The Times - UK (2021-12-21)

2 Tuesday December 21 2021 | the times

News

Rail passengers travelling over the

Christmas period face being crammed

on to trains as staff shortages cause

widespread cancellations.

Operators are axing rail services,

often at the last minute, because crews

are testing positive for Covid-19 or

being forced to isolate. Many long-

distance services are affected.

London North Eastern Railway has

cancelled 16 trains a day so far between

London, Lincoln and Leeds until

Christmas. It warned that more ser-

vices could be cut because of “an in-

creased level of absence in drivers and

train managers due to coronavirus”.

Yesterday 13 per cent of services were

cancelled or delayed. Eight long-

distance operators, including Avanti

West Coast, CrossCountry, Great

Western Railway and Southern, report-

ed cancellations.

CrossCountry said that morning and

evening services could be cancelled

and some trains would operate with

fewer carriages. Avanti West Coast —

which operates trains between London

and Scotland — said that services were

“subject to short-notice cancellations

some other uncertainties to do with

severity and booster effectiveness, we

agreed we should keep the data from

now on under constant review. Keep

following it hour by hour. Unfortunately

I must say to people we will have to

reserve the possibility of taking further

action to protect the public, protect

public health and protect our NHS.”

Professor Andrew Hayward, an

epidemiologist who attends the govern-

ment’s Scientific Advisory Group for

Emergencies, warned that the later

restrictions were needed the more

“intense” they would be. He told the

BBC that tens of millions of people

could catch coronavirus this winter.

The prime minister expressed hope

that the mass cancellation of social

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Mainly cloudy, but becoming
brighter in the south and west during
the afternoon. Full forecast, page 55

THE WEATHER

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Small number

take GPs’ time

Ten per cent of GP
patients account for
40 per cent of
appointments,
according to a study in
the journal BMJ
Open. Researchers
from the University of
Manchester analysed
nearly 1.7 billion
consultations over
two decades. Page 4

Driving ban for

United player

The Manchester

United footballer

Aaron Wan-Bissaka,

24, has been banned

by magistrates in the

city from driving for

six months and fined

more than £30,

after admitting

driving while

disqualified and with

no insurance. Page 5

Energy bills

could hit £2,

Energy bills for most

households in Britain

could soar to £2,000 a

year from April as

wholesale costs force

the regulator to raise

the price cap by more

than 50 per cent. The

increase is being

driven by a global

shortage of gas

supplies. Page 12

Grealish and

Foden dropped

Pep Guardiola has

warned the England

players Jack Grealish

and Phil Foden about

their conduct and

dropped them from the

Manchester City team.

The club was unhappy

with their condition

the day after the 7-

win over Leeds United

last Tuesday. Page 66

Leftwinger to be

Chile president

Gabriel Boric, 35, a
former student protest
leader, has been elected
president of Chile,
heralding a revival of
the left in one of
Latin America’s richest
nations. He won 56 per
cent of the votes,
12 points ahead of his
hard-right rival, José
Antonio Kast. Page 35

£4bn takeover

of Selfridges

A £4 billion sale of

Selfridges by the

Canadian Weston

family to Central

Group, of Thailand,

and Signa Group, of

Austria, could be

announced this week.

About £2 billion of the

store chain’s valuation

is ascribed to its

property. Page 39

COMMENT

Who’d be a whip when backbench rebellions

are turned on and off by WhatsApp groups?

HUGO RIFKIND, PAGE 31

COMMENT 29

THUNDERER 30

LETTERS 32

LEADING ARTICLES 33

MARKETS 44-

REGISTER 51

SPORT 56

CROSSWORD 66

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To day’s highlights

8.30am

11am

2pm

3.30pm

10.30pm

Anneliese Dodds, chairwoman of the Labour Party

The journalist and author Lynne O’Donnell reflects

on the fall of Kabul and evacuation of Afghanistan

The oceanographer Sylvia Earle, right,

on a career underwater

Matt Charlton and Charlotte Gunn

review the year in music

Henry Bonsu takes a first look at

tomorrow’s front pages with

Emma Woolf and Ross Hawkins

Railways blame virus for

widespread cancellations

Ben Clatworthy

Transport Correspondent

and alterations due to the impact of

Covid-19 on train crew availability”.

Passengers are being urged to check

timetables before travelling.

A spokeswoman for the Rail Delivery

Group, which represents passenger and

freight services, said: “We aren’t able to

run every train as planned... we will be

working hard to give clear, accurate and

timely information. People should

check before they travel.”

ScotRail had already cancelled hun-

dreds of services a week earlier due to

staff shortages after tighter Covid rules

increased the number of absences.

Northern, Greater Anglia and Trans-

Pennine Express are also warning of

disruption because of staff absence.

A Transport for London official said

that it had maintained a good service

despite about 500 “non-office” staff

being off work.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of

Transport Focus, the independent

watchdog, said: “It’s better for some

services to be temporarily withdrawn

on a planned basis than to have chaotic

last-minute cancellations.”

No rail services will run on Christ-

mas day. Only six companies are sched-

uled to run services on December 26,

all of them on limited timetables.

gain, at least one in four reported

sexual difficulties and about one in ten

reported restlessness, muscle spasms

or twitching, nausea, constipation,

diarrhoea or dizziness.

