No 10 warns public faces ‘significant disruption’ due to massive strike tomorrow
Downing Street warns of mass strike tomorrow, (teachers, train drivers, Civil servants, university lecturers, bus drivers and security guards are all walking out), which will be “very difficult” for the public. The Prime Minister’s spokesman told reporters:
We know that given the scale of the strike action taking place tomorrow, there will be serious disruption and it will be very difficult for the public trying to go about their daily lives.
We’re frank, it’s going to disrupt people’s lives, which is why we think negotiations, not picket lines, are the way to go.
key event
filter Beta
The National Education Union has told its members they don’t need to tell schools where they work whether they will join tomorrow’s strike. In an interview with Sky News this morning, Kevin CourtneyThe joint secretary-general of the NEU defended the approach, saying strikes were inherently disruptive. He explained:
Our schools are disrupted every day because the government doesn’t invest in our schools or the people who work in them. The focus on tomorrow is the strike. We want our strike to be effective in order to focus the minds of the government.
This is unlike a natural phenomenon like Covid and we are doing everything we can to keep the school running as well as possible.
No 10 warns public faces ‘significant disruption’ due to massive strike tomorrow
Downing Street warns of mass strike tomorrow, (teachers, train drivers, Civil servants, university lecturers, bus drivers and security guards are all walking out), which will be “very difficult” for the public. The Prime Minister’s spokesman told reporters:
We know that given the scale of the strike action taking place tomorrow, there will be serious disruption and it will be very difficult for the public trying to go about their daily lives.
We’re frank, it’s going to disrupt people’s lives, which is why we think negotiations, not picket lines, are the way to go.
Passengers have been told to expect delays if they arrive in the UK tomorrow as Border Force staff strike at the airport.
At an aviation conference, NASA Administrator Phil Douglas border guardsSay:
All PCS [Public and Commercial Services Union] Members will go on strike tomorrow. But we’ve been planning for weeks and months for this.
Of course there will be some interrupts and some queues.
He also said there could be more strikes as the union’s strike mandate continues into May.
No 10 says UK won’t supply Ukraine with jets because training pilots takes time
At a briefing in Hall 10, the Prime Minister’s spokesman explained why, like the US, the UK was not supplying Ukraine with jets. He said:
The British Typhoon and F35 fighter jets are so advanced that it took months to learn how to fly them because we didn’t think it would be practical to send those jets to Ukraine.
We will continue to provide and expedite military support to Ukraine and listen carefully to their requests.
The length of time required to learn how to use very complex equipment is the limiting factor in this case, but we will explore what else we can do to support Ukraine.
in the House of Commons, james cartridge, a junior finance minister, was answering urgent questions from Labour about the IMF’s growth forecast for the UK. At a briefing in the Downing Street lobby, the prime minister’s spokesman played down the significance of forecasts that Britain’s economic growth will be worse than Russia’s this year. He said:
The IMF itself says that UK economic policy is now on the right track.
Referring specifically to Russia, my understanding is that their numbers are up largely due to the oil and gas windfall, but December’s sanctions on Russian crude and upcoming sanctions on refined products are likely to severely limit their war effort income required for funding. 2023.
A thousand businesses have left or are leaving Russia, undoing the vast amount of foreign investment made since the collapse of the Soviet Union. They lack key commodities and technologies.
Sunak tells cabinet UK will ‘speed up’ support for Ukraine after review as impasse ‘only benefits Russia’
According to reports, before Christmas Rich Sunak An audit of the war in Ukraine has been ordered. This led to concerns that the UK’s support for Kyiv might fail Sunak’s cost-benefit analysis, although at the time No 10 insisted that support for the war effort was unwavering.
In cabinet this morning, Sunak told his ministers he had reviewed the war and that he wanted to “accelerate” UK support for Ukraine as he concluded a prolonged standoff would only help Russia . In its readout, Downing Street said:
The prime minister said the UK continued to lead as the anniversary of the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion approached, recently supplying 14 Challenger 2 tanks and other allies had followed suit.
He said that since becoming Prime Minister he had reviewed UK practices and concluded that a prolonged standoff in the conflict would only benefit Russia, which is why he decided there was an opportunity to expedite the UK’s support, working closely with our allies, to give Ukraine is the best chance to succeed and take advantage of the window of opportunity where the Russian military is at a disadvantage.
He said the new strategy would also step up diplomatic efforts and planning work with Ukrainians on how to rebuild after the conflict ends.
A national security official reportedly told the cabinet that the Russians were “suffering from shortages of equipment and ammunition” and that they had seen “significant loss of personnel from some of the most capable combat units and officer corps, split between”. the leadership of their armies”.
and ben wallaceThe defense minister told his cabinet that according to US estimates, 188,000 Russian soldiers were killed or injured during the war. He also said that the Russians lost two-thirds of their tanks.
