The Times - UK (2022-05-17)

2 Tuesday May 17 2022 | the times

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Rail union leaders risk “damaging their own industry” if widespread strikes go ahead this summer, the transport secretary has warned. Grant Shapps said that the “last thing the country needs” emerging from the pandemic is a strike, as Whitehall sources warned that the fallout could be as significant as the junior doctors’ strikes of 2015. Shapps said: “We’ve supported a network that was carrying nobody. Tax- payers have generously supported it, pitching in £600 a family towards sav- ing the railway. The idea that the thanks people then get is a strike will, I think, sit very badly with people.” The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), the biggest transport workers’ union, has balloted its 40, members. Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association could also walk out over a range of matters including job security while Unite members employed by Transport for London may strike over pensions. Shapps was speaking aboard the new Elizabeth Line, which will open next

margins were much lower at between 2p and 4p a litre. They added that their members were also “not immune to costs-of-living increases, including labour and electricity costs, alongside April’s rise in national insurance contributions”. The failure to pass on the tax cut would cost people with a family car up to £1.35 extra to fill up. It now costs £99.16 to fill an average 55-litre family car with diesel and £91.65 to fill a car with unleaded petrol. Labour is preparing to use today’s Queen’s Speech debate to force a Com- mons vote on Sunak’s decision not to impose a windfall tax on large oil and

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Brandon Lewis, Northern Ireland secretary William Hague and Kezia Dugdale, the leaders’ panel Lord Harrington, refugees minister Jacob Dunne, right, who killed a man then turned his life round with the victim’s mother Congressman Bill Keating, chairman of the foreign affairs subcommittee on Europe in the House of Representatives Kitty and Al Tait on their baking memoir, Breadsong

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Cloud and rain in the west; hot and
dry further east with long spells of
sunshine. Full forecast, page 53

THE WEATHER

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TODAY’S EDITION

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Vardy is evil,

says Rooney

Coleen Rooney
condemned her
rival WAG Rebekah
Vardy as a lying,
fame-hungry stalker
who made “evil”
comments about her
while leaking stories to
the press. Vardy denies
leaking and is suing
Rooney for libel at the
High Court. Page 5

Truss warns EU over protocol Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, will tell the EU to rip up its negotiating mandate on the Northern Ireland protocol or face unilateral action to change the rules. She will threaten to introduce domestic laws unless Brussels gives ground. Page 6

Police killer a ‘monster’ Callum Wheeler, 22, who battered Julia James, 53, a police community support officer, to death near her Kent home in April last year, is a “monster” who intended to kill “many women”, her family said after he was found guilty of murder. Page 9

Chelsea sale hits a snag The sale of Chelsea Football Club to a US-led consortium could be derailed by a dispute between the Treasury and Roman Abramovich over the distribution of the proceeds. Sources close to the Russian billionaire denied any disagreement. Page 64

France gets

female PM

President Macron has
appointed Elisabeth
Borne, 61, as France’s
second woman prime
minister, 30 years after
the last one, as he tries
to woo centre-left
voters. She will lead
his centrist coalition
into next month’s
parliamentary
elections. Page 30

Fraud office to be fined The Serious Fraud Office faces having to pay up to £70 million in damages after the High Court found that it had committed a serious breach of its duties during an inquiry into the operations of a mining conglomerate in Kazakhstan. Page 33

COMMENT

The hands-off approach in Texas illustrates the

dilemma Britain faces with its Online Safety Bill HUGO RIFKIND, PAGE 27

COMMENT 25 THUNDERER 26 LEADING ARTICLES 29

MARKETS 42- REGISTER 49 LAW REPORT 51

SPORT 54 CROSSWORD 64 TV & RADIO TIMES

stories of our times Sir Keir Starmer’s big gamble: why has the Labour leader promised to resign if he’s fined for breaking lockdown rules? thetimes.co.uk/podcasts/ stories-of-our-times

Britons work from home while

Europe goes back to the office

Jack Malvern, Louisa Clarence-Smith economies. “The biggest reason for the UK’s high share of working from home is industrial mix,” he said, adding that the UK was focused on business services. Anthony Painter, director of policy for the Chartered Management Insti- tute, said that 89 per cent of managers were in favour of hybrid working: “All the old arguments about the need to be in the office for five days a week have crumbled during the pandemic.” Freespace, which monitors office use at professional service companies, found that 83 per cent of offices had re- opened but only 29 per cent of desks were occupied. Bupa has released a report saying 61 per cent of people who worked from home felt their health had suffered. It found 19 per cent had exercised less, but did not explore if the remaining 81 per cent had exercised more or the same. PM’s work ethic, letters, page 28

