Mr Arbuthnot secured a majority of 18,597 at the last general election
Related Stories
Long-serving Conservative MP James Arbuthnot has said he will stand down from Parliament at the next election.
Mr Arbuthnot, 58, said the decision was to “take on new challenges”.
The Eton-educated barrister has represented North East Hampshire since 1997 and previously was MP for Wanstead and Woodford from 1987 to 1997.
He is currently the Defence Select Committee chairman and before that was a minister for social security and defence in John Major’s government.
Mr Arbuthnot is the first MP from last year’s general election to announce plans to leave Parliament.
He had a majority of 18,597 at the last election.
In a statement released by his office, Mr Arbuthnot said: “It has been a great privilege to have represented North East Hampshire for the last 14 years, and before that Wanstead and Woodford for 10.
“My constituents have been generous and supportive and have taught me much.
“Their friendship has meant a great deal to Emma and me, and we shall always be grateful to them.
“After a fulfilling career, first as a barrister and then in Parliament, it is now right to move on at a time when I can still take on new challenges.”
Mr Arbuthnot described his chairmanship of the Defence Select Committee as an “especially rewarding role”, which comes to an end at the end of this Parliament.
The next general election is scheduled for 2015.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mr Cable will be delivering his first speech to a union conference as business secretary
Related Stories
Business secretary Vince Cable is to warn delegates at the GMB union’s conference that co-ordinated strike action may lead to tougher union laws.
Union leaders have warned that there could be strike action taken by 750,000 public sector workers on 30 June.
Mr Cable is expected to say that while the level of strikes is low there is not a compelling case for tighter laws.
But he will warn that the pressure on him to act would ratchet up if there were to be widespread disruption.
Union sources have told the BBC it is an “extremely unhelpful threat”, at a time when ministers and union leaders are trying to broker a deal on changes to public sector pensions.
BBC political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg says unions could organise precisely the kind of industrial action that Vince Cable is warning against if no broad agreement is reached by the end of next month.
Addressing delegates in Brighton, Mr Cable is expected to say: “We are undoubtedly entering a difficult period. Cool heads will be required all round. Despite occasional blips, I know that strike levels remain historically low, especially in the private sector.
“On that basis, and assuming this pattern continues, the case for changing strike law is not compelling.
“However, should the position change, and should strikes impose serious damage to our economic and social fabric, the pressure on us to act would ratchet up. That is something which both you, and certainly I, would wish to avoid.”
Mr Cable is expected to concede that feelings are running high in the trade union movement as demonstrations in March showed.
But he will call for unions and the government to work together to deal with economic challenges.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson and employers’ organisation the CBI have already been calling for tougher trade union laws
Mr Johnson wants laws to prevent a strike taking place unless at least half of the union members in a workplace take part in a ballot. He has criticised the government as “lily-livered” for not taking firmer action.
The CBI has called for a minimum of 40% of union members balloted to be in favour of a strike before it can take place.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Fuel will represent about 30% of an airline’s expense in 2011, according to Iata
Related Stories
The International Air Transport Association (Iata) is expected to slash profit forecasts, as the high price of oil raises costs.
In March, Iata set its 2011 forecast at $8.6bn (£5.2bn), which was a 52% drop from the year before. It now says even that looks optimistic.
The other factor hurting the industry is the nuclear disaster in Japan.
The global airline industry is meeting on Monday in Singapore for the Iata annual general meeting.
The association, which has 230 member airlines, will announce its latest forecasts at that time.
Last year, the airline industry recovered faster than expected from the global recession, posting a profit of $18bn.
“After a good year, this year started in a terrible way,” Giovanni Bisignani, head of Iata told the BBC in Singapore.
Mr Bisignani blamed unrest in the Middle East, an increase in the price of fuel and the ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan for the industry’s bleak outlook.
Iata used an average oil price of $96 for a barrel for Brent crude when calculating its profit forecast in March.
Since then, oil prices have passed $110 a barrel.
According to Mr Bisignani, a $1 per barrel increase means a jump of $1.6bn in costs.
“That is a big, big problem for us,” he said.
Fuel costs will represent 30% of airline expenses in 2011, according to Iata.
The 11 March earthquake and tsunami in Japan triggered a crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which led to a drop in demand for domestic travel in Japan of 31% in April, compared with the previous year, according to Iata.
Internationally, Japan saw air traffic fall by 20% in April, which has knocked 1% off of global international travel.
“Japan represents 10% of the total industry revenues – that will impact strongly,” said Mr Bisignani.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Home Secretary Theresa May said universities had been unwilling to recognise what was happening on campus
Related Stories
Home Secretary Theresa May has criticised universities for their “complacency” in tackling Islamist extremism.
It comes ahead of the publication of the government’s revised Prevent counter-terrorism strategy on Tuesday.
Mrs May told the Daily Telegraph she thought there was more universities could do on the issue.
She also said the government would cut funding to any Islamic group that espoused extremist views.
Mrs May told the paper: “I think for too long there’s been complacency around universities. I don’t think they have been sufficiently willing to recognise what can be happening on their campuses and the radicalisation that can take place.
“I think there is more that universities can do.”
It is understood the document also raises concerns over the Federation of Student Islamic Societies and what is seen as an insufficient willingness to tackle extremism.
Mrs May said: “They need to be prepared to stand up and say that organisations that are extreme or support extremism or have extremist speakers should not be part of their grouping.”