Downing Street says union announcements about more ambulance strikes ‘deeply concerning’
Speaking at a Downing Street Hall briefing, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said Unison’s announcement that ambulance workers would be on strike again on February 10 (see 11.48am) was “deeply concerning”. He said:
The ongoing strike action is deeply worrying to the public.
We are taking significant mitigation steps that have previously helped reduce some of the impact of these strikes.
But first and foremost, we will ask the union to reconsider that approach and continue the discussion.
Tomorrow will be a day of mass strikes (teachers, train drivers, Civil servants, university lecturers, bus drivers and security guards are all on strike), the spokesman said, with 600 soldiers from the government sector, as well as civil servants and volunteers, trained to support public services during the strike.
University staff to strike tomorrow, union confirms
Sally Will
Without any last-minute breakthroughs, Union of Universities and Colleges (UCU) has confirmed that lecturers and other university staff will strike tomorrow, the first day of 18 days of strike action that could affect up to 2.5 million students.
70,000 teaching staff at 150 universities across the UK are set to strike in the latest round of long-running disputes over pay, working conditions and pensions, unions said, blaming university bosses for “refusing to treat staff fairly”.
The UCU said it was consulting members on a 5 per cent pay bonus offered by employers last week, but expected to reject it. Secretary General of UCU yes grady Say:
There are many opportunities for university vice-chancellors to use the department’s vast wealth to resolve these disputes. Instead, they forced staff back to the picket line, creating disruption for students.
Another 17 days of strike action are planned, but this is avoidable. For that, we need college bosses to take it seriously and make better offers. If they do not, any interruptions that occur are entirely their responsibility.
british university Said its members were fully prepared for the strike. A spokesperson said:
Facing yet another disappointment with industrial action, the university’s first priority will be to introduce a range of measures to protect student learning.
However, we expect movement to be restricted again, and the actions we have faced in recent years mean that the University is well prepared to deal with any disruption.
The university strike comes on a day when teachers and train drivers are also on strike. Our strike calendar shows the latest planned strikes:
Russia probably wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine without Brexit, leading MEP says
Guy Foster, The MEP, former Belgian prime minister and chairman of the European Parliament’s Brexit Steering Group during Brexit negotiations has said Russia probably would not have invaded Ukraine last year had Britain not left the EU.
He made the comments in an interview with LBC.After criticizing Nigel Farage for arguing EU and NATO expansion fuels war (an argument used by the Kremlin), Verhofstadt said:
[The war] It has nothing to do with the expansion of NATO and, in my opinion, not even the EU. This is actually Putin’s attempt to restore, I should say, the old Soviet Union. The only difference is that the Communist Party was replaced by his cronies. That’s what he’s trying to do.
A united Europe, of course in matters of defense, would make a huge difference. I think maybe without Brexit, maybe without the invasion. I have no idea.i guess [he would have seen] Of course, Europe on the other side is stronger and more united.
The argument that no Russian invasion would have happened without Brexit may be a minority view.But that’s just a minority opinion Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leading Tory Brexiteers argue that Putin would have won the war had it not been for Brexit because being outside the EU makes it easier for Britain to arm Ukraine.
Excess deaths in England and Wales have fallen from their peak in almost two years, but levels remain high, PA Media reported. PA says:
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there were 15,804 deaths in the seven days to January 20, 1,568 more than the yearly average.
That was down from the previous week’s 2,837 excess deaths, the highest since February 2021, when the UK remained in lockdown amid a second wave of Covid-19.
Excess deaths, sometimes called extra deaths, are deaths that are higher than the average for this time of year in previous years.
This winter the numbers have risen sharply, with more than 10,000 deaths registered in England and Wales between 17 December 2022 and 20 January 2023.
Death rates were particularly high in the last two weeks of December, 21% and 20% above average, respectively.
In the most recent week, ending Jan. 20, deaths were 11% above average.
Although Covid-19 has played only a small role, many factors may be behind the increase in deaths.
This is from Adrian WoodridgeBloomberg business columnist and former author of The Economist’s Bagehot column, on when the benefits of Brexit might materialize.
A Brexiteer recently told me that judging the outcome of Brexit today is like judging the outcome of Henry’s Reformation in 1540, at least until the beginning of the 18th century!
— Adrian Wooldridge (@adwooldridge) January 31, 2023
Unison announces further strike by ambulance workers on February 10
Unison has announced that its ambulance crews will go on strike across five services across England on Friday, February 10 over a long-running pay dispute, PA Media reported.
