The average April pay increase recommended in four independent pay review body reports published yesterday came to 3.9 per cent, with an increase of pounds 1,309m in the annual pay bill.
After the Treasury and the Cabinet had finished with the proposals, the package had been slashed back to 2.7 per cent, with an increase in the pay bill for 1998-99 that could range from pounds 896m to pounds 906m, depending on “weighting”.In a written Commons reply, Tony Blair said the Government had “decided to accept this year’s main pay recommendations in full”.Then came the snag: “However, to ensure that departments can accommodate the costs without damaging front line services and to ensure that these awards do not lead to unwelcome increases in pay pressures throughout the economy more generally, we have decided that it is essential to stage their introduction.”From April, all those covered by the pay reviews would get an extra 2 per cent, with the backlog payable in full from 1 December – hardly payment in full of the recommendations made.Nevertheless, putting a further gloss on the deal, the Prime Minister said: “The effect of staging is that, on average, the rates to be paid from April 1998 are 3.3 per cent higher than those paid from April last year.” That reflected the staging of last year’s pay reviews finally coming on stream.”And the rates to be paid from December 1998 will be 3.9 per cent higher than those paid from last December” – which was another way of saying that the full recommendation was being stalled until the final monthly pay cheque of the year.The most telling figure provided by Mr Blair was the overall comparison between the 1997-98 paybill and the bill for the next financial year, which will only go up by 2.7 per cent – almost 30 per cent less than the average recommendation made by the pay review bodies.According to official calculations, the biggest blow was received by GPs. This compared with his previous all-time high of 62 per cent.The poll offers a stark counterpoint with regard to public perceptions of the other protagonists in the scandal. Indeed, one poll published yesterday gave him his highest approval rating since his election in 1992.
The survey, conducted by Gallup for USA Today and CNN, showed 67 per cent of American voters expressing satisfaction with Bill Clinton’s performance as president. It seems as if Americans have wandered into Alice in Wonderland territory. Their sitting president is facing a scandal that threatens his very hold on power and yet they seem unwilling to acknowledge it. “It felt like lightening had hit the building,” said Lindsey Thompson, who was among evacuated.

“It was a bomb,” said David Stuck, deputy police chief at the University of Alabama. “They’re taking all precautions they can in case there is another one.”As the FBI opened its investigation into the attack, members of the police team still investigating last year’s Atlanta blasts were also on their way to Alabama. They will be looking for links between the two incidents.The blast shattered windows at the clinic and left awnings on its street front in shreds. The force of it also rattled a second abortion clinic a short distance down the road.

Nurses at that clinic said the impact was enough to send pictures falling from walls.. The allegations against Bill Clinton in the Lewinsky scandal seem grave, but his popularity around the country is actually soaring. David Usborne finds at least one explanation: it’s the economy, stupid. Vice-President Al Gore spoke at an event in Washington in support of the ruling and of abortion rights.There were early no clues yesterday as to who may have been responsible for this latest attack.