Category: news

One of Scotland’s largest local authorities has warned that it may have to cut more than 1,000 jobs.

North Lanarkshire Council is set to discuss ways of saving £70m over the next three years.

The authority said it hoped to make the bulk of post reductions through natural turnover, early retirements and voluntary redundancies.

But if this target cannot be achieved, the council said it may have to consider compulsory redundancies.

A draft report due to go before the policy and resources committee next week sets out various options for making savings and raising additional revenue.

It states that savings of £70m will be needed over the next three years and recommends that £55m should be made over the next two.

In addition to any job cuts, the report states that cutting free school transport to the legal minimum could save £2m while removing community wardens might save £750,000.

It also outlines ways of raising money such as increasing lunch club charges.

If the report is approved, the proposals will go out to consultation for two months before decisions on what cuts to make are taken towards the end of November.

A council spokesman said: “The policy and resources committee will be asked to approve options for consultation.

“It is important to emphasise that no decisions will be taken until we have consulted thoroughly with our service users, our employees and other groups.

“Once that consultation is complete, the council will make decisions on the savings options at the end of November.”

North Lanarkshire Council has an annual budget of around £900m. Like every other Scottish authority, it still does not know precisely how much money it will have next year.

About 80% of its money comes from the Scottish government, which will only be able to decide how much it can give councils next year, after the outcome of the UK government’s comprehensive spending review in October.

The council has already said it would welcome some flexibility in setting the council tax next year.

However, even if the council tax rose the authority would still need to look at substantial savings.

The projected job cuts at North Lanarkshire take the running total of likely job losses at Scottish councils over the next few years to about 12,000.

The final total is likely to be far higher, however, as the majority of councils have not yet announced a figure.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

George Osborne’s new system for deciding the outcomes of the spending review, the “Star Chamber” has its roots in the 15th Century.

And what the secretive cabinet committee decides in the coming weeks will affect every family in Britain.

It determines which ministers succeed in getting money for their departments and which fail.

“You don’t have any friends in the Star Chamber if you’re a spending minister,” says Michael Heseltine, who led first the Department of the Environment and then the Ministry of Defence in the 1980s.

“The object is to reduce your spending.”

So it has a critical role in the coalition government’s plans to eliminate the UK budget deficit.

Although money matters, politics is what matters most – status, prestige and power are what the process is about.

Winning or losing at the Star Chamber now preoccupies ministers and the departments they lead.

The committee takes its name from a court established in 1487, its title derived from the ceiling star pattern in the Palace of Westminster rooms that the committee met in.

It was initially intended to bring the noblemen who avoided the lower courts to justice, but its fame dates to the reign of Charles I in the 17th Century.

That Star Chamber became notorious for justice dispensed by henchmen of the monarch, for secret trials, and for judgment against which there were no witnesses and no right of appeal.

It was reintroduced in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher restrained government spending. Some politicians think the modern incarnation is not entirely different.

“It was like a great arm-wrestling contest,” says Virginia Bottomley, a former Conservative health secretary.

“I had to show that I was a stubborn old bat like the best of them and really do well.”

It ran until 1990 and now, 10 years later, the committee is back.

Today, Chancellor George Osborne and Danny Alexander, Lib Dem Treasury Chief Secretary, are bolstered by the Foreign Secretary William Hague along with Francis Maude and Oliver Letwin – all of them close ministerial allies of the prime minister.

So the Treasury and its allies in government enjoy an in-built majority in the Star Chamber, just as monarchs did back in the 17th Century.

Nigel Lawson, chancellor under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, says that good government requires the Treasury to be “very strong”.

“While the Treasury shouldn’t have its way 100% of the time, it should have its way very nearly 100% of the time,” he argues.

Those ministers who decide to settle their budgets quickly with the Treasury get the chance to sit on the Star Chamber.

But cabinet members fighting for all the money they can get seldom find that idea attractive.

So might veterans of the process encourage ministers today to appeal from the Star Chamber up to the cabinet?

“I wouldn’t do that,” says Michael Forsyth, former Conservative Scottish secretary.

“You’re surrounded by colleagues who know that any concessions made to you will result in them having to find more money.

“The smart thing to do is to get the prime minister on your side.”

Those campaigning to keep free milk for children under five appeared to do precisely that last month, when David Cameron put an end to suggestions that it might be abolished.

Former education secretary Gillian Shephard has a three-point plan for winning in the Star Chamber.

