69).
Snail mail – Royal Mail
announces that almost two thirds of xmas deliveries were late, and
no that’s not an improvement, instead it is blamed on the failed
modernisation programme and rather a lot of snow (Sun p25, Mail p35, Guardian p3).
Service please – Complaints
from high street bank customers continue to be high. Lloyds is top
for complaints with 12,234 for the last six months of 2010 while
Santander came next with 6,759 (Mirror p48, Sun p41, Indie p36).
How much? – Questions raised
over Northern Rock reintroducing its range of 90 per cent mortgages
(Sun p41, Mail p4, FT p4).
Bank staff bonuses to be
examined – The Times (p34) says bank staff
bonuses will be looked into, but it’s not the casino capitalists,
rather the retail sales’ force that have been told to upsell…
HSBC bosses pocket £35
million – Almost £6 billion was wiped from HSBC shares
yesterday as the company announced a surge in costs even with good
profits. And five top bosses at the bank get an average of £7
million in bonuses after the company announced £11.8 billion in
profits last year; £1.3 billion of which came from UK branches
alone. The company defended the pay outs to senior bankers, but was
less forthright when asked why it only paid £236 million in
corporation tax (Mirror p10,
Sun p41, Express p44, Mail p66, Times p33, Indie p33, Guardian p24, Telegraph b1, FT p1).
Senior soars – Profits jump
at aerospace parts maker Senior with revenues at the UK parts maker
reaching £567 million and pre-tax profits nudging £52.1 million
(Telegraph b8).
Fuel warning – Aer Lingus may
cut flights over rising fuel prices although it reported pre-tax
profits of €30.4 million for 2009 as it returned to the black
following three years of losses, while IATA has warned that
airlines face more turbulence from rising prices (Express p44, Mail p67, Times p43, FT p20).
Fuel saving – But down on the
ground and the new electric Rolls-Royce Phantom is unveiled with a
cost of just 2p a mile, you will need to pay £1 million for the car
though (Mail p24).
BMW and Peugeot go electric –
Car companies announce potential €100 million tie up to invest in
electric motors and battery packs for electric vehicles, some
industry commentators see this as a precursor to a more formal tie
up (Times p43, Indie p37)
Sliding Ford – A Ford with
sliding doors is also unveiled in Geneva. The new B-Max with
sliding back doors is designed for the family friendly market
(Express p19).
Vodafone cut off – And after
a break in over the weekend many Vodafone customers lost mobile
access (Indie p18,
Telegraph p4).
Arm’s up – Sales of Arm chips
boosted by smartphones with 100 billion expected to be sold in
total of which eight billion will be this year (Times p38).
Spin in – And finally David
Cameron’s new spin doctor started work yesterday, with the latest
Com-Res poll stating that the Tories are down on 35 per cent to
Labour’s 39 per cent – the Lib Dems are on 12 per cent – he’s got
his work cut out for him, especially as Cameron is threatening to
send RAF jets to Libya although I doubt whether he’s checked to see
if there are any left after all the cuts… (Mirror p16, Sun p23, Express p7, Telegraph p12)
Edited by Mik
Sabiers
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