The government’s privatised back to work schemes are failing to tackle long-term unemployment as figures show those out of work for more than a year is at its highest since the Tories were last in office, the Public and Commercial Services union says.
There are now 887,000 people who have been unemployed for more than one year, up 27,000 in the last three months and the highest since September 1996. The number of people unemployed for more than two years stands at 428,000, up 5,000.
Back to work schemes contracted out under the work programme to companies such as A4e – which, despite being stripped of one yesterday, holds government welfare contracts worth tens of millions of pounds – are supposed to help people who have been out of work for long periods.
The union has consistently argued that this work should be done by public servants in Jobcentre Plus and that the pursuit of profit has no place in our welfare system.
The official unemployment statistics published today (16) also reveal that there are almost six unemployed people for every job vacancy in our economy. The number of vacancies fell by 7,000 to 457,000 in the three months to April – also down 12,000 on a year earlier.
Sally Gunnell, former 400m hurdles Olympic gold medallist, and Chris Boardman, former cycling world champion and Olympic gold medallist, will today race against each other to find the easiest and quickest route across London to the Olympic Park.
This race has been inspired by new research from London 2012 and Transport for London (TfL), which reveals 86 per cent of central London businesses are planning one or more initiatives to encourage employees to consider alternative forms of transport. Of this, 60 per cent of businesses will encourage their staff to walk or cycle.
As part of the London 2012 and TfL challenge, Sally will run and Chris will cycle from Liverpool Street station to Stour Space, a gallery and café, opposite the Olympic Park on the River Lea. The aim is to demonstrate to businesses and their employees the alternatives to getting public transport during Games-time. TfL and London 2012 are encouraging workers travelling in Games transport ‘hotspot’ areas to swap to cycling or walking for all or part of their journeys, as part of the Get Ahead of the Games campaign.
The Mayor of London today came under renewed pressure after charges were brought against Rebekah Brooks and five other people for allegedly perverting the course of justice regarding the police investigation into phone-hacking by the News of the World.
Len Duvall, Leader of the Labour Group on the London Assembly, today renewed calls for the Metropolitan Police to be given the resources they need to follow the phone-hacking investigation wherever it leads.
Len Duvall, Leader of the Labour Group on the London Assembly said: “It is vital that the Metropolitan Police are given the resources they need to follow their investigation wherever it leads. Very serious charges of perverting the course of justice have been brought against Rebekah Brooks and several other people. My question is, does the Mayor still think phone-hacking is a load of ‘codswallop’?”
“Metropolitan Police must be able to pursue alleged crimes without fear from politicians” – Len Duvall
“I was deeply disappointed when Boris Johnson said too many officers were ‘tying up their time’ on phone-hacking, that he wanted “the caravan to move on’ and ‘let’s knock it on the head as fast as we can.’ It is absolutely essential that the Met are allowed to get on with their job and have the resources to do so, the Mayor must not bring any pressure to bear on the Met to pull back their resources from this case.”
“Boris’ then deputy mayor for policing, Kit Malthouse, also revealed at the Leveson Inquiry that he himself questioned the level of resource devoted to phone-hacking by the Met. No doubt with the Mayor’s full support. There is a worrying pattern of pressure on senior police officers to scale back their inquiries. The Metropolitan Police must be able to pursue alleged crimes without fear from politicians.”
“After his comments in yesterday’s Telegraph I am concerned that Boris Johnson appears to be promoting Mr Murdoch’s position on media ownership. I hope that he doesn’t let his own personal feelings of the media cloud his judgement over this important issue.”
New Zealand have retained their HSBC Sevens World Series title, ending the season with a third place finish at the Marriott London Sevens to finish on 167 Series points, six ahead of closest rivals Fiji.
The New Zealanders sealed a 10th Series title with a ruthless 36-0 quarter final win against South Africa, but fell to a brilliant Fijian performance in the semi final. However, the New Zealanders recovered to end the season on a high note, beating Argentina in the play-off for bronze.
The Fijians stormed to the London title to cap a season of achievement for them, matching New Zealand’s three Cup titles and underlining just how tight things are at the top of the Sevens game.
A record two-day Sevens crowd of 103,027 attended Twickenham over the weekend, a fitting climax to another thrilling season of international Rugby Sevens.
"It’s pretty special, we worked extremely hard to get this one and I think everyone knows how competitive the Sevens Series is now. We came here with an 11-point lead but still with an opportunity of blowing it," said NZ captain, DJ Forbes.
"The quarter final win (36-0 win against South Africa) was probably our only complete game of rugby this weekend, but there was a lot of passion, a lot behind it to make sure we wrapped up the Series.
"At the end of the day it comes down to consistency and that’s where we were probably a little bit ahead, but taking nothing away from Fiji, they’ve done extremely well to win here.
"I guess for us you could see that we’re used to playing under pressure, regardless of where we’re playing. If you’re wearing a black jersey everyone expects you to do well."
IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: "Once again New Zealand have proved that, over the course of an entire season, they are the finest Sevens side in the world and our congratulations go to them.
"And yet even on this, their day of triumph, they were denied in the Cup semi-finals by their closest challengers Fiji, which again underlines just how competitive our global Game of Rugby Sevens has become.
"In the women’s event too we have seen a wonderful tournament from the Netherlands in reaching a first Cup title and congratulations to England on winning their second title of the season.
"Twickenham has provided a wonderful and fitting stage for the finale of another superb season, capped off by another record crowd for a two-day event. We can look forward to a bright future as we gear towards the 2016 Olympic Games."