“First of all, be prepared. Secondly, find out from colleagues what lines are being taken. Thirdly, know – but keep secret – the point beyond which you can’t go.”

All coalition ministers are supposed to be signed up to administering the very tough cuts they say the country needs.

But as they prepare to face the Star Chamber they know that its often brutal decisions may well determine the government’s future – and their own careers.

The stakes could not be higher.

Beyond Westminster: Inside the Star Chamber is on BBC Radio 4, 1100 BST, Saturday 4 September and afterwards will be available to listen again on iPlayer.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The story engulfing the prime minister’s communication’s chief grabs many of Saturday’s headlines.

The Guardian says Andy Coulson has found himself in the direct line of fire amid allegations of phone hacking at the News of the World, despite consistently denying any involvement.

The Independent reports that ex-Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell says her phone was hacked 28 times.

It says the affair has raised questions about the prime minister’s judgement.

The Daily Telegraph says primary schools will have to find an extra 350,000 places over the next four years because of a surge in the birth-rate.

The Times’s lead story is about the death of weapons expert David Kelly.

The paper reports that a group of eminent doctors is going to the High Court to force the attorney general to open an inquest into his death.

They believe there is insufficient medical evidence to support the view that he took his own life, it says.

The Queen is “furious” that Tony Blair “betrayed her trust” by revealing details of their conversations, according to the Daily Express.

It says she is “dismayed” he broke “one of the cardinal rules of the government” in his memoirs.

And the Daily Mail reports that almost six million people are “embroiled” in “the biggest tax blunder for years”.

More than a million people have to pay an average of £1,500 after underpaying through no fault of their own, it says.

Many front and back pages feature pictures of England players celebrating their 4-0 win over Bulgaria in the opening match of their European Championship qualification campaign.

The Sun, the Daily Star and Daily Express pay tribute to striker Jermain Defoe, who scored three goals.

And the Guardian carries a photograph of Defoe on its front page, with the headline: “England back on song.”

But the Daily Mirror asks: “So why couldn’t we do that at the World Cup?”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Downing Street’s head of communications is safe in his job despite phone hacking claims relating to his tenure as News of the World editor, a senior government source has told the BBC.

Labour politicians have urged fresh inquiries into the claims and ex-minister Tessa Jowell said her phone was hacked 28 times.

A source told the BBC’s Gary O’Donoghue Mr Coulson “is going nowhere”.

Mr Coulson denies he was aware of phone hacking while he was at the newspaper.

And Conservative minister Alan Duncan said Labour was mounting a concerted campaign against the government.

The News of the World’s royal editor, Clive Goodman, was jailed for conspiracy to access phone messages in 2007, but the paper insists it was an isolated case.

Last year, the Metropolitan Police chose not to launch an investigation into claims, made by the Guardian newspaper, that a host of public figures – including former deputy PM Lord Prescott – had had their messages hacked by journalists there.

At the time, it said the evidence did not warrant it and suggested Lord Prescott’s phone had not been tapped.

Following the latest concerns expressed by Labour figures, BBC political correspondent Gary O’Donoghue said: “Asked whether or not his position was in doubt, one very senior source in the government said Andy is going nowhere.”

Our correspondent said there is “some political advantage to the Labour party to stir up as much trouble as possible for Andy Coulson” because he is “central to the Downing Street operation” since he is “very close to David Cameron and extremely important to what he does”.

He said No 10 “totally and utterly rejected the idea that he allowed anyone [or] asked anyone to hack into any phones”.

The Downing St denials come after Lord Prescott said he would go to court to find out if his phone was tapped. And ex-Home Secretary Alan Johnson said last year’s police probe could be reviewed.

Meanwhile, former culture secretary Tessa Jowell told the Independent: “I know I was tapped 28 times by May 2006 because the police told me.

“I had a call when I was on holiday in August 2006 from the Met to say that I had been tapped, but they asked me to do nothing except increase the security on my phone.”

Calls for further action by Labour politicians were prompted by allegations in the New York Times about the extent of phone hacking which went on at the News of The World.

‘Extreme scepticism’

Former News of the World employee Sean Hoare, one of the sources for the New York Times’ allegations, told the BBC that phone tapping was “endemic” within the industry and he had been personally “requested” to do so by his then editor, Mr Coulson.

“He was well aware that the practice exists,” he told Radio 4’s PM programme.

But the newspaper said the claims by Mr Hoare should be treated with “extreme scepticism”.

