PM and deputy say two parties have distinct identities but insist coalition will endure as they make joint appearance David Cameron and Nick Clegg have marked the coalition government’s first anniversary with a show of unity and a pledge to see out a full five-year term in power. At an event in east London, the prime minister and his deputy took turns to portray the coalition as two parties with distinct identities, prone to arguments behind the scenes, but intent on coming up with unified policy conclusions that would best serve the country. Cameron and Clegg appeared together in Stratford as the coalition government sought to draw a line under the events of last week, when the Lib Dems fared very badly in local and devolved parliament elections and failed to win the alternative vote referendum. Speaking in the wake of the disastrous results for his party, Clegg said the Liberal Democrats had gone into coalition with its eyes “wide open”. He said that he had always known that the elections would be a “tough period” but insisted that the party would be judged by what it had achieved at the end of five years in power. Cameron said the voters would not be swayed by unspecified “fripperies” but by whether the government delivered “good results about the things that British people care about”. “That’s what we’re focused on, that’s why it’s a five-year government and that’s why I believe it will endure.” Clegg insisted that “whoever was in government” would have to do difficult, controversial and, in some respects, downright unpopular things. “I went into this with my eyes open, my party went into this collectively with our eyes open, that it wouldn’t be easy– you shouldn’t go into government because it is easy – but because we genuinely believe that what we are doing together, two parties coming together, yes retaining our differences, to clear up a lot of the problems we have inherited of the past that is the long-term interest of the country.” Clegg added: “Polls go up and down. People’s popularity goes up and down, parties’ popularity goes up and down. At the end of the day, how will we be judged? We will be judged about whether we have sorted out the mess we have inherited and restored a sense of optimism, of prosperity, of jobs for this country. It is a job we have started and we are going to see it through. This was always going to be the really, really tough part for the coalition and the tough part for the country economically.” The reason for coalition was “as strong today as it was a year ago”, said Cameron, as he highlighted long-term “structural problems” facing the country, the nation’s debt and youth unemployment. “We have different traditions and views and beliefs and we have robust discussions, even arguments in private, and then we come out with agreed policies that we think are good for the country,” said Cameron. “If people could see what actually happens in private, where both parties stand up for their views but we come to a good, collective decision, I think they’d see it is a strong coalition government and that’s what I’m absolutely committed to delivering.” The prime minister and his deputy PM made a joint appearance to outline plans to “reverse the trend of rising youth unemployment” through apprenticeships and work placements in private firms later down the line. But a brief question-and-answer session with the media was dominated by the relations between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrat party in the aftermath of last week’s local and devolved elections and the referendum. The two men were also grilled on the Commons standard watchdog’s decision to suspend David Laws , a former Lib Dem minister and MP for Yeovil, for “serious breaches” of the expenses system. Clegg was caught out when he began to speak about David as being “a close friend of mine” only to be stopped by Cameron who joked he might want to make it clear that he was referring to Laws, in an answer to a two-part question that involved the seven-day suspension of Laws. Both men laughed as Clegg clarified he was referring to Laws. Earlier in the day, Clegg aired his unhappiness at the political point-scoring of both sides of the alternative vote referendum campaign as he appealed for unity over House of Lords reform . Giving evidence to the Commons political and constitutional reform committee on Thursday morning, Clegg said he was determined to press ahead with moves towards electing the upper chamber despite the resounding public rejection of a change to the voting system. Clegg said he hoped for less argument over the Lords than those witnessed by both camps in the referendum. “The referendum campaign was characterised, some would say disfigured, by party politics and point-scoring. It was not a particularly uplifting argument by either side of the debate. “What lessons does one learn? It reinforces my view that where we can develop ideas together rather than everyone shouting at each other across the barricades, clearly it is best.” He said he had gone to “very considerable effort” to find agreement by talking to all parties in the committee drawing up the proposals for the reforms. “I hope that desire to try to move forward as consensually as possible on something as constitutionally significant as that will be reflected and recognised in the draft bill we will be publishing shortly,” he told the Commons political and constitutional reform committee. Asked about criticisms from within his own party that he should not concentrate on issues that were more important