Morning:
9°c
The Prime Minister makes a symbolic break with tradition today by shifting the Cabinet meeting to Birmingham. He will, unfortunately, find that the political outlook from Birmingham is quite as bleak as from London or Chequers. This week's TUC Congress will be characterised by a significantly more robust approach towards Labour from the union movement than it showed a year ago. The Public and Commercial Services union, which represents a wide range of services, is ordering three months of strikes from November against the Government's two per cent cap on public-sector pay, following a ballot this month. Others, from the fire brigades to local government workers, are threatening to join them.
The unions are demanding a pay rise of five per cent in line with inflation. They are right to say that the official rate of inflation is a drastic underestimate. They are wrong, however, to insist on a wage rise on this scale — not so much because this will feed inflation but because the Government, having massively increased the size of the public sector, is not in any position to pay them. It is the Chancellor Alistair Darling's unattractive task today to spell that out to Congress.
For Mr Brown, there remains the wider problem of the festering discontent within his party. He has prepared a widely leaked document for Cabinet discussion insisting that, notwithstanding the economic downturn, “Britain's future is bright” and that, with the right leadership (his own), the country may yet emerge from the situation stronger and fairer. He is also launching a new initiative for manufacturing which promises a million new jobs based primarily on emerging green technologies. The trouble is, this optimistic view is shared by few other people — and probably not his own Chancellor. And his ambitious job-creation scheme is unlikely to lift spirits, partly because so many other policy initiatives have failed to live up to their promises and partly because he may not be around for long enough to see it through. Ed Balls, his Schools Secretary, has hinted that Mr Brown's speech to the Labour Conference will be rousing. But it is likely to take more than the speech of his life to rescue his political fortunes.
Leaving London
THE MAYOR, Boris Johnson,has produced a team of 50 business leaders, including Sir Stuart Rose of Marks and Spencer, which will advise him about how best to make London attractive to international firms. On its agenda for its first meeting in October will be quality of life questions — looking at issues that have an impact on people living and working in the capital, such as public transport and housing.
This is positive thinking — but much of the policies that matter lie outside Mr Johnson's remit. It is central government that is the problem for many international businesses, as can be seen from the rumours that the banking giant HSBC may be thinking of relocating from London. An increasingly aggressive stance by the Inland Revenue, a less friendly approach to business on the part of Government and a significant tax differential between Britain and countries like Ireland mean that increasing numbers of businesses will be reviewing their positions. London is a wonderful place to work, but the Government cannot be complacent: it cannot maintain its present position on issues like tax and regulation without affecting companies' decisions about where they are based.
Murray mania
ANDY Murray's talent has always seemed mercurial. But that makes his stunning victory in the US Open yesterday over Rafael Nadal, who dispatched him so easily at Wimbledon, all the more electrifying. Tonight he faces Roger Federer in the final, with the chance of being the first British man to win a Grand Slam title in 72 years. It may be raining harder than it ever did at Wimbledon — but Murray will lift our spirits if he plays tonight with the aggression and confidence he showed against Nadal.