Side effects may be higher among

those who have used the drugs for three

years or more, and patients trying to

end the treatment face symptoms

including anxiety, insomnia, depres-

sion, agitation and appetite changes.

The symptoms can make it hard for

patients to function socially or profes-

sionally, the study authors said, adding:

“Increasing knowledge about the

difficulty that some patients have in

stopping antidepressants should lead to

more cautious prescribing practice,

with antidepressants given to fewer

patients, for shorter periods of time.”

Dr Adrian James, president of the

Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “A

range of treatment options should be

available for those experiencing

depression, including psychological

therapies and antidepressant medica-

tion. Clinicians and patients should be

making joint decisions on the most

appropriate treatment.

“Clinical guidance should be updated

to better reflect the experience of

patients and the Royal College of

Psychiatrists will be responding to the

consultation for the National Institute

for Health and Care Excellence’s

updated guidance on depression.”

An independent inquiry has been

ordered into Unite’s spending on a Mid-

lands conference centre after the

development was valued “considerably

lower” than the cost of its construction.

Sharon Graham, 53, the union’s

general secretary, said that she would

appoint a QC to investigate the cost of

the project and warned of a “potentially

significant loss”.

The Times disclosed in January that a

company owned by an associate of Len

McCluskey, 71, Unite’s former general

secretary, was paid £95 million to build

a conference centre and hotel in

Birmingham that was initially sup-

posed to cost £7 million.

Unite said in April that the facility

would “only increase in value” and

would “produce huge amounts of

income” for the union, which would be

invested back into services and support

for its 1.4 million members and save

millions a year in conference costs.

Graham, who replaced McCluskey

after an election in August, said yester-

day that an audit of the development

Unite union to set up inquiry

into conference centre costs

Louisa Clarence-Smith had given the accounts “a clean bill of

health”. A recent “expert valuation”,

however, had estimated its value as

being “considerably lower than the

costs incurred in developing the site”.

She said that an independent inquiry

would be led by a QC and supported by

an external law firm to review the costs

incurred and find out how and why this

difference had arisen.

“These questions need to be

answered in a timely fashion and in

order to ensure transparency the

outcome of the inquiry will be made

public,” she said. “I will also be doing

everything possible to recover all

monies due back to the union.”

Work on the centre began in 2016

and was completed last year, signifi-

cantly late. The Flanagan Group, a Liv-

erpool building company run by Paul

Flanagan, 58, an associate of McClus-

key, was paid as the primary contractor.

Unite said earlier this year that the

contract had been awarded to Flanagan

after the “strictest competitive tender-

ing process” but the union declined to

say whether other companies were

given a chance to bid. A union spokes-

man said that McCluskey had no role in

the tendering and had no oversight of

costings in tendered building contracts.

Unite has faced calls for an inquiry

into the cost and transparency of the

project, which also awarded a contract

to a company owned by David Ander-

son, 34, the son of Joe Anderson, 63, the

former mayor of Liverpool.

Flanagan and both Andersons were

arrested by Merseyside police last year

over an ongoing inquiry into the sale of

Liverpool city council land. All three

have been released under investigation

and deny wrongdoing.

There is no suggestion that the Unite

contracts for the Birmingham develop-

ment are linked to the police inquiry,

nor is the union or McCluskey suspect-

ed of any criminal wrongdoing.

Unite is Britain’s second-largest

union and is the single largest donor to

the Labour Party.

McCluskey said in a statement the

decision to hold an inquiry was sensible

and would “answer any questions”.

Neil Coyle, a Labour MP, said: “An

inquiry is very welcome and something

I asked for as an ordinary member.”

continued from page 1

Call to curb antidepressants

events in recent days could spare the

nation more restrictions, saying people’s

decision to be more cautious was “very

helpful”. He added: “Omicron has

simply exploded so fast that we’ve seen

people naturally deciding to make sure

that they protect themselves and they

avoid spreading the disease. The bene-

fits of that course of action we may see in

the next few days and weeks in the way

we’re able to contain the disease.”

He said that “in many ways I regret”

the impact on the hospitality industry

of the mass cancellations but he de-

clined to commit to any further

support. Johnson is drawing up with

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, a package

in the event that further restrictions

need to be introduced.

The prime minister was facing the

prospect of a cabinet revolt if he pushed

ahead with restrictions, however, led by

Sunak, who has repeatedly questioned

the basis for assumptions in the official

modelling.

During yesterday’s cabinet meeting

ministers discussed options for restric-

tions, including a ban on large live

events such as football matches and

concerts. No decision was taken.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of

the NHS Confederation, said: “Health

leaders are not calling for further

restrictions as they know these can be

very damaging to people’s health and

wellbeing, but given the rising cases of

coronavirus and the rapid spread of

Omicron, they feel it is now a question

of when rather than if they will be

needed.”

Coronavirus reports, pages 6-

No 10 is hampered by its own breaches

of the rules, leading article, page 33

Markets take fright, page 39

continued from page 1

Cabinet split on Covid rules

Banca do Antfer

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