to the party than the public, he said: “Things that are important are not always resonant. The fact that we as a country, as a national community, have been talking about this one way or another for a century or more suggests that it is not a preoccupation or an obsession for one party or one politician. “I do not think that as a government we should apologise, not only in this area, for proceeding with things that are important but might not be things that your constituents and mine will raise in our weekly surgeries.” David Cameron Nick Clegg Liberal-Conservative coalition Conservatives Liberal Democrats Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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Grateful Dead English Project 2011 Federal Budget Key Announcements 2011 Federal Budget Preview & Pre-Budget Leaks – Lawyers Weekly & Capital Monitor Strategic Business & Product Analyst Job at LexisNexis , Sydney … LexisNexis is a leading global provider of business information solutions to a wide range of professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting and academic markets. … JUST IN CASE: American Legal Media (ALM) Content on LexisNexis Now … A press release issued by LexisNexis on April 4, 2011 announced that American Legal Media (ALM) materials were moving to LexisNexis as the “Exclusive Third Party Distributer of ALM Content.” This took effect May 1, 2011. … University of Otago, Law Library Blog: LexisNexis training Trish, the LexisNexis trainer, is running free training sessions Thurs 12 May and Fri 13 May. Time: 12 noon and again at 1pm, each day. Place: Law Library seminar room, on the 6th floor (enter the library via the 8th floor and use the … University of Otago, Law Library Blog: Thursday's lexisnexis … Thursday’s lexisnexis training – blown away. I’m sure we would have been blown away by the training, but today’s strong winds have blown the trainer off course. She’ll be here tomorrow (we hope) for sessions at 11, 12 and 1. … LexisNexis ® Legal News Podcast for May 11, 2011 | BPA Attorney … A Tennessee city’s discriminatory lending action survives a motion to dismiss, and a health maintenance organization will pay $1.4 million to settle wrongful. trendybing says: get info about lexisnexis http://trendybing.com/trends/ lexisnexis /
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Leaked emails reveal Burson-Marsteller attempted to get USA Today and other titles to write about Google’s privacy policies Facebook has been caught secretly paying a top public relations firm to plant negative stories about Google in the US media. Burson-Marsteller, one of the world’s largest PR firms, attempted to get USA Today, the Washington Post and other high profile US news outlets to write scaremongering stories about Google’s privacy policies. The explosive revelation – which will seriously damage relations between the two technology giants, already bitter rivals – came to light in leaked emails late on Wednesday. Facebook later confirmed to the Daily Beast that it had hired Burson-Marsteller. Paul Cordasco, a spokesman for Burson-Marsteller, told the Guardian on Thursday that the assignment was “not at all standard operating procedure” and was against the company’s policies. He added: “The assignment on those terms should have been declined.” Cordasco confirmed to the Guardian that “the assignment” was now terminated and that Burson-Marsteller was no longer working with the social network. Facebook declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian. Suspicions in Silicon Valley were aroused earlier this week when two high-profile media figures – former CNBC tech reporter Jim Goldman, and John Mercurio, a former political reporter – began pitching anti-Google stories on behalf of their new employer, Burson-Marsteller. The pair consistently refused to disclose the identity of their client. Goldman and Mercurio approached USA Today and other outlets offering to ghost write op-ed columns and other stories that raised privacy concerns about Google Social Circle, a social network feature based on Gmail. In their pitch to journalists, the pair claimed Social Circle was “designed to scrape private data and build deeply personal dossiers on millions of users – in a direct and flagrant violation of [Google's] agreement with the FTC [Federal Trade Commission]“. Facebook’s cover was blown when Burson-Marsteller offered to help write an op-ed for Chris Soghoian, a prominent internet security blogger. Soghoian challenged the company’s assertion that Social Circle was a privacy threat and accused them of “making a mountain out of a molehill”. Soghoian was stonewalled by Burson-Marsteller when he asked them who their client was. He later published an email exchange between himself and Mercurio. Cordasco said on Thursday: “Now that Facebook has come forward, we can confirm that we undertook an assignment for that client. “The client requested that its name be withheld on the grounds that it was merely asking to bring publicly available information to light and such information could then be independently and easily replicated by any media. Any information brought to media attention raised fair questions, was in the public domain, and was in any event for the media to verify through independent sources. “Whatever the rationale, this was not at all standard operating procedure and is against our policies, and the assignment on those terms should have been declined. When talking to the media, we need to adhere to strict standards of transparency about clients, and this incident underscores the absolute importance of that principle.” Google declined to comment. Facebook Google Internet Social networking Newspapers Newspapers & magazines Media business Marketing & PR Digital media United States Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
