Daily Archives: 9 October 2013

Guardian editor Rusbridger defends leaked files stories

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24464286

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has insisted it was right to publish secret files leaked by US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.

Image of GCHQ donught building

His comments come after the new director general of MI5, Andrew Parker, said such revelations risked causing enormous harm.

Making public the “reach and limits” of intelligence-gathering techniques gave terrorists the advantage, he added.

The paper said the leaks had prompted a debate which was necessary and overdue.

Mr Snowden, a former CIA contractor, fled to Russia with a wealth of secret data including some 58,000 files from GCHQ, Britain’s electronic eavesdropping agency.

The stories that followed in the Guardian newspaper, based on material provided by Mr Snowden, revealed the huge capacity of British and US intelligence agencies – GCHQ and NSA – to monitor communications.

In his first public speech since his appointment in April, Mr Parker said intelligence gathered by GCHQ had played a vital role in stopping many UK terrorist plots over the past decade.

He warned that terrorists now had tens of thousands of means of communication “through e-mail, IP telephony, in-game communication, social networking, chat rooms, anonymising services and a myriad of mobile apps”.

Mr Parker said it was vital for MI5 – and by inference its partner GCHQ – to retain the capability to access such information if it was to protect the country.

Mr Rusbridger said those on the security side of the argument wanted to keep everything secret and did not want a debate.

“You don’t want the press or anyone else writing about it. But MI5 cannot be the only voice in the debate,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One.

He added that his newspaper had revealed the “extent to which entire populations are now being potentially put under surveillance”.

“I just spent a week in America where everybody is talking about this, from the president down.”

He added: “It’s quite surprising to me that the number of MPs in this country who have said anything at all in the last four months can be counted on one hand – Malcolm Rifkind, Tom Watson, David Davis.

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Royal Mail warns thousands will lose jobs after sell-off

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http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/09/royal-mail-warns-thousands-job-losses

Company spokesman indicates substantial job losses following controversial privatisation of 500-year-old institution

Image of back of postman and post sacks

Royal Mail has warned that thousands of postal workers will lose their jobs following its controversial privatisation. On Tuesday the 500-year-old national institution saw unprecedented demand for its share offer, with more than 1 million people thought to have applied. In its written submission to parliament on Wednesday, Royal Mail said: “The company will employ fewer people in the future, whoever owns it.”

The company refused to state how many jobs will be axed, but a spokesman indicated it would be thousands if not tens of thousands of Royal Mail’s 150,000 employees.

Moya Greene, Royal Mail’s chief executive, who was paid £1.6m last year, has said the company needs to be “sized appropriately for the [declining] traffic we have to process”.

The forthcoming cuts come on top of 50,000 jobs lost over the past decade. The company said it “remains committed to the overarching objective of achieving this without compulsory redundancies”.

“Over the past decade, the postal services sector has changed dramatically. A decline in mail volumes has coincided with the liberalisation of the market and the emergence of competition. In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in the number of parcels being sent. All of this has meant a difficult process of change for our people,” Royal Mail said in its submission to the business, innovation and skills select committee.

“Many of Royal Mail’s employees have seen changes to their working practices as the company has adapted its operations to the changed mix of mail. Change will continue and the company will employ fewer people in the future, whoever owns it.”

Royal Mail workers, who are 96% opposed to the privatisation, continued their campaign against the sell-off with a protest outside parliament ahead of committee meeting. Activists dressed up as highway robbers carried banners saying: “The Great British Royal Mail Robbery”.

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Fury at Bully Hunt’s NHS Pay Rise Snub

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http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-7b46-Fury-at-bully-Hunts-NHS-pay-rise-snub#.UlT7oS1XnWd

Health Secretary keen to axe 1 per cent increase

Image of Jeremy Hunt and David CameronUnions laid into Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday for wanting to ditch a miserly 1 per cent pay increase for hard-working NHS staff.

The GMB accused him of “berating and bullying staff” and said that his behaviour “will not be tolerated,” warning that industrial action was possible.

Unite called for the introduction of the living wage to benefit the NHS’s 17,000 lowest-paid workers.

Mr Hunt caused a huge furore when he said that the independent NHS pay review body should not implement a one per cent increase for 1.3 million NHS staff, or maintain performance-related increments.

Pointing out that the NHS pay review body was independent, GMB’s national NHS officer Rehana Azam said: “You only have to spend time with a paramedic, nurse, theatre porter or any other frontline NHS worker to see their number one priority is to deliver quality care and the best outcomes to patients they care for.”

“Why then does Jeremy Hunt want to berate and bully staff while they are trying to do a good job often under difficult circumstances?”

“This is just wrong and will not be tolerated.”

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Campaigners call for east coast rail franchise to stay in public hands

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http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/08/rail-east-coast-public

Rail unions and MPs say state-owned operator’s success means government should rethink return of franchise to private sector

Image of an East Coast trainCampaigners have renewed calls to keep the east coast mainline rail franchise in public hands after the state-owned operator revealed it returned £208.7m to the taxpayer last year, a rise of 6.6%.

Directly Operated Railways, the Department for Transport-owned company behind East Coast, said revenue had risen 4.2% and record levels of customer satisfaction had been reached in the year 2012-13 – although that has since fallen after a series of delays on the line.

Karen Boswell, the managing director of East Coast, said: “We’ve been able to show increased growth year on year and I expect next year to be even stronger.”

She ascribed the positive results to leadership, investment and increased employee engagement.

Mick Whelan, the general secretary of the train drivers’ union Aslef, said: “These latest figures show why we need to keep the east coast in the public sector. It’s a key tool against which we can measure the success or failure of the privatised train operating companies.

“Each year these companies are pushing up prices for passengers and moving hundreds of millions of pounds in dividends to shareholders, often offshore, money which could and should be used to hold down fares and provide vital investment in Britain’s railway network.”

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Related: East Coast rail service costs taxpayers less than private lines, report reveals

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Royal Mail shares demand outstrips supply

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http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/08/royal-mail-shares-demand-outstrips-supply

Huge interest among members of the public will hit institutional investors, but hundreds of staff refuse allocation of free shares

Image of post office van next to postbox

Dozens of banks, hedge funds and other institutional investors will be prevented from buying any Royal Mail shares as demand for stakes in the privatisation hugely outstrips supply.

Institutional investors are thought to have ordered more than 10 times the number of shares available, meaning only those that offered to pay the maximum £3.30-a-share will be able to buy any stock – and even then they will not collect anywhere near the amount they requested.

A £3.30 share price values Royal Mail at £3.3bn and will see the government collect £2bn from the 60% of the business being sold. A further 10% is being given to Royal Mail’s 150,000 employees – each will collect shares worth about £2,200.

The original government price range for the shares – set on the advice of investment banks UBS and Goldman Sachs, which collected millions in advisory fees – had been between £2.60-£3.30. If the government had priced the shares at £4 it would have collected an extra £400m for taxpayers.

The amount of shares available to banks will be decreased to ensure the government meets the majority of orders from the public. The 10% of the shares reserved for employees are being distributed for free but it was revealed that 368 staff had refused to take up their allocation.

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