News digest 23 June 2011
In today’s very detailed digest there’s a
focus on remuneration at the start, talk of free shares before
pensions hit the agenda again. There are warnings from Lord Hutton
and Tebbit while Osborne is told to go for Plan B as the Bank of
England considers more QE. There’s harmony at BA, but turbulence
for Virgin and Airbus strikes a giant deal while Bombardier workers
blast the government. New nuclear sites are to be outlined, before
BP is blamed for the Deepwater disaster, a consumer storm is
brewing while Miliband’s plans are starting to come
together…
Cameron’s pay – The Morning Star (p1)
splashes with the full details of the prime minister’s pay package
which shadow cabinet office minister Jon Trickett says is actually
well over £500,000 if perks such as staff, Chequers, the Downing
Street flat and his ministerial car are all included. Trickett
notes how Cameron has made great play of his pledge to freeze his
salary after a 5 per cent cut to £142,500, but no such reductions
are seen in his perks and privileges…
Fury at Coucher’s £1 million pay
off – Transport secretary Philip Hammond among those that
have condemned Network Rail for handing former chief executive Ian
Coucher a £1 million pay off (Guardian p28).
NUT leader’s pay under fire –
And the Express (p4) and
Mail (p2) go for the head
of the NUT, Christine Blower, after the union’s latest accounts
revealed that she has pocketed a 10 per cent pay rise while her own
members face a pay freeze, no mention of how much Daily Mail editor
Paul Dacre gets (up 70 per cent to £2.8 million last year) or that
of his staff (400 jobs gone in recent years)…
Cable to consult on pay –
Business secretary Vince Cable is to look into what he calls the
“ridiculous” levels of executive pay, and then probably do nothing
about it (Mirror p4,
Indie p40, Guardian p29, Telegraph b1).
Clegg calls for free shares –
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg says voters should be given shares
in the bailed out banks, although he has not thought through the
details of how creating 34 million new shareholder accounts can be
done simply and at low cost (Sun p2, Mail p4, Times p1, Guardian p1, Telegraph p1, FT p1).
No money for pensions – The
Sun (p2), Telegraph (p4), FT (p4) and Morning Star (p4) all
report millions of low earners and young workers are no longer able
to save for a pension. Figures revealed by the Office for National
Statistics show just 16 per cent of men and 27 per cent of women
who earn less than £300 a week belong to a pension scheme.
Participation in private sector schemes has also fallen across all
workers with 39 per cent of men and 28 per cent of women belonging
to a scheme in 2010…
Attacking public sector
pensions – But some of the right-wing tabloids, namely the
Express (p2) and Mail (p19), use this as an excuse
to bash public sector pensions trying to highlight the divide
between the private and public sector using the false gold-plated
argument, they seem to want to go for a race to the bottom.
Hutton’s warning – But a note
of caution is sounded by Lord Hutton in the Guardian (p2) who says if the
coalition goes down too hard on public sector workers there could
be a mass exodus from the scheme.
Tebbit’s warning – And the
Mirror (p7) notes even Lord
Tebbit has called on the coalition to be wary of restricting union
rights even further if public sector strikes go ahead.
Osborne censured – And the
Guardian (p30) reports the
treasury select committee says chancellor George Osborne has failed
to explain leaks in the run up to his March budget…
Plan B needed – So says Paul
Johnson, head of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, who says there
will be no ‘feelgood’ recovery which won’t help the coalition’s
re-election chances (Mirror
p9, Telegraph p1/23).
More QE – Many of the papers
report that the pound fell on news that the Bank of England is
considering another round of quantitative easing (Express p51, Mail p64, Times p35, Guardian p29, FT p1).
World service spared – An
extra £2.2 million has been found for the BBC World Service
(Mail p28, Times p21, Indie p20, Guardian p9, Telegraph p7, Morning Star p5).
Legal aid cuts
counterproductive – Zoe Williams in the Guardian (p34) shows how the cuts
to legal aid will end up costing a fortune.
Cameron commits to climate
change – Prime minister says he will make sure Tory MEPs
support a motion after they threatened to vote against the raising
of the target to cut carbon emissions from 20 to 30 per cent
(Guardian p8, Morning Star p5).
Coastguard cutbacks courting
disaster – The Telegraph (p15) and Morning Star (p3) report
that the transport select committee has said proposals to cut £20
million from the coastguard should be withdrawn due to safety
concerns.
Peace at BA - From the seas
to the skies and the agreement between Unite and BA. Crew voted in
a postal ballot by 6,509 (92 per cent) to 579 (8 per cent) to
accept an agreement hammered out between the union and BA in April,
following a recommendation by Unite to accept. The turnout was 72
per cent. Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary, who had worked
with BA's chief executive Keith Williams to negotiate the deal,
said: "Unite always firmly believed that this dispute
would be solved not through conflict but through negotiation.
Thankfully we have reached an honourable agreement with BA. The
overwhelming acceptance of this deal by cabin crew means that both
parties can now move forward together on securing a bright future
for the airline.” (Guardian p29, FT p2).
Virgin hits turbulence – But
as one dispute ends another kicks off, the Indie (p14-15) has an in-depth
piece on the possible strike action by pilots at Virgin
Atlantic.
Qantas deal – Rolls-Royce has
come to agreement with the Australian airline over the engine
failures earlier this year, the airline has accepted £62.5 million
in compensation (Sun p42,
Express p51, Mail p64, Times p39, Indie p38, Telegraph b4, FT p18).
Airbus wins big – And the
European plane manufacturer has signed a $16 billion deal for 150
A320neo planes (Times
p47, Indie p40,
Guardian p29).
Boris bike bill – From planes
to bikes and the firm that runs the London bike-hire scheme has
been accused of overcharging 15,000 users, some to the tune of
£300. Serco will pay more than £6,000 in compensation (Mirror p58, Telegraph b5).
Bombardier staff hit back –
From bikes to rail and the Sun (p42) has talked to Unite member
and chairman of the Bombardier works committee, John Pearson, over
the government’s decision to award the £1.5 billion Thameslink deal
to Siemens rather than Derby based Bombardier; hundreds of staff
could lose their jobs unless the company wins more work.
Tata win over ‘offtake’ row –
The FT (p18) reports that Tata
Steel has received a $130 million payment from four steelmakers
after a panel found that the four had broken the agreement to buy
steel from the Teesside unit over a 10 year period; the failure of
the consortium to honour the deal saw most of the plant shut down,
costing 900 jobs; so will any of the workers see a share of the pay
out?
New nuclear sites to be named
– The Telegraph (p2)
reports that ministers will today announce they will go ahead with
building eight new nuclear power stations despite the Fukushima
meltdown.
BP blamed for blast –
Transocean has blamed BP for the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster
following an internal investigation (Express p51, FT p17).
Comet crashes – Electrical
chain put up for sale after making its first loss in 16 years
(Mirror p58, Sun p42, Express p54, Mail p64, Times p43, Indie p36, Guardian p28).
Philips warning – Weak
consumer demand saw the electronics manufacturer issues a shock
profit warning saying they will be 71 per cent below the previous
quarter (Sun p42, FT p23).
Fight for jobs grows – And
the FT (p4) reports there is a
steep rise in the number of unemployed workers chasing each
vacancy, especially in economically challenged areas, time for a
new approach?
Sketching on Miliband’s blank
paper – And after besting Cameron at PMQs again yesterday
the Guardian (p16-17)
outlines Miliband’s review of Labour’s policies and who is in
charge, it’s a handy guide of who to lobby/which arms to twist…
Edited by Mik
Sabiers
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