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BPI figures reveal total digital spending by fans since 2004, with Adele’s 21 the biggest-selling album Music fans have spent more than £1bn on downloads in the seven years since legal digital services launched in the UK – with Adele’s 21 now the biggest-selling album online. A total of £316m was spent on music downloads by music fans in 2010 – almost a third of the total spent since legal services first launched in the UK in 2004 – according to industry trade body the BPI’s annual yearbook. The UK total for 2010 tallies with the figure put out in March by international music industry body the IFPI, which said digital sales in the UK grew almost 20% last year. The BPI said that spending on digital albums grew 23% to £146m, more than 56.5m digital albums sold since the format launched in 2006. A total of £132m was spent on digital singles, a 12% year-on-year increase, with almost 600m sold since 2004. The BPI reckons that the rise of cheaper digital music downloads has led to the cost of an album – both physical and digital – falling by a third in the past decade to £7.32. Digital music sales account for 25% of total music sales in the UK. The industry continues to suffer from declining sales of physical formats, with singles down 27% year on year to £6.9m and albums down 14.5% to £863m. •
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An Australian television program has decided to advance the global warming myth by creating and airing a rap video called “I'm A Climate Scientist.” For some reason, ” Hungry Beast ” felt it was necessary to include vulgarity to make its point (video follows with vulgarity-laden lyrics and commentary): yo….we're climate scientists.. and there's no denying this Climate Change Is REEEEALL.. Who's a climate scientist.. I'm a climate scientist.. Not a cleo finalist No a climate scientist Droppin facts all over this wax While bitches be crying about a carbon tax Climate change is caused by people Earth Unlike Alien Has no sequel We gotta move fast or we'll be forsaken, Cause we were too busy suckin dick Copenhagen: (Politician) I said Burn! it's hot in here.. 32% more carbon in the atmosphere. Oh Eee Ohh Eee oh wee ice ice ice Raisin' sea levels twice by twice We're scientists, what we speak is True. Unlike Andrew Bolt our work is Peer Reviewed… ooohhh Who's a climate scientist.. I'm a climate scientist.. An Anglican revivalist No a climate scientist Feedback is like climate change on crack The permafrosts subtracts: feedback Methane release wack : feedback.. Write a letter then burn it: feedback Denialists deny this in your dreams Coz climate change means greater extremes, Shit won't be the norm Heatwaves bigger badder storms The Green house effect is just a theory sucker (Alan Jones) Yeah so is gravity float away muther f**cker Who's a climate scientist.. I'm a climate scientist.. I'm not a climate Scientist Who's Climate Scientists A Penny Farthing Cyclist No A Lebanese typist No A Paleontologist No A Sebaceous Cyst No! a climate scientist! Yo! PREACH! Interesting how they didn't say a word about Nobel laureate Al Gore's bona fides concerning climatology. He majored in government while at Harvard, dontcha know, and later dropped out of law school. In the undergraduate science courses he took, the former vice president got very poor grades. I guess that's the perfect background to become the world's leading authority on global warming. As for America's second-leading proponent of this myth, the head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies James Hansen has a B.A. in physics and mathematics from the University of Iowa, as well as an M.S. in astronomy and a Ph.D. in physics. He then studied at the Institute of Astrophysics at the University of Kyoto and in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Tokyo after which he began work at GISS. See any climatology? Yet, next to Gore, Hansen has been the leading proponent of global warming nonsense in this country since the '80s. Another so-called expert is Climate Progress's Joe Romm who got a B.S. and a Ph.D. in physics from MIT. Some of his graduate studies were done at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. From the media side, ABC's Sam Champion – a leading television personality pushing this hogwash – has a B.A. in broadcast news from Eastern Kentucky University. Bill Nye “The Science Guy” – another highly-acclaimed media “expert” on this fairy tale – has a B.S in mechanical engineering from Cornell. In reality, most of the leading global warming proponents in America are not specifically trained in climatology. As such, disqualifying the opinions of skeptics who similarly weren't specifically educated in this field – this author included – is a bit absurd. If the only people allowed to talk about this subject in print and on the air were climatologists, there'd be hardly any discussion about it which would frankly be fine with me for the alarmists in the media lacking any scientific credentials far outweigh the realists. On the other hand, Australia's “Hungry Beast” admits to using comedy in its presentations. Maybe this video was just a joke much like the entire anthropogenic global warming myth. Yeah…that's the ticket.