Counting the commutes

How the number of journeys to places of work compares to pre-pandemic levels UK Canada US Netherlands Sweden Spain France Australia Belgium Germany Japan Italy Russia Portugal Czech Rep. Greece

-20% -20% -15% -13% -9% -9% -8% -8% -7 % -7 % -6% -5% -3% -1% -1%

Data up to May 12. Data for selected countries over 10 million population. Source: Google Mobility Report

-22%

Rail strikes would damage

industry, warns minister

Ben Clatworthy Transport Correspondent

Tuesday, a moment he hailed as a “very impressive milestone” in the UK’s rail network. It will increase central London’s rail capacity by 10 per cent and be able to carry more than half a million passengers per day. The line will be officially opened today by the Earl of Wessex, although the project’s bosses hope the Queen may be able to visit one of the new central London stations before the public opening to give her seal of approval. While unions insist dates have not been decided, rail industry sources said action coinciding with the Common- wealth Games in Birmingham in late July and August could not be ruled out. Shapps said: “I’m very confident about the prospects of the railway but why damage that now with a hugely damaging strike that is self-defeating, for a railway which must update itself? Travel patterns have changed, the way people buy their tickets has changed. The idea that work practices don’t change is clearly nonsense.” Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary, said he believed in modernising the railways but did not “believe in sacri- ficing thousands of jobs, constant pay freezes or making the railways unsafe”.

founder of Amazon. “Jeff Bezos doesn’t deliver your parcels, he makes strategy decisions,” the source said. Western sources believe that Putin’s micromanagement of the war could be contributing to the military failures in the Donbas region, where Russian troops are failing to take cities. Putin, a former KGB officer, revealed several years ago that he commanded an artillery battalion during the Soviet era. “I received the rank of lieutenant as an artilleryman, as the commander of a howitzer artillery battalion... 122mm [calibre],” he said during a visit to Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg, ac- cording to video posted by the Kremlin. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, head of Britain’s armed forces, said in parliament yesterday that Ukraine was winning the war against Russia because it was an “existential fight for its nation”. He said he believed that the survival of the Kyiv administration was guaranteed. Igor Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, a former FSB agent who orchestrated the annexation of Crimea in 2014, said in comments circulated on social media that Russia’s operation in Donbas had failed. “In more than two weeks of fierce hostilities, only tactical successes have been reached,” he wrote. War in Ukraine, pages 10- The West must help Ukraine to finish the job, leading article, page 29

Working from home is more popular in Britain than in continental Europe and North America, with commuting journeys down by more than a fifth since pandemic restrictions were eased. Figures from Google’s Mobility Re- port show that journeys to work were 22 per cent lower last Thursday, the busiest day of the week for commuting, relative to pre-pandemic levels. This was similar to America and Canada, where commutes are 20 per cent lower, but a contrast to countries such as Spain and France, 9 per cent lower; Germany and Japan, 7 per cent; and Italy, 6 per cent. Experts suggested that the enthusi- asm for home working was spurred by a high proportion of British workers in service industries, the high cost of commuting and the relative ease of chang- ing jobs to work for employers who were more tolerant of hybrid working. The embrace of home working defies opposition from figures such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister for government efficiency, who has left letters on civil servants’ desks encouraging them to return to the office. The prime minister’s official spokesman said yesterday:

“We do want to encourage more people back into the office.” Nick Bloom, professor of economics at Stanford University in California, said before the pandemic about 5 per cent of full-paid days were worked from home in Britain and other advanced

continued from page 1 Putin directing Russian forces

gas companies. A number of senior Tories have called for a rethink amid growing anger at the profits of companies such as Shell and BP. Simon Williams, the RAC’s fuel spokesman, said companies had ques- tions to answer. “It is hard to explain why retailers appear to be taking more margin now than before the chancellor’s duty cut in March,” he said. “It does seem like some of the duty cut is being swallowed up by increased profits.” Edmund King, president of the AA, added: “The chancellor was trying to be generous and give drivers something back with the 5p cut in duty but unfor- tunately that hasn’t been reflected at the pumps. Time and time again we see the ‘feather and rocket’ effect, where global prices go up and overnight

they’re reflected at the pumps. When it’s the other way round, it takes an awful lot longer. In some countries they make it mandatory to flag the whole- sale price so motorists can see if the retail price reflects it.” A government source said: “The fuel duty cut was brought in to help drivers with the rising cost. As we made clear at the time we would expect retailers to pass on the cut, not profit from it.” Sunak told Tory MPs yesterday: “Things are difficult and will become even more so in the coming weeks and months when it comes to the economy. Make no mistake, my No 1 priority in the face of this difficulty is to help the most vulnerable families.” ‘Apocalyptic’ prices, page 4 Rising inflation, page 33

continued from page 1 Petrol duty cut ‘not passed on’

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The Times - UK (2022-05-17)

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