News digest 30 March 2011
The digest starts with a direction of the
governments cuts, the worst drop in incomes for 30 years, a
possible nail in the coffin of the NHS and a warning of
overregulation, before there’s good news on the buses and Unite has
a very unlikely fan; read on to find out who…
Public spending cuts – As the
new financial year kicks in the Guardian (Society) highlights
where the cuts will kick in and looks at how the UK will be changed
beyond recognition with hundreds of thousands of job losses,
services wiped out or cut to the bone, benefits withdrawn etc.
Welcome to Con-Dem Britain…
Incomes drop – And even
before the cuts start to strike most of the papers report that
incomes have seen a drop for the first time in 30 years – by 0.8
per cent - as job insecurity and rising prices curb spending, with
one paper noting that the figures are even worse then when the
Specials’ Ghost Town came out, back to the 1980s anyone (Express p5, Mail p17, Times p31, Indie p33, Guardian p6, Telegraph p1/b1, FT p3).
Osborne defends budget –
Chancellor says Plan B will lead to interest rate rises, but fails
to answer question over the treasury’s take of fuel prices, he
guesses 60p when the actual figure is 80p. The fear is that fuel
prices will soon reach £1.50 a litre (Mirror p1, Sun p16, Express p27, FT p3).
Criminal justice cuts – From
finance to justice and the Guardian (p13) says changes
proposed to the Criminal cases Review Commission will lead to more
miscarriages of justice.
First step to NHS
privatisation – On to health and the Guardian (p14) reports health
secretary Andrew Lansley urging doctors and nurses into care
contracts. He wants them to form ‘mutuals’ which will contract with
the NHS to provide patient care. Is this the first step to
privatisation? Unite yesterday presented a letter to Grahame Morris
MP, a Labour member of the health select committee, which is
currently scrutinising the Health and Social Care bill. The letter
said: "We are writing to urge you to protect the NHS
from the savage and unnecessary reforms put forward in the
bill.” Unite has collected 13,000 signatures to a
letter to the committee of MPs scrutinising the impact of the
Health and Social Care bill, and the presentation featured a coffin
symbolising the potential end result of the Tory plans for the NHS
(Unite
release).
Mutuals on the rise – Both
Co-op and Nationwide reported to be interested in buying up the
Lloyds branches (Times
p37).
Stop overregulation – And the
Indie (p38) reports RBS
chief Stephen Hester warns that overregulation would threaten his
bank’s recovery, yes too much regulation caused the recession
didn’t it?
Post strike
off – Some good news and a deal for once. Postal
workers to see 3.6 per cent pay increase to be recommended by union
averting a strike by thousands of members (Mirror p11, Times p35, Morning Star p4).
Big bus order – More good
news as First Group announces £160 million order for fleet of 955
new buses safeguarding jobs at Alexander Dennis in Falkirk and
Wrightbus in Northern Ireland. Most of the buses are destined for
use in London (Mirror p40,
Sun p43, Express p63, Times p36).
National Express shake up –
Major shareholder – Elliot Advisors – says the transport company’s
board needs a shake up and that it should focus on its US business
as there are limited UK growth opportunities (Indie p36, Guardian p27, Telegraph b3).
Stanlow sold – Shell sells
second biggest oil refinery for total of £812 million (Mirror p40).
Oil attack – Statoil
threatens to cancel £6.25 billion of investment in two oil fields
over Osborne’s tax raid, may need to look elsewhere for your energy
(Times p31, Guardian p25, Telegraph b1).
Sellafield plans backed –
Government encouraged to spend £3 billion on reprocessing waste
plant at the site which would enable it to deal with some 112
tonnes of plutonium left over from other processed waste however
Clegg hints that new plants may not be built, but then no one
really listens to him these days (Times p3, Indie p4, Telegraph p1, FT p1/4, Morning Star p5).
UK radiation alert –
Contamination from Japan detected over Britain as the race to save
the reactor seems lost, so-called ‘suicide squads’ are now being
recruited to deal with the meltdown (Mirror p8, Sun p21, Express p1, Mail p8, Times p15, Indie p25, Guardian p1, Telegraph p16, FT p14, Morning Star p6).
Walsh eyes Japan – And in the
FT (p17) there’s rather ‘mixed’
timing for International Airlines head Willie Walsh who has flown
into Tokyo to try and secure a deal which could add ‘bankrupt’
Japan Airlines to IAG…
Libya pressure continues –
And battle continues to secure the no fly zone, the latest is that
the allies are seriously considering arming the rebels, think the
last time that happened was in Afghanistan and we all know how that
worked out (Mirror p4,
Sun p12, Express p17, Mail p6-7, Times p6-7, Indie p6-7, Guardian p1, Telegraph p16-17, FT p6, Morning Star p1).
Fake bomb bother – And
talking of flying bombs many of the papers report that a fake bomb
was flown from London to Turkey on a UPS cargo plane, it was only
picked up in Istanbul. Rather than a terrorist attack it was down
to a family feud, but are checks as good as they could be?
(Sun p7, Express p19, Mail p9, Times p4, Indie p21, Guardian p6).
Terminal decline – And the
Times (p1) splashes
with the news that Heathrow now languishes in 99th place in a
confidential international table on how passengers really feel
about airports with customers moaning about long security queues
and poor ambience, it is however ahead of Gatwick, Stansted as well
as Frankfurt and Paris, the top airport was Singapore, followed by
Seoul and Hong Kong…
Ryanair’s roses – And on a
final aviation note Unite seems to have a new fan as the budget
airline announced: “Ryanair is starting to really warm
to the Unite union…” the company sent 18 red roses to
the union in support of BA’s cabin crew, ok it didn’t say exactly
that, but you get the gist (Telegraph b8).
Edited by Mik
Sabiers
Subscribe to this post's comments using
RSS
Comments