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Council of Mortgage Lenders says house repossessions shot up in the last quarter but remain 10% lower than last year The number of UK homes repossessed by mortgage lenders rocketed by 15% to 9,100 in the first quarter of 2011, according to latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The figure is well up on the 7,900 homes repossessed in the final quarter of 2010, but is 10% lower than the same period last year and equal to the average quarterly number of repossessions throughout 2010. The number of mortgages with arrears equivalent to 2.5% or more of the outstanding balance fell to 166,900 from 170,000 last quarter, and represent 1.47% of the 11.3m outstanding first-charge (original) loans. But the number of arrears exceeding 10% of the mortgage balance increased slightly from 27,400 at the end of 2010 to 27,700. Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS Global Insight , said the quarterly rise in repossessions “highlights the fact that a significant number of homeowners are at risk, particularly if economic activity is muted and unemployment moves over the coming months as tighter fiscal policy bites. “Any rise in interest rates would be liable to send a significant number of financially stretched people over the edge.” David Birne, an insolvency practitioner at HW Fisher & Company chartered accountants, agreed: “The main reason the figures aren’t worse is the breathing space afforded to homeowners by the ongoing low interest rate environment. When this comes to an end it will be the end of the road for many overstretched households. “Throw further public sector job cuts, a stagnant economy and the soaring cost of living into the mix and there is every reason to believe arrears and repossessions will spike towards the end of the year and on into 2012.” Housing minister Grant Shapps said the figures “underline how the recession has brought difficult times for lots of people” and the government will “continue our efforts to tackle the record deficit to avoid the need for rapid increases in interest rates and keep the pressure off already stretched family budgets”. The CML’s director general, Michael Coogan, said the financial position of many households is “likely to be stretched for some while, and some will inevitably find themselves in difficulty”. He said lenders have a range of options to nurse borrowers through temporary problems and, if in doubt, consumers should “talk to their lender as they will want to help”, and take advice from Shelter , Citizens Advice or the National Debtline (0808 808 4000). The Mortgage Rescue scheme , introduced in January 2009, helped 5,039 households receive help and advice from their local authority in the first three months of 2011, but only 2,621 homeowners have completed the full process since the scheme’s launch. Repossessions Mortgage arrears Mortgages Property Borrowing & debt Housing market Mark King guardian.co.uk
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The former deputy prime minister is seeking permission for a judicial review into police handling of the phone-hacking affair The private investigator at the centre of the phone-hacking affair intercepted 45 voicemail messages from the then deputy prime minister John Prescott and emailed them to the News of the World, the high court has heard. Lord Prescott’s lawyers told the court that he had been the victim of “an unfortunate history of misinformation” by the Metropolitan police, who had told him repeatedly that he was not a victim of hacking. But the court heard that the investigator Glenn Mulcaire had targeted Prescott by listening to messages which he left on the phone of his chief of staff, Joan Hammell. Mulcaire had then sent a News of the World executive an email containing 45 messages as well as instructions about how to continue accessing Hammell’s phone. The new evidence emerged in a hearing in which Prescott, the former Europe minister Chris Bryant and the Met’s former deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick are seeking permission for a judicial review of police handling of the affair. They say police failed to conduct an effective inquiry and failed to inform them they were victims. Lawyers for the Met conceded there had been “some operational shortcomings” and that there had been cases where some victims had not been informed even though the evidence was clear. But they said the evidence in the claimants’ cases had not been clear. They revealed that, having seized 10,000 pages of notes from Mulcaire, the original inquiry in 2006 had failed to enter the material on a computer system. In 2009, after the Guardian revived the affair, Scotland Yard had finally started transferring the material to a database but had overlooked numerous documents and scanned others in a form that was not searchable. The result for the police, according to James Lewis QC, was that: • Prescott was told there was no evidence that he was a target of Mulcaire, even though his name was listed on notes the investigator had kept about the hacking of Hammell. • Bryant was told only that his name and number had been found in Mulcaire’s notes, whereas in fact his name was linked to a list of 23 phone numbers that could only have been obtained by hacking his voicemail, according to Hugh Tomlinson QC. • Paddick was told there was no evidence he was a victim even though a print-out from Mulcaire’s computer named him as “a project” and handwritten notes included phone details for him, his partner, his former partner and numerous associates. The court heard that the email containing Prescott’s 45 messages had been handed to police by the News of the World in January this year. Mr Justice Foskett said he would deliver a judgment as to whether the judicial review should continue in the near future. Phone hacking News of the World News International National newspapers Newspapers Newspapers & magazines John Prescott Nick Davies guardian.co.uk