Australia took the Plate in London, beating England, who finished the season in third place ahead of Samoa in fourth and South Africa in fifth.
A record two-day Sevens crowd of 103,027 attended Twickenham over the weekend, a fitting climax to another thrilling season of international Rugby Sevens.
The Fijians stormed to the London title to cap a season of achievement for them, matching New Zealand’s three Cup titles and underlining just how tight things are at the top of the Sevens game.
The New Zealanders sealed a 10th Series title with a ruthless 36-0 quarter final win against South Africa, but fell to a brilliant Fijian performance in the semi final. However, the New Zealanders recovered to end the season on a high note, beating Argentina in the play-off for bronze.
Sixth placed Australia won the Plate, Wales lifted the Bowl, France were triumphant in the Shield whilst England won their second IRB Women’s Sevens Challenge Cup.
Australia pip hosts England to Plate
England narrowly missed out on the consolation of a Plate trophy when Dan Bibby missed a conversion and a penalty drop goal in the second half of the Plate final, allowing impressive Australia to hang on to a 14-12 victory and collect 13 Series points.
However, Mat Turner’s try in the final did put him one ahead of teammate Dan Norton as the season’s leading try scorer.
England reached the Plate final after a Turner try and Tom Mitchell conversion clinched a late 17-15 victory against South Africa. Australia reached the final after the Tokyo Sevens winners overturned a 12-5 half time deficit to beat Spain 17-12 in the semi.
Wales beat Scotland in Bowl
Twelve points from Alex Walker hands Wales a 27-5 victory against Scotland in the Bowl, as the reigning RWC Sevens champions collect eight points for the Series.
Two second half tries, one after the final buzzer had sounded, from Dan Fish booked Wales’ place in the Bowl final after a 28-26 victory against Portugal. They met Scotland following Graham Shiel’s side recorded a 31-19 victory against Zimbabwe in the second semi final thanks to two tries from Michael Fedo.
Earlier, 11 points from Alex Walker helped Wales beat USA 28-19 in the second Bowl quarter, entering this competition having lost to Spain and Fiji on day one.
Carl Murray scored twice for Portugal in the day’s opening match against RWC Sevens 2013 hosts Russia. The sides last met in the core team qualifying quarter final in Hong Kong, with Portugal narrowly winning 17-10 on their way to claiming one of the three places for next season’s Series, and recorded a 24-17 victory in London.
In the third match Scotland beat crowd favourites Kenya 21-5 before Dubai Sevens runners-up France suffered a 19-17 defeat to Zimbabwe with Jacques Leitao scoring the winning try for the Cheetahs.
A printing company based in Waltham Forest has been fined for safety failings after two workers were burned in a flash fire when vapours from a flammable cleaning fluid ignited in a print room.
The two printers, employed by Delta Display Ltd in Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow, suffered burns and one suffered serious breaks to both legs as he tried to escape the fire. One of them described the explosion and fire as a ‘flamethrower’ coming from the top of the printing press.
An investigation into the incident on 20 May 2011 was carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which brought the prosecution. HSE found the company had ignored guidance given by the press manufacturers that there was a danger of fire and explosion if any cleaning agent with a flash point below 55 degrees centigrade was used.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard (9 May) that the two men had been using the solvent provided to hand-clean the ‘blankets’ of a printing press, a regular task to clear the build-up of ink. The solvent, called QE3, had a flash point of minus 20 degrees centigrade.
They had completed part of the process when one of them saw a flash in front of his eyes and the fire started. He jumped from the press over a safety rail to escape, shattering his left ankle, fracturing his right heel and sustaining burns on his right calf and left arm. Fellow workers were able to extinguish the fire.
This employee was in hospital for 15 days and initially off work for four months. He had two operations and is currently undergoing physiotherapy after the second. The other employee received burns to his arms but was back at work soon after the incident.
Commuters between London Bridge and Monument stations watched in awe this morning as parkour acrobats performed a spectacular series of aerial stunts, jumps and leaps between the two stations. The talented team of free runners showed that the two sites are but a ‘hop, skip and a jump’ apart as they travelled across London Bridge, with the aim of encouraging commuters to walk rather than get the Tube where possible during the London 2012 Games.
As the parkour acrobats were demonstrating their skills, TfL was handing out free local walking maps to commuters arriving at London’s mainline railway stations. The maps have been created to encourage people to swap short Tube journeys for walking ones during Games time, and will be handed out to rail commuters throughout Walk to Work Week as well as being available at mainline and some London Underground stations during Games-time.
Walking will be one of the simplest and quickest ways to make short journeys in London during this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, when ‘hotspot’ stations such as London Bridge will be exceptionally busy at certain times of the day. Today’s free-running activity, by world-famous free-running group 3RUN, aims to raise awareness of this to encourage London’s commuters to walk between stations where possible.
Ben Plowden, Director of Planning, TfL Surface Transport, said: “London is going to be transformed into a gigantic sporting and cultural venue at Games-time, so London’s transport networks will, at certain times and in certain places, be exceptionally busy.
“We aren’t expecting Londoners to recreate the amazing feats of acrobatics that we’ve seen here this morning but the performance demonstrates in an engaging way just how quick and easy it is to walk between busy stations instead of waiting for a Tube or train. Many people don’t realise how short distances are between many places in the capital – for example, it take just six minutes to walk from London Bridge train station to Monument, and there are 47 Tube journeys in central London that can be walked in under ten minutes.”
The government’s privatised back to work schemes are failing to tackle long-term unemployment as figures show those out of work for more than a year is at its highest since the Tories were last in office, the Public and Commercial Services union says.
