The Chancellor had ensured the intention to stage pay deals had been leaked, but the stark reality still hit home yesterday.Public servants will get 2 per cent “upfront” at a time when the headline inflation rate is 3.6 per cent. Only the rise to be enjoyed by doctors will exceed the present average increase in earnings for the whole economy of 4.75 per cent. For all the tough words by employees’ leaders, there is no indication that public servants are prepared to act to improve their lot or that union leaders are keen to foment industrial unrest.Teachers, who will receive the same rise as nurses, registered their feeling of betrayal. Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, accused New Labour of “behaving more savagely than its predecessor”. It was the third year running that salary increases were staged.

The new government’s policies had contributed to a pounds 50-a-month rise in mortgage repayments for teachers with a pounds 40,000 mortgage. Barrie Clement, Labour Editor looks at the big “fall-out” between new Labour and unions over wages. Any reputation the Government may have enjoyed as broadly egalitarian came under severe strain after ministers agreed to a considerably higher pay rise for doctors than nurses. While the Cabinet agreed to grant GPs an increase of 5.2 per cent, nursing staff and associated health-service personnel will get 3.8 per cent. Employees’ leaders yesterday registered anger over the Government decision to stage pay increases in the public sector, saying the Blair administration was worse than the Conservatives.

There are currently 17 departmental heads in Whitehall who receive more than the Prime Minister.But buried in the text of the latest Senior Salaries Review Body report, there was an even more remarkable figure. Last year, there were some senior civil servants who received pay increases of 10 per cent – four times the average 2.4 per cent received across the public sector.Under a performance pay system, officials immediately below the top-ranking permanent secretary level had been given general pay rises of up to 8.5 per cent in 1997.However, the report added: “We note also that the handful of exceptional performers received awards of 11 per cent in 1996 and 10 per cent in 1997, which are in line with awards at senior levels in the private sector.”the Salary structureSalary review bodies’ recommendations for 1 April 1998, to be paid in full only from 1 December 1998.Grade A (lowest) nurse aged 18 plus pounds 8,315-pounds 10,170Army private pounds 9,527-pounds 16,673Newly-qualified honours graduate teacher pounds 15,012Members of Parliament (from 1 April) pounds 45,066General medical practitioner pounds 55,470Brigadier pounds 65,291Lowest-ranking judge (outside London) pounds 70,848Minimum Permanent Secretary’s pay pounds 95,720Recommendations and actual increases for 1998-99 (compared with 1997- 98).Actual %* Actual paybillriseBasic military 2.6%(3.75%) pounds 123m(pounds 179m)General medical practitioners 2.1% (5.2%) pounds 58m(pounds 80m)Nursing and other staff 2.6% (3.8%) pounds 240m(pounds 351m)School teachers 2.6% (3.8%) pounds 305m(pounds 446m)Judiciary 2.5% (3.5%) pounds 5m(pounds 6m)All groups 2.7% (3.9%) pounds 906m(pounds 1,309m)* Recommended. But they also said they hoped that publishing the figures would drive up standards across the industry.Action is being taken against all the plants scoring less than 65. They had been recommended a 5.2 per cent rise; they get 2.1 per cent for the year as a whole, compared with 2.6 per cent for teachers and nursing staff.The Prime Minister’s spokesman said the delicate state of the economy required moderation; excessive pay increases would risk higher interest rates, while restraint would help in the creation of more jobs.It was also pointed out that Mr Blair and Cabinet colleagues were giving a lead, and making a personal sacrifice, by forgoing, for the second year running, substantial pay increases to which they were entitled under the terms of last year’s Senior Salaries Review Body report.Mr Blair will continue receiving a salary of pounds 102,417, compared with the pounds 143,860 to which he is entitled up to April, and will stay on that salary at least until March 1999. The abattoir scoring the lowest mark – 34 – Cruisedeal Ltd, in Manchester, has already had its licence revoked It is appealing against the action.. easyJet’s team of operators have taken thousands of calls throughout the week.

The food safety minister, Jeff Rooker, said the abattoir had scored 61 out of 100 and added: “They obviously didn’t want to die in a low-scoring abattoir.”
Ministers have insisted that back-up checks on every single piece of meat means that nothing which leaves the plants is unsafe to eat. One of those in the shame list is V and G Newman, of Malmesbury, Wiltshire – the scene of the recent “great escape” by the Tamworth Two pigs. Abattoirs scoring low marks in hygiene inspections were publicly “named and shamed” for the first time yesterday. Seventy slaughterhouses and meat plants out of 1,352 inspected failed to hit the target 65 out of 100 marks, according to figures published by the Meat Hygiene Service. The Full Monty, which cost pounds 2m to make and has already taken over pounds 120m worldwide, is likely to prove a bonanza for its stars, who opted to take a share of the film’s profits rather than a flat fee.. New data published today in the journal Science, using military satellite photos taken in 1963 and now declassified, also show that there have been shrinkages in the huge Ross ice shelf..

The Full Monty has overtaken Stephen Spielberg’s Jurassic Park to become the most successful film in British box office history. At some point on Tuesday night the film reached a total take of pounds 47.9m. And the film remained at number seven in last weeks’ movie top 10 and is still showing on 189 screens after five months on release.
Jurassic Park held the previous record with a box office total of pounds 47.8m – after adding pounds 800,000 to its total to account for money taken at children’s cinema clubs over the last four years. As part of the changes comedy games are moving to the evenings.. A giant ice sheet twice the size of Norfolk is breaking up in Antarctica and will probably fall into the sea during the next couple of years, say scientists. The cause is almost certainly global warming, according to experts at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).