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Article in the Southern Metropolis Daily marking anniversary of Sichuan quake made unmistakable references to detained artist A daring editorial marking Thursday’s third anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake , featuring unmistakable references to detained artist Ai Weiwei , has vanished from the website of the newspaper that ran it. The article in the Southern Metropolis Daily – one of the “bolder” Chinese papers – appeared to allude to the work of Ai and jailed activist Tan Zuoren in attempting to tally the deaths of children in the many schools that collapsed. An estimated 90,000 people were killed or remain missing following the 7.9-magnitude earthquake, which rocked the south-western province in May 2008. But authorities suppressed discussions of the high death toll among schoolchildren and harassed protesting parents after it became an increasingly potent subject. Many blamed the number of deaths on shoddy construction linked to official corruption. Although written in a highly literary, allusive style, the editorial includes several phrases clearly reminiscent of Ai’s work. They include a reference to victims who “lived happily on this earth for seven years, or for longer or shorter periods of time”. Ai’s installation Remembering used 9,000 children’s backpacks to spell out a grieving Sichuan mother’s words: “She lived happily for seven years in this world.” A later section goes further, noting: “On the day of mourning we called them home and wished them peace. We gathered together all the human evidence of them we could. We read their names together … We did so much, and yet we did too little … We can but present the steel zodiac, offer up porcelain sunflower seeds, symbolic memorials to your lives once so tangible.” Ai sought to compile a list of all the dead children; his work Missing is a three and a half hour recording of volunteers reading out their names. His installation Sunflower Seeds at Tate Modern, made up of 100m porcelain seeds, has become one of his best-known works, while his re-creation of bronze fountainheads in the shape of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac was unveiled at Somerset House in London on Wednesday. “For people who are aware of Ai Weiwei’s work there is an unmistakable implication pointing to his work relating to reckoning the Sichuan earthquake and responsibility for it,” said David Bandurski of Hong Kong University’s China Media Project. “Stylistically this is a fairly typical example of ‘spring and autumn’ writing … writing around the topic. [But] even though it is not very direct stylistically, I think its implications are very direct.” He added that while many links to the piece were now dead, the Shenzhen-based news portal QQ.com had posted it. Ai, 53, was stopped by officials at Beijing airport on 3 April. Officials say he is under investigation for economic crimes, but police have not notified his family of any detention and relatives believe he has been targeted because of his activism. China Ai Weiwei Human rights Censorship Protest Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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Research shows 12% of the country’s women have been raped at least once, and the problem is not confined to conflict areas About 48 women are raped every hour in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a new study. The study, due to be published in the American Journal of Public Health in June, found sexual abuse rampant not only in conflict areas but in the home, with nearly one woman a minute subjected to some form of sexual abuse. The DRC has been racked by conflict, with rapes widely documented in the conflict-heavy east of the country . However, the study suggests the problem is bigger and more pervasive than previously thought, and goes further in documenting domestic sexual abuse. It finds 1,152 women are raped every day – a rate equal to 48 per hour. That rate is 26 times more than the previous estimate of 16,000 rapes reported in one year by the United Nations. “Not only is sexual violence more generalised,” the study’s researchers said, “but our findings suggest that future policies and programmes should focus on abuse within families.” The findings of the study, carried out by three public health researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute, Stony Brook University in New York, and the World Bank, and partly financed by the US government, were based on figures from a nationwide household survey of 3,436 Congolese women in 2007 aged 15 to 49. A breakdown of the figures showed 12% of women had been raped at least once in their lifetime and 3% of women across the country were raped between 2006 and 2007. About 22% had also been forced by their partners to have sex or perform sexual acts against their will. The study also revealed alarming levels of sexual abuse in the capital, Kinshasa. The UN has called the country the centre of rape as a weapon of war. Commentators have also called the Congo the worst place on Earth to be a woman . Over the past 15 years, civilians have been drawn into the conflict, which has been driven by a weak government and rich mineral resources, often in remote, forest-covered areas. The highest levels of rape were found in North Kivu, an eastern