Prevent was originally launched after the 7 July bombings in 2007 to stop the growth of home-grown terrorism.
Mrs May said that, as a result of the strategy’s review of government support, about 20 of the organisations that received funding over the past three years would have their cash withdrawn.
She told the newspaper: “There’s more that we will be doing because it is very clear that we are going to be much more focused on effective monitoring and the effectiveness of groups and making sure that they are having an outcome.”
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw says Prime Minister David Cameron signalled a change in the government’s approach to tackling Islamist extremism in a speech he gave in Munich in February.
In it he said there needed to be a “lot less” of the “passive tolerance” of recent years.
Extremist groups, Mr Cameron said, must be stopped from reaching people in publicly-funded institutions, such as universities.
Last month, the ll-Party parliamentary group on homeland security said it had “grave concerns” students were being radicalised in universities, but the body which represents vice-chancellors, Universities UK, denied the claims.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The government is currently reviewing the Prevent programme, which isn’t working as well as it could.
“We need a strategy that is effective and properly focused. The findings will be published shortly.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Jorn Madslien finds out how Gripen fighter jets are made
The noise is earsplitting as the Gripen fighter jet takes off from a small airstrip on the outskirts of a small Swedish town, only to disappear amidst the clouds.
The jet is manufactured by Saab, a brand commonly associated with a struggling carmaker, though this is not the same one.
The fast-growing aerospace and defence group that shares the Saab name is not only quicker.
It is also much more successful and important – both for Sweden and for the company itself.
Next to the runway, shared with the civilian Linkoping City Airport, long stretches of weatherboarded barracks surround a small, low-slung hangar where the fighter jet is made.
Inside, cool jazz from a radio competes with the sound of hammers beating against metal.
Pilot instructor Rhys Williams: ‘It’s fun to fly this jet’
At first sight, the place looks more like an artisan workshop than a manufacturing operation producing one of the most sophisticated fighter jets in the world.
The Gripen project has emerged from Sweden’s desire not to rely on foreign companies for its defence capabilities. The programme has been further strengthened by the country’s supportive industrial policy.
Sweden has realised that targeted investment in hi-tech sectors, such as the military aircraft industry, can be hugely beneficial for the nation as a whole, according to Gunnar Eliasson of Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology and the Ratio Institute, a free-market think tank.
“Long-term competitive sustainability of an industry requires the local presence of one or more technology-leading firms for the rest of industry to learn from,” he says in a book on advanced public procurement as industrial policy.
Investment in the Gripen project “has generated an additional social return to society on the order of magnitude of at least 2.6 times the original development investment”, according to Mr Eliasson.
Building the Gripen fighter jets is a manual and highly skilled process
Saab’s gain is a commercial product that is marketable across the world, according to Lennart Sindahl, head of Saab Aeronautics, the largest of the group’s five divisions.
The Saab JAS 39 Gripen has so far been bought not only by Sweden, but also by the Czech Republic, Hungary, South Africa and Thailand, as well as by the UK which is using it as its advanced fast jet platform for test pilots worldwide.
“It’s quite fun to fly. The aircraft itself handles really well,” says British instructor pilot Rhys Williams.
Saab is convinced it can extend its list of customer countries considerably over the next decade or so, as some 5,000 of the 13,000 fighter jets currently in operation are scheduled for retirement, and as emerging nations prepare to gear up their air forces.
“For the Gripen, there are new markets and market possibilities coming along all the time,” Mr Sindahl tells BBC News in an interview.
The biggest contract that everyone is fighting for at the moment is an anticipated $11bn (£6.7bn) Indian order for 126 fighter jets, set to become one of the biggest export orders in the history of the defence industry.
The Saab Gripen fighter jet is being sold to countries all over the world
Saab was recently told it had not been shortlisted for the Indian contract, due to be awarded in March 2012, but remains hopeful nevertheless.
“We are pushing ahead with the Indian campaign,” says Mr Sindahl. “We are definitely not giving up.”
A Brazilian contract for at least 36 fighter jets – and perhaps as many as 100 – is also up for grabs, and here Saab is optimistic.
“The Brazilians want to acquire knowledge about fighter design, and the best way to do that is not that we tell them but that we do it together,” Mr Sindahl says.
“A very important part of our offer… is that we are in a situation where we can offer them to be part of the development of the Gripen for Brazil,” he continues.
Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer could become both a local manufacturer as well as a seller of the fighter jet to other South American countries, he says.
Customer countries are invited to take part in the development of the Gripen fighter jet
Saab is convinced its lightweight single-engine multirole fighter aircraft is both as capable as and much cheaper to buy and operate than larger, twin-engined jets such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault’s Rafale and Boeing’s Super Hornet – not to mention Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which has suffered from cost overruns running into billions of dollars.
By contrast, Mr Sindahl observes: “We made the Gripen demonstrator at 40% of the original budget because we introduced new ways of working.
“In almost all the campaigns we have the advantage of low cost, with respect to purchasing and operating the aircraft.”
The next few months will be critical as the potential Gripen customers make up their minds.
Saab knows that it probably will not win all the contracts.
But winning just some of them will bring in billions of dollars for the firm.
This year’s Paris Air Show will take place at Le Bourget exhibition centre on the outskirts of Paris from 20 to 26 June 2011.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Li Na broke away from China’s state sports administration in 2008 
