News digest 20 June 2011
The row over Danny Alexander’s speech
continued over the weekend and features in most of today’s papers
with all sides digging in, there’s more cuts at the Royal Mail
while ordinary people are not having a holiday but borrowing to pay
the bills, bad dads are two-facedly taken to task by Cameron and as
free schools forge ahead the King’s Fund calls for possible
hospital closures and as planes take off for the Paris Air Show,
Nato bombs rain down on Libya, while a voice for peace is finally
silenced…
Public sector pensions fall
out – Government accused of botching the changes to public
sector pensions. Chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander’s
speech on Friday has gone down like a lead balloon after he
declared that all the changes will go ahead, even though
negotiations are ongoing. Alexander’s declaration makes continued
and concerted action more likely, and while Hutton says Labour
should back the bill (well he effectively wrote it) shadow
chancellor Ed Balls issued a warning to unions not to fall into a
Tory trap. Although Alexander has hinted that agency workers will
be brought in to cross picket lines, Unison general secretary Dave
Prentis hit back saying the unions would be smarter with action
longer and more focused (Mirror p6-7, Sun p2, Express p9, Mail p4, Times p13, Indie p1-3, Guardian p2, Telegraph b5, Morning Star p1).
Sheffield staff stage protest
– And cleaners, security, estates and technical staff at Sheffield
University took action during the university’s open day on Saturday
over callous plans to end the final salary scheme for the lowest
paid workers. Mike Robinson, Unite national officer, said:
“The university is treating some of its lowest paid
staff with utter callousness and disrespect. As well as losing
their jobs, our members now face substantial losses to their
pensions as the scheme proposed could reduce benefits for a typical
member by a quarter.” (Morning Star p3, Unite
release)
Civil service cuts targets the
top - The FT (p4) reports
that mandarins have been worst hit by the cuts to the civil
service, seeing a 14.5 per cent cut between September and March,
cuts in Whitehall in general are closer to 4.2 per cent, has
Osborne budgeted for the redundancy bill?
Snap cull of Royal Mail
managers – And the Indie (p31) reports that Royal
Mail chief executive Moya Greene has ordered a snap cull of
delivery office managers, last Friday all those who had volunteered
for redundancy were told they would leave by the end of this
month.
Ire over retirement age
– And as the furore over public sector pensions continues
many of the papers also focus on the rising anger over the
government’s proposed changes to the retirement age which will
speed up the equalisation of the retirement age for women and men,
but hit hundreds of thousands of women who will have to wait longer
than expected for their pensions (Mirror p7, Express p2, Mail p1, FT p2, Morning Star p2).
Borrowing to pay bills – Many
of the papers report that the squeeze on ordinary people’s incomes
has seen households ramp up debt to counter the rising cost of
living (Times p31,
Guardian p23, Telegraph b1).
No holiday for 18 million –
And the Express (p1)
splashes with the news that 18 million Britons will not be dipping
their toes in the water as nearly four in 10 families have
abandoned plans for a summer holiday (Mail p9, Indie p31, Guardian p9, Telegraph p3).
Be more radical on reform –
Former Labour minister Frank Field does some more ‘unthinkable’
pondering for the coalition and says that David Cameron’s reform
plans are not radical enough. Citing research that shows that 87
per cent of the 400,000 jobs created in the past year have gone to
immigrants he argues for more sanctions for the ‘workshy’, and he
calls himself a Labour politician…
Bad dads blamed – And in more
joined up thinking prime minister David Cameron was accused of
double standards after calling for fathers that abandon their
families to be ‘stigmatised’ while backing policies that will make
it more costly for mothers to pursue them for support (Sun p2, Express p15, Mail p13, Times p12, Indie p8, Telegraph p2, Morning Star p2).
Big society bill reviewed? –
And is another relaunch on the way as the Mail (p2) and Guardian (p4) report that the
white paper on the big society could be published soon, but
ministers are poring over the detail to make sure there is not yet
another U-turn…
Free schools forge ahead –
And education secretary Michael Gove has announced that in the last
three months a further 281 applications have come in for free
schools; 20 are expected to open in September with 100 more in the
following year (Mirror p11,
Mail p2, Telegraph p6).
20 hospitals under threat? –
And the Indie (p16)
reports that professor Chris Ham, chief executive of the King’s
Fund, has said that 20 hospitals must be taken over, merged or
closed; he also argued that politicians should be ‘distanced’ from
making the decision…
Business and NHS explore closer
links – The FT (p3)
reports that healthcare providers are increasingly forming
alliances with drug companies.
PFI profits offshored – And
the FT (p4) also reports that more
than 90 private finance initiative projects have been moved into
offshore tax havens, citing the example of HSBC Infrastructure
which has 33 projects and generated profits of £38 million paid
just £100,000 in tax - or just 2.6 per cent – last year. The
Commons public accounts committee has raised concerns about the
trend to offshoring, especially with 61 new projects in the
pipeline meaning more profits may fly out of the country…
Paris Air Show – Speaking of
which this week sees the Paris Air Show with the latest run of
aviation orders expected to be announced, although Airbus has
delayed the launch of its new Airbus A350 to meet demands for
longer range and a larger payload (Times p38, Telegraph b2, FT p22).
Hypersonic flight – And in
something that sounds like a hark back to 1980s rave culture
Airbus’ parent company EADS has announced it is developing a new
‘hypersonic’ aircraft which could fly between Paris and Tokyo in
just 150 minutes, but don’t expect to travel any time soon, it
could take 40 years before the successor to Concorde takes to the
skies on a commercial basis (Mail p26, Times p38, Indie p7, Telegraph p13).
Hellenic flight – And the
markets are under pressures as eurozone ministers say Greece must
impose new austerity measures before it gets its next €12 billion
tranche to avoid defaulting on its debts (Mirror p6, Sun p8, Express p4, Mail p57, Times p3, Indie p28, Guardian p1/12, Telegraph p1/b1, FT p1, Morning Star p6).
Libyan strike – And amidst
all the financial fallout the ongoing Nato attacks on Libya feature
in many papers today after strikes that hit a residential area
resulted in the death of nine civilians, there seems to be no end
in sight for the conflict (Mirror p4, Sun p56, Express p19, Mail p12, Times p1, Indie p4, Guardian p17, Telegraph p1, FT p2, Morning Star p3).
Haw silenced – And as the
bombs continue to rain down on Libya a lone voice for peace has
been silenced. Brian Haw died on Saturday after a long battle with
lung cancer (Mirror p4,
Sun p20, Express p22, Mail p23, Times p9, Indie p1/5, Guardian p7, Telegraph p8, FT p2, Morning Star p1/3).
Edited by Mik
Sabiers
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