province ravaged by the conflict and where nearly 7% of women had been raped at least once between 2006 and 2007, according to the study. Comprehensive statistics on rape in the DRC have been difficult to collate, although widespread anecdotal evidence has been collected on atrocities. There have been many reports and witness accounts of the gang-rape of young girls and elderly women by armed militia, and also accounts of male rape. Because of the stigma of rape, many married women find themselves abandoned by their husbands . “There are two big surprises in the study,” said Anthony Gambino, a former mission director for the US Agency for International Development in the Congo. “First, the magnitude of the problem – rates of rape that are much higher than seen elsewhere. And, second, that these alarming, shockingly high rape statistics are found in western Congo as well as northern and eastern Congo.” Gambino said 40 years of “steady economic and political decline” may explain the high incidence of rape in the DRC. While the authors have extrapolated their figures to show that as many as 1.8 million women out of the country’s population of 70 million have been raped, with up to 433,785 raped in a one-year period, some have urged more caution in the interpretation of the figures and their date. Michael VanRooyen, director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, which has sent doctors to Congo to treat rape victims, said that there were “some limitations in the methodology, such as the sampling methods and the sample sizes” of the new rape study. But, he said, “the important message remains: that rape and sexual slavery have become amazingly commonplace in this region of the DRC and have defined this conflict as a war against women”. However, Michelle Hindin, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who specialises in gender-based violence, said because the figures were collected during face-to-face interviews, where women could be less forthcoming, the figures could be much higher. Margot Wallstrom, the UN special representative for sexual violence in conflict, said the figures in the study were higher than the UN’s because they covered all sexual violence, including domestic and by known partners. She said UN figures tended to be conservative because they had to be verified by the UN itself. “The number of reported violations are just the tip of the iceberg of actual incidents,” she said. Democratic Republic of the Congo Rape War crimes Africa Jo Adetunji guardian.co.uk
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Union members to vote on settlement with British Airways that restores travel privileges and takes sackings into arbitration An agreement has been reached to end the long-running British Airways cabin crew dispute, the Unite union has confirmed. The deal is being put to a mass meeting of Unite members near Heathrow airport and is expected to be recommended for acceptance in a ballot. The deal will end 18 months of hostilities that included 22 days of walkouts. It includes the restoration of travel concessions for cabin crew, the issue that was holding up a settlement. The Unite leader, Len McCluskey, said he was “delighted” to have reached an agreement and it was good news for the workers, the airline and its customers. Bassa, Unite’s main cabin crew branch, said in email to members: “The talks have now concluded to the satisfaction of both parties. “If the branch agrees, the negotiated settlement will be put to the full membership in a postal ballot.” McCluskey said: “We always said that this dispute could only be settled by negotiation, not by confrontation or litigation. And so it has proved. “We are delighted to have reached an agreement which I believe recognises the rights and dignity of cabin crew as well as the commercial requirements of the company. This agreement will allow us to go forward in partnership together to strengthen this great British company – good news for BA, its employees and its customers alike. “I am particularly pleased that staff travel concessions will be restored in full with the signing of the agreement and the implementation of the new structure for working together that we have negotiated. A customer-oriented business can only succeed with all its employees valued and respected. Two previous peace agreements were scrapped after Unite declined to recommend them because of concerns over sanctions against crew members who took part in strikes last year. It is understood the agreement restores staff travel perks stripped from thousands of crew who took part in the strikes, as well as allowing arbitration of the dozens of disciplinary cases – including sackings – that were linked to the dispute. BA’s worst ever industrial relations dispute began in 2009 when the airline unilaterally reduced staffing levels on long-haul flights after a voluntary redundancy programme. Unite launched a strike ballot in protest at the cuts and the lack of consultation, triggering a year of high court hearings, strike votes and walkouts. Changes in leadership on both sides this year raised hopes of a deal being struck. Willie Walsh, who had been BA’s chief executive, moved upstairs to the airline’s parent group and Tony Woodley, the joint general secretary of Unite, handed over the reins to McCluskey. In a bizarre interlude in the peace talks between Walsh and Woodley last year, members of the Socialist Workers party broke into discussions at the Acas conciliation service. British Airways Unite Airline industry Travel & leisure Trade unions Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
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