News digest 26 October 2011
The digest opens with a call for the youth
minister to go while Cameron’s week of hell continues with an
attack by the Tory right leading him to attack workers’ rights just
as his pension changes are challenged in court, women bear the
brunt of town hall cuts and agricultural workers see safeguards on
pay abolished. A plea for Bombardier is ignored, the BAE closure is
called a tragedy but BP and BG get a profits boost, as does UBS
which still plans to cut jobs. Cabin crew at Thomas Cook vote to
take action while pressure builds on the St Paul’s protestors as
Europe fiddles over rescheduling debt while business secretary
Vince Cable gets fined.
Sack the Tim reaper – Unite
general secretary Len McCluskey castigated the government over its
attitude to youth services as thousands rallied in Westminster to
protest over the cuts to youth services. Calling on youth minister
Tim Laughton to resign in a piece published on the leading left
wing blog
LabourList Len said: “Today parliament thronged to
the sound of young people demanding a halt to these mindless cuts.
Many of the young people at the rally were not yet old enough to
vote, but it was full of the leaders of tomorrow. And as they
lobbied their MPs they reminded them they will be voting in 2015,
and when they do they will remember this moment and this
government. Tim Loughton’s job is to support young people, on the
evidence so far he has failed in that job. His time is up, he
should resign.” (BBC News, Morning Star p3, Unite
release)
Tories hide split on Europe
by attacking workers’ rights – Prime minister
David Cameron’s nightmare deepened as cabinet colleagues clashed
over Europe and rebel MPs demanded concessions after 81 Tories
defied their leader to vote for a referendum on Britain’s ongoing
relationship with Europe. However the government did try to shift
the debate from a referendum to repatriating powers and workplace
rights are in the firing line... (Mirror p7, Sun p2, Express p5, Mail p8-9, Times p6-7, Telegraph p4-5, FT p2, Morning Star p4).
Sack the slackers – Is the
splash headline on the front page of the Telegraph which says a leaked
Downing Street report should allow employers to dismiss staff
without explanation. The Mail (p14-15) takes up the
government’s anti-Europe agenda and in an editorial calls for the
end of the working time directive, agency workers’ rights and
maternity leave. Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said:
“It can’t be any coincidence that this sop to the right
wing of the Tory party comes just 24 hours after the prime minister
faced a massive revolt by his backbenchers … it is despicable
that this government seeks to appease its voracious right wing by
promising to crush any powers to defend themselves that workers in
this country may have left.” (Mirror p11, Indie p4, FT p2, Unite
release).
Pensions challenge – Members
from six unions including Unite demonstrated outside the Royal
Courts of Justice in support of a legal challenge over public
sector pensions. The court was told that the switch due in April
next year could see pensioners lose up to 15 per cent of the value
of their pensions by the switch from RPI to CPI (Mirror p6, Express p4, Times p6, Telegraph p2, FT p4, Morning Star p3, Unite
release).
Women hardest hit by town hall
cuts – Job cuts by local authorities have hit women
hardest with the latest figures showing that 85,710 of the 129,051
jobs that have been cut so far were held by women (Mirror p14, Indie p60).
Listen to rural workers -
Rural workers were also in Westminster yesterday calling for their
MPs’ support to help maintain the Agricultural Wages Board. Cath
Speight of Unite said the abolition of the board could potentially
take millions out of workers' pockets (Morning Star p2, East Anglian Daily Times, Western Morning
News, Wigan Evening
Post, Unite
release)
Legal aid cuts will delay
justice – The Guardian (p1) reports that top
judges have argued courts will be deluged by people without lawyers
due to the government’s planned £350 million legal aid cuts.
NHS ‘buck stops with me’ –
Health secretary Andrew Lansley has caved into a proposed Lords
amendment which means the secretary of state will retain the
ultimate responsibility for the provision of the health service in
England (Mirror p7, Times p15, Guardian p16).