However, former News of the World sport reporter Matt Driscoll told the BBC he thought it was “unconceivable” that Mr Coulson would have been unaware of phone hacking practices when he was at the paper because “he would be a part of all the big stories that were being made by the paper”.

Lord Prescott said he wanted to “find the truth” about whether he had been targeted by journalists and would seek a judicial review unless the police supplied him with information in its possession by next week.

Fellow Labour MP Chris Bryant believes he was also targeted but said he had not been informed by the police. Solicitors acting for the MP said they would challenge the Met’s decision in court.

Separately, shadow home secretary Alan Johnson said there was a case for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to review the Met’s handling of the case and he would ask to see Home Office files on the allegations.

However, Conservative MP and government minister Alan Duncan, speaking on Radio 4’s Any Questions, said comments by Labour MPs were part of a concerted campaign to attack the government.

“Things are getting ramped up in the media based on rumour and innuendo and, as in the William Hague case, I don’t think it’s acceptable in this case. And unless anybody comes forward with any clear evidence this is not something that should be pursued,” he said.

Mr Coulson resigned after Mr Goodman – and a private investigator – were jailed in 2007, saying he took responsibility for the incident while insisting he was not aware of what the journalist had done and never sanctioned his activities.

‘No new evidence’

He told a Commons committee which looked into the allegations last year that he never “used or condoned” phone tapping and was deceived by the journalist concerned.

While critical of the conduct of the News of The World’s journalists, the Culture Committee found no evidence that Mr Coulson either approved phone-hacking his his paper, or was aware it was taking place.

The News of the World said the New York Times allegations “contained no new evidence”.

“It relies on unsubstantiated allegations from unnamed sources or claims from disgruntled former employees that should be treated with extreme scepticism given the reasons for departures from this newspaper,” it said in a statement.

“We reject absolutely any suggestion there was widespread culture of wrongdoing at the News of the World.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Negotiations to form a coalition in the Netherlands have collapsed after the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, Geert Wilders, walked out.

Mr Wilders said he did not trust some members of the Christian Democrats to adhere to any agreement reached.

Some Christian Democrats have expressed deep reservations about any deal with Mr Wilders because of his strong anti-Islamic and anti-immigration views.

The collapse comes three months after an inconclusive general election.

The Netherlands has been without a government since the previous coalition collapsed in February.

“The negotiations did not succeed,” Mark Rutte, leader of the centre-right Liberal Party (VVD), told a news conference at the Hague.

The VVD narrowly won the elections in June but did not have a majority. They had hoped the negotations, which began on 9 August, would enable them to form a rightist coalition government with Mr Wilder’s Freedom Party (PVV) and the Christian Democrats (CDA).

The PVV, which doubled its seats in the election, would not have formally joined the coalition but would have given it the support to get decisions through parliament.

But some members of the CDA had raised concerns about entering into an agreement with Mr Wilders because of his controversial far-right views.

He has campaigned to stop the “Islamisation of the Netherlands” and faces a criminal trial later this year on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination with his anti-Islamic film Fitna.

Mr Wilders told reporters he was leaving the talks because his party’s trust in the CDA had “declined to an all-time low”.

“The Netherlands needs a stable government. Our view is that the CDA cannot give enough guarantees to provide that stability,” he said.

“We really wanted to be able to support a stable government. Instead, we will play our role as the biggest opposition party.”

Mr Rutte said he respected Mr Wilders’ decision but did not agree with it.

“I regret too … that this political co-operation is not possible,” he said.

Analysts say it is now highly unlikely that a coalition will be finalised before the caretaker government must present the budget on 21 September.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Comic Eddie Kadi can command vast crowds at his live shows. Why has he attracted so little mainstream attention?

On Saturday evening, The 02 Arena – one of London’s largest venues – plays host to a comedian who can draw in audiences by the thousands.

Taking the step up onto the big stage is a performer who has already played to packed-out crowds at the 1,200-capacity Hackney Empire, the 2,000-capacity 02 Indigo Arena and the 3,500-seater Hammersmith Apollo.

His name? Eddie Kadi.

If you haven’t heard of him, you’re in good company. A search on the Lexis Nexis newspaper database reveals that he has, so far, received just a handful of mentions in the national press.

So how can a performer be this popular but escape mainstream attention?

In the past, black comics like Gina Yashere – who relocated from east London to Los Angeles because of what she said was a lack of opportunity – have bemoaned the paucity of breaks available to those with non-white faces.