6:53 am, December 14, 2022
Rail and Royal Mail workers strike as nursing walkout looms
Commuters face a second day of severe rail disruption on Wednesday as members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) are joined in walkouts by Royal Mail workers, and nurses prepare to take unprecedented industrial action.
As on the first day of the 48-hour strike, around half of Britain’s rail lines will be closed all day, as thousands of members at Network Rail and 14 train operating companies walk out in the long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
Postal workers in the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will stage a fresh 48-hour national walkout on Wednesday, while nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to start strike action in a row over pay on Thursday after talks with the government broke down.
Police asked to drive ambulances as paramedics strike
Police officers may be called upon to drive ambulances as paramedics go on strike, the Police Federation has said.
Under national contingency plans it was understood that military personnel would be drafted in to help drive ambulances as strikes go ahead later this month. But now it has emerged that police officers may also be called upon to help drive the emergency healthcare vehicles.
The Police Federation, the body representing around 140,000 rank and file officers, said that ‘police are not ambulance drivers or qualified paramedics’.
Confusion over scale of Sunak’s vow to ‘abolish’ backlog of asylum claims
The prime minister’s pledge to ‘abolish’ the backlog of asylum claims by the end of 2023 has been called into question after officials admitted only a portion of applications would be cleared.
Among a raft of new measures unveiled to curb Channel crossings, he told MPs ‘we expect to abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions by the end of next year’ after hiring more caseworkers and overhauling the system for processing applications.
But within hours Downing Street appeared to downgrade the target, insisting the PM had only committed to clearing the backlog of claims made before June.
Boris Johnson and Priti Patel pressure PM to ignore ECHR rulings on Rwanda
Boris Johnson and Priti Patel are reportedly backing a forthcoming bill attempting to force Rishi Sunak to ignore rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The Asylum Seekers (Removal to Safe Countries) Bill is to be introduced by Tory MP Jonathan Gullis on Wednesday. Gullis wrote in The Daily Telegraph that the legislation ‘will ensure that Parliament, not unaccountable foreign judges in Europe, have the final say’.
According to the paper, former prime minister Johnson and former home secretary Patel will back the legislation. The report adds that the bill’s other ‘co-sponsors’ include Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nadine Dorries, Tim Loughton and ‘six other MPs’.
Cold snap to cause further disruption as thousands left without power
Britons have been warned that snow and ice will continue to cause chaos in parts of the UK on Wednesday, after thousands were left without power in freezing conditions.
The Met Office has extended a yellow warning for snow and ice covering northern Scotland and north east England until noon on Friday.
It comes as the Scottish government declared a major incident for Shetland on Tuesday after thousands of homes were left without power amid plummeting temperatures.
Cost-of-living support should be spread over six months, say MPs
Cost-of-living support payments to people on means-tested benefits should be spread out over next winter, the Treasury Committee has urged.
Payments totalling up to £900 will be given to households on means-tested benefits in 2023-24, building on the support which has been made available this year. The committee said these payments should be spread across the winter period, with a payment each month for six months, and said the Treasury had told it that its expectation is that payments would be given in a similar pattern to this year.
The government has said there will be more than one payment and further details will be given in due course.
Festive spending helps boost retail sales, figures show
Christmas shopping and Black Friday helped boost sales last month giving retailers a ‘smidgen of hope’, according to latest figures.
Total sales in Scotland last month increased by eight per cent compared with November 2021, when they had grown 2.6 per cent, the SRC-KPMG Scottish Retail Sales Monitor showed. Adjusted for inflation, the year-on-year change was 0.6 per cent.
On a like-for-like basis Scottish sales increased by 5.5 per cent compared with November 2021, when they had increased by 1.8 per cent.
Tuesday Car Dealer headlines you might have missed
- Demand for electric vehicles stutters as cost of living crisis begins to bite
- Car dealer hoping to raise £3,000 in memory of leading industry figure who died of a heart attack last year
- Used Car Awards raises more than £4,000 for Ben as date set for 2023 ceremony
- Vertu announces reshuffle in Jaguar Land Rover division with three key men handed promotions
- Luxury dealer group H.R. Owen adds Hennessey to impressive portfolio of brands
- Drive Motor Retail celebrates the best of its dealer network at annual awards night
Top Gear host Andrew Flintoff injured in accident while filming show
Top Gear presenter Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff was injured and taken to hospital to receive medical treatment after being involved in an accident while filming for the show.
The incident happened on on Tuesday morning while the 45-year-old former professional cricketer was filming at the Top Gear test track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey.
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘Freddie was injured in an accident at the Top Gear test track this morning – with crew medics attending the scene immediately. He has been taken to hospital for further treatment and we will confirm more details in due course.’
Jaguar boosts electric range on F-Pace plug-in hybrid while revising trim levels
Jaguar has upgraded the battery pack on its F-Pace plug-in hybrid model, boosting its electric-only range in the process.
It means that the F-Pace Hybrid – badged P400e – will now be able to return up to 40 miles of zero-emissions power, an increase on the 33 miles available previously. Its CO2 emissions of between 37 and 38g/km mean that the F-Pace Hybrid’s benefit-in-kind rate improves from 12 to eight per cent, too. Jaguar says that the F-Pace will now return up to 176.6mpg when fully charged as well.
Jaguar has also simplified the range of specifications available for the F-Pace, with the line-up now consisting of R-Dynamic S, R-Dynamic SE Black, R-Dynamic HSE Black, 400 Sport and tip-top SVR.
Weather outlook
Dry with winter sunshine for most areas today, reports BBC Weather. Southern areas will start with cloud which will clear later, while northern Scotland and the north-east will have wintry showers throughout the day.
It’s the same picture for tonight, although cloud will become more widespread and won’t be confined to the south.
