6:44 am, August 21, 2022
Shapps urges RMT to put eight per cent pay offer to rail workers for vote amid strike chaos
Grant Shapps has urged the head of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union to put Network Rail’s pay offer to workers for a vote as strike chaos continues.
In a letter to RMT general secretary Mick Lynch on Saturday afternoon, the transport secretary said the railway operator’s proposal of an eight per cent pay rise over two years is ‘fair’ and members should have the opportunity to resolve the dispute.
He also called on the union to accept proposed reforms to modernise the railway sector.
Liz Truss criticises ‘too much talk of a recession’ as she talks up ambition
Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss has said there is ‘too much talk that there’s going to be a recession’ as she insisted an economic slump is not inevitable.
The foreign secretary suggested a ‘level of ambition’ was needed to ‘change the orthodoxy’ and avoid the outcome forecast by the Bank of England.
Her optimism came after Conservative heavyweight Michael Gove warned that she was on a ‘holiday from reality’ with her tax vision as he endorsed her rival Rishi Sunak.
Eight days of strike action commences at UK’s biggest port
The first of an eight-day workers strike at the UK’s biggest container port begins on Sunday.
Around 1,900 members of Unite at Felixstowe will walk out in a dispute over pay in the first strike to hit the port since 1989.
Workers including crane drivers, machine operators and stevedores are taking action after voting by more than 9-1 in favour of strikes.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘Felixstowe docks is enormously profitable. The latest figures show that in 2020 it made £61m in profits. Its parent company, CK Hutchison Holding Ltd, is so wealthy that, in the same year, it handed out £99m to its shareholders. So they can give Felixstowe workers a decent pay raise.’
Barristers balloted on escalating action to an all-out strike
Barristers are voting on plans for an all-out strike next month as part of a row with the government over jobs and pay.
Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have been walking out on alternate weeks but are now being balloted on an indefinite, uninterrupted strike that would start on September 5.
The ballot closes at midnight on Sunday, with the result expected on Monday.
Exam board apologises to students still wating for BTec results
A BTec exam board has said it is ‘very sorry’ that some students are still waiting for their results two days after they were due, leaving them unable to confirm university places.
Hundreds of thousands of students received A-level, BTec and T-level exam results on Thursday, but some in England and Wales who have taken BTec qualifications with exam board Pearson have had no news of their grades.
Pearson said there was no ‘systemic issue’ to blame for the delay as what they described as ‘a tiny percentage’ of students are still waiting to hear about their BTec (Business and Technology Education Council qualification) results, adding that the reasons are individual to each affected school or college.
Price cap seen to breach £6,000 for first time in grim new forecast
The price that you pay for your gas and electricity is set to soar by more than threefold from an already record level, according to a forecast that will worry millions of families.
The cost-of-living crisis is only set to get worse between now and next summer, as consultancy Auxilione predicted that the price cap on bills will gradually rise by more than £4,000 in the next eight months.
They said that the cap is expected to reach £3,576 in October, rising to £4,799 in January, and finally hitting £6,089 in April.
Bugatti W16 Mistral takes aim at fastest roadster title
Bugatti has created what it believes to be the ‘ultimate roadster’ – the W16 Mistral.
Named after the powerful wind that blows from the Rhône River valley right the way through to the Mediterranean, the W16 Mistral will arrive as the final road-going Bugatti to use the firm’s legendary W16 engine.
The Mistral uses the W16 engine first utilised in the Chiron Super Sport 300+, which develops 1,578bhp. It propelled the Chiron Super Sport 300+ to a world-record-breaking top speed of 304.773mph, so as a result, Bugatti is expecting the W16 Mistral to become the fastest roadster in the world.
Weather outlook
A bright day with sunny spells and patchy cloud for most of the country today, says BBC Weather. In the south-west, cloud will build in with the odd shower.
A dry night for most although the cloud that developed during the day in the south-west will develop into rain and push into northern England.
