News digest 8 September 2011
The digest opens with strong coverage of
the Bombardier lobby across most of the papers. The NHS change
continues while the 50p tax rate stays for now. There’s a pensions’
shortfall while the high street is emptying, business wants banking
regulation and the eurozone could get stricter on members and while
there’s a threat of strike action at Apache, BA and Aer Lingus may
merge before a series of challenges culminate in an MP struggling
to pick up the phone…
No change on Bombardier
contract – Even though a delegation of workers from
Bombardier came down from Derby to London to argue the case for
retaining UK rail manufacturing the government has given up on UK
supply and stated that the decision to select Germany's Siemens for
a £1.4 billion train contract, rather than Bombardier in the UK,
will not be reviewed or put out to tender again. The chairman of
Bombardier UK, Colin Walton, told MPs on the select committee that
firm is "struggling to understand" the
government's decision, saying it had been based on
"very narrow" criteria while transport
secretary Philip Hammond said the government would be looking at
ways to try to retain skills in the train building industry in the
UK but Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland countered
that over 800 supplier sites would be affected, half of which had
either cut jobs or planned to do so as a result of the government's
decision to go with Siemens and said: "We are deeply,
deeply concerned about a contract awarded on the basis of a credit
rating rather than an ability to manufacture trains."
(Mirror p6-7, Sun p28, Express p4, Times p46, Indie p34, Guardian p26, Telegraph b2, FT p4, Morning Star p1, BBC News,
Unite release)
All change for the NHS –
Sadly the third reading of the health and social care bill was
passed by the Con-Dem coalition last night – although the Dorries'
abortion amendment was defeated. A couple of papers note that GPs
are being told to ration the number of patients being sent for
scans while the cost of the reorganisation is also continuing to
rise. Cameron seems to have misled the commons once again by
claiming he had the backing of NHS staff like the RCN and Royal
College of GPS – who denied the charge - the gradual death of the
NHS as we know it continues when the bill moves to the Lords next
month (Mirror p5, Mail p1/10, Times p5, Indie p12, Guardian p6-7, Telegraph p2, FT p4, Morning Star p3, Unite
release).
No change to 50p rate, for
now – Cameron has apparently indicated that the 50p rate
will stay in the short term as the coalition continues to clash
over whether the government should prioritise a tax cut for the
richest one per cent of the country (Mirror p11, Express p1, Mail p4, Times p23, Indie p2, Guardian p2, Telegraph p2, FT p3, Morning Star p3).
Pensions’ shortfall –
Millions of ordinary people have cut the amount of cash they pay
towards their pensions due to the squeeze as the TUC released data
that showed employee contributions to pensions fell by 10 per cent
to £18.7 billion in 2009/10 (Mirror p52, Mail p20, Telegraph p1, FT p4).
Courts could dock benefits –
The Guardian (p1) leads
with the news that as part of the response to the riots the
coalition is considering giving courts the power to dock benefits
from convicted criminals to show that ‘state privileges’ should be
earned, no mention of whether you get a rebate if you are an
upstanding citizen.
Slum UK – And the Indie (p1) splashes with the
news that UK housing is now among the worst in Europe costing
around £7 billion a year by adding pressure to the NHS and other
public services.
1 in 7 shops empty – Could
the end of the UK high street be on the way? One in seven shops are
lying empty and 50,000 more shops are expected to close as cash-hit
families curb spending. A report from the Local Data Company says
the 10 worst affected places are in the north and Midlands and the
shift to online purchasing has also added to the pressure (Mirror p25, Sun p6, Mail p7, Indie p36, Guardian p15, FT p6).
Call for quantitative easing
– And as the threat of the double dip rises the Institute of
Directors calls for £50 billion of new money to be pumped into the
economy to get the banks to lend; oddly the banks have already had
£200 billion and don’t seem to be lending that freely (Mirror p11, Sun p42, Mail p65, Guardian p25, Telegraph b1, FT p1).