Bombardier plea ignored – New
transport secretary Justine Greening has snubbed pleas to
reconsider the Thameslink deal and help save 1,400 jobs (Mirror p11, Morning Star p1).
BAE closure points to industrial
tragedy – The FT (p4) has
a piece looking at the impact of the virtual closure of an aircraft
plant in Brough and what it means for the UK’s manufacturing
sector.
Banks need incentive to lend
– Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King says the latest £75
billion round of quantitative easing is not a quick fix for the
economy and instead more needs to be done to encourage banks to
lend and that the lending freeze is the fault of the treasury
(Mail p65, Times p41, Indie p58, Guardian p26, Telegraph p5, FT p2)
Osborne argues against the green
agenda – And another government split is brewing as the
Indie (p1) reports that
the feud between chancellor George Osborne and energy secretary
Chris Huhne is to escalate as Osborne will argue that the green
agenda should be jettisoned and instead there should be a dash for
growth whatever the consequences.
BP’s profits hit £3.2 billion
– Good third quarter for the oil giant (Mirror p40, Sun p43, Mail p65, Times p45, Indie p56, Guardian p27, Telegraph b3, FT p15, Morning Star p4).
BG Group booms – BG Group –
part of the British Gas empire – said higher prices boosted its
quarterly profits by 23 per cent to £1.2 billion (Sun p43, Times p45, Telegraph b3).
Jobs to go at UBS despite
profits – Swiss bank hit by £1.3 billion rogue trader loss
still managed to generate profits of £710 million but indicated
that it was considering further job cuts on top of 3,500 announced
earlier this year (Mirror
p40, Express p50, Mail p65, Indie p56, FT p1).
Thomas Cook cabin crew vote for strike
action - Thomas Cook cabin crew have voted overwhelmingly
in a consultative ballot that they wish to take industrial action
over the company’s redundancy plans to axe 498 jobs even though the
company made profits of £320 million last year (Mirror p, Sun p20, Times p45, Indie p60, Morning Star p4).
Traffic up for ports operator
- From planes to ports the Mail (p66) reports good news for
DP Ports which saw a 10 per cent rise in cargo traffic equivalent
to 14.4 million container units; the group’s London gateway port is
also on schedule to be operational in 2013.
Pressure builds on St Paul’s
protestors – Right wing press starts to move against the
Occupy movement outside St Paul’s and close to the stock exchange
saying few stay overnight citing evidence from thermal imaging
cameras, no sign of them reporting on the reasons for the
demonstration (Express
p2-3, Mail p4, Times p4-5, Indie p11, Telegraph p1, Morning Star p8-9).
‘Boris’ bikes go east – The
Times (p49) reports
that Serco has won the deal to expand the Barclays bike scheme to
the east end of London ahead of next year’s Olympics.
Danes wane on G4S deal – From
one outsourcer to another and the Telegraph (b3) reports that
Danish shareholders are yet to be convinced on the benefits of the
tie up between ISS and G4S.
Swedes slash output – The
FT (p21) reports that the truck
maker Volvo is to cut production in its Swedish and Brazilian
plants with an estimated 450 jobs at risk.
EU cancels bailout meeting but will
meet - European leaders are set to meet amid growing
doubts they can reach a comprehensive deal on sovereign debt to
tackle the eurozone crisis; all the papers report fears that the
eurozone is on the edge with Italy being told to get its act
together, markets fell on the unease and Merkel talks of the need
to correct weaknesses in the EU’s founding treaties. Commentators
highlight the need for governments to generate growth and build the
tax take to pay down the deficit (Sun p9, Mail p1, Times p1, Indie p12-13, Guardian p22-23, Telegraph p1, FT p1/6).
Cable’s VAT slip – And
finally the Sun (p1/4-5)
reports on business secretary Vince Cable who was fined £500 for
failing to pay VAT even though the business secretary has been at
the forefront of trying to tackle tax dodgers. Perhaps all those
meetings with businessmen have rubbed off on him…
Edited by Mik
Sabiers
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