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The Guardian’s front page features a large picture of Diane Abbott under the headline, “And then there were five. Abbott in race … with a little help from a Miliband”. The paper reports that, “Abbott entered on the closing day for nominations with the support of just 11 MPs – 22 short of the threshold. Amid unease that the race would be made up exclusively of white, male, Oxbridge-educated candidates, support for Abbott soared in the final hours before today’s 12.30pm deadline when her fellow leftwinger John McDonnell withdrew and key figures such as David Miliband revealed that they were nominating her.”
Two of the last people to nominate Abbott were Jack Straw and Phil Woolas. The five candidates took part in a hustings organised by the New Statesman yesterday evening. According to Sky’s Glen O’Glaza, 48% of New Statesman readers thought Abbott won the debate. Politics Home concluded that Abbott was “the most watchable, the most warm, and on many topics her presence defines the debate.”
The Guardian reports that, “the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, says unemployment will rise to a peak of 2.95 million in the second half of 2012 and remain near that level until 2015, the entire period of the coalition government.” The CIPD suggests that a majority of the staff likely to lose their jobs will be women in part-time work or on low wages, who make up a large proportion of the public sector workforce. TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: “The risk of a double-dip recession across the UK as a whole is growing – and is now a near certainty in those regions that were worst hit by the recession. The net result could well be that the deficit is hardly dented as tax receipts fall and benefit spending grows.” Covering the same report, The Times reports that, “725,000 public sector jobs face axe, economist warns”. The Financial Times outlines that, “Until recently the institute had estimated that unemployment, currently 2.51m or 8 per cent of the workforce, would peak at just over 2.65m this year. Now it forecasts the total will rise to 2.95m in the second half of 2012 and remain close to that until 2015.”
The Telegraph‘s front page reports that, “£9bn sale of Royal Mail on the cards”. In his first interview since being appointed, Liberal Democrat postal affairs minister Ed Davey told the paper he was considering a full-scale privatisation as one of the options to raise money for the company. Mr Davey said: “The truth is that Royal Mail’s situation, if nothing is done, will become increasingly dire. If we don’t transform Royal Mail, it will be dragged down by a lethal combination of falling mail volumes, low investment and potentially one of the worst pension crises for employees in UK history.” The paper says his comments are likely to be welcomed by senior Conservatives, who have long called for the organisation’s privatisation. But in an analysis of how a stock market floatation would work, Christopher Hope writes, “He knows he is in for a battle with both the CWU postal union and left wing Labour MPs, which successfully saw off Lord Mandelson’s plans to part-privatise Royal Mail”.
In an interview with the Guardian, featured on their front page, university Minister David Willetts warns that the cost of hundreds of thousands of students’ degree courses was a “burden on the taxpayer that had to be tackled”. Willetts said he did not want to pre-empt the recommendations of Lord Browne’s independent review into whether fees should rise from £3,225 a year. But he added that students should consider university fees “more as an obligation to pay higher income tax” than a debt. National Union of Students president-elect, Aaron Porter, said Willetts had failed to understand that graduates were leaving with debts of £22,000 on average and that this felt “very much like debt to them”. The paper speculates that the debate will cause “huge divisions in the coalition government.” All five Lib Dem cabinet members signed an NUS pledge to “vote against any increase in fees and to pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative”.
The front pages of the Financial Times and Telegraph examine the damage caused by US attacks on BP. The FT outlines that, “UK industry expressed alarm on Wednesday at the “inappropriate” and increasingly aggressive rhetoric being deployed against BP by Barack Obama”. The US president said on Tuesday “If [BP boss Tony Hayward] was working for me I’d sack him“. Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI, the UK employers’ group, said the presidential attack was “obviously a matter of concern – politicians getting heavily involved in business in this way always is”. Miles Templeman, director-general of the UK’s Institute of Directors, said he was “very concerned – this sort of political rhetoric is inappropriate”. The Telegraph says, “City investors said the president was jeopardising the pensions of millions with his “excessive” criticism of the energy company following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.” The Daily Mail reports that Norman Tebbit has called Obama’s attack, “a crude, bigoted, xenophobic display of partisan political Presidential petulance against a multinational company”. In a further breakdown of US-UK relations, The Times‘ front page reports that the US has warned Britain that it must send more troops to Afghanistan.
8 Responses to “Politics Summary: Thursday, June 10th”
LockPickerNet
Politics Summary: Abbott wins first debate; cuts will put unemployment at 3m; Royal Mail sale on the cards http://bit.ly/akL5Hv via @leftfoo
Billy Blofeld
“unemployment will rise to a peak of 2.95 million”
Thanks Gordon.
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Kurt
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TWT POLITICAL
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