Business backs call for
regulation – As Unite revealed figures showing 150,000
ordinary finance workers have lost the jobs as a result of the
banking crisis the union was joined by small business owners in its
call for a firm government stance on banking reform (Morning Star p3, Unite
release).
Regulated future for banking
- The FT (p11) starts a new series
looking into banks and regulation, risk and the global crisis,
rather apt with the Vickers report next week and developments in
the eurozone.
Stricter future for euro
members – Financial markets breathed a sigh of
relief as Germany’s top court gave its backing to the planned debt
rescue policies to try and stem the financial firestorm, stock
markets across Europe soared and the Dutch prime minister called
for a new budget tsar with powers to dictate spending and taxation
policy in eurozone countries (Express p51, Indie p22, Guardian p25, Telegraph b1, FT p1).
Exit Europe? – Prime minister
David Cameron is also coming under greater pressure from his right
wing – some of whom are they are also trying to link up with
Eurosceptic Labour MPs – as they call on him to hold an ‘in or out’
referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the EU (Express p15, Mail p2, Times p6).
German industry advances as UK
declines – However maybe they could learn from the EU as
Germany’s industrial output rose by 4 per cent in July in contrast
to the UK which dropped by 0.2 per cent, must be all those
government contracts (Times p48, Indie p34, Telegraph b2).
Apache strike threat – Back
in the UK and civilian engineers working on Apache attack
helicopters have threatened to strike over their continued dispute
over pay differentials which means that many are about
£3,000-a-year worse off then colleagues employed at a sister site
(Mirror p15, Morning Star p4, Unite
release).
Royal Anti Freeze - The
Sun (p20) reports that RAF
ground crew at the Mount Pleasant base in the Falklands Islands
made a £1.5 million error after contaminating aviation fuel with
anti freeze rather than the real chemical that stops fuel freezing
in sub zero temperatures.
BA and Aer Lingus to merge? –
Possible merger looks more likely as the Irish government indicated
it would consider selling its stake in the national flag carrier
and Ryan air surprised analysts saying that it was also open to
selling its own 29.8 per cent holding (Times p43, Telegraph b3, FT p20).
Ex BP bosses windfall – Tony
Hayward who resigned after the fall out of the Deepwater Horizon
blowout has landed back on his feet with a £14 million windfall as
his investment firm Vallares joined forces with Turkey’s Genel
(Sun p42, Express p51, Indie p33, Guardian p26).
Saab goes back into bankruptcy
protection – Not so good news for the Swedish carmaker
which has filed papers to go into a three month court-administered
reorganisation (FT p22, Morning Star p7).
Glencore challenged over workplace
deaths – And bad news for workers as the mining firm after
the company’s latest annual report shows that dozens of people have
died working for the company and that the level of deaths – 56
between 2008 and 2010 - is higher than the other leading players in
the industry (Times
p43, Guardian p26,
FT p19).
Guardian challenged over
hackgate – Fears over press freedom are raised after it
was revealed that the police questioned Guardian journalist Amelia
Hill under caution over her contact with police sources (Sun p2, Mail p12, Times p8, Guardian p1, Telegraph p4, FT p2, Morning Star p5).
Cameron challenged over who’s the
boss – Cheeky question from Nadine Dorries about who is in
charge in the coalition elicits condescending answer from Cameron
at PMQs (Sun p2, FT p2).
MP challenged to answer phone
– Veteran Middlesbrough Labour MP, Sir Stuart Bell, is featured in
many papers as possibly being the country’s laziest MP after one
local reporter made more than 100 calls to him and never received a
reply. The MP has admitted that he has not held a surgery in 14
years, claims £83,000 in staff costs (including paying his wife
£35,000), but says he has no seen one single recorded call from the
reporter, maybe he should look a bit harder (Mirror p15, Sun p2, Mail p19, Indie p1/11, Telegraph p2).
Edited by Mik
Sabiers
Subscribe to this post's comments using
RSS
Comments
