From the archive: The death of the department store
This week, from 2022: the closure of John Lewis's store in Sheffield after almost 60 years was a bitter blow. As debate rages over what to do with the huge empty site, the city is becoming a test case for where Britain's urban centres may be heading
Written and read by John Harris
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The Sun
2 minutes ago
- The Sun
UK is drowning in debt but striking junior doctors want huge pay rises – patients died last time before 22% increase
TUESDAY brought yet more grim news for the public finances. The Office For National Statistics revealed that in June, the Government was forced to borrow £20.7billion. 4 4 That was £6.6billion higher than last June — and all this in spite of the £40billion of tax rises announced in last October's Budget. The Government is drowning in debt. Paying interest on its accumulated debts is costing the taxpayer £100billion a year — almost double what we spend on defence. There is little hope of improvement. Economic growth is virtually non-existent, productivity is flat-lining and tax rises are failing to raise as much revenue as the Chancellor hoped, as taxpayers choose to work less hard, rearrange their tax affairs or, in some cases, emigrate. But there is one place where you can be sure the news will not have sunk in: the offices of Britain's public sector unions. Lining pockets In fact, the BMA — which is rapidly inheriting the mantle of the country's most militant trade union from the Rail, Maritime And Transport union — chose the moment to request that its consultant members charge the NHS at least £188 an hour to provide cover during the junior doctors' five-day strike, which begins tomorrow, rising to £313 an hour for weekend work. It could mean some consultants lining their pockets with up to £6,000 this weekend. It isn't hard to see the BMA's logic: it wants to try to break the NHS's finances to force the Government to give in. In spite of the extravagant bills demanded by consultants, the NHS will still not be providing a normal service during the latest walkout. During the last set of strikes by junior doctors — who now demand to be called 'resident doctors' to disguise the fact they are still in training — more than a million treatments ended up being cancelled. Wes Streeting brutally slams Kemi AND Farage and demands Tories say sorry for how they ran the NHS in blistering attack It's been reported that coroners' findings mentioned the strikes in five deaths, but that is almost certainly a gross under-estimate. During the week of one 72-hour strike in March 2023, the ONS recorded 2,247 'excess deaths' — the number of deaths above what might have been expected from the average of the previous five years over that period. Deep down, the BMA's hard men seem to realise the harm that they are causing. Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, the co-chair of the BMA's Resident Doctors' Committee, told Times Radio yesterday that consultants who refused to cancel their normal clinics in order to man A&E departments would be guilty of a 'dereliction of duty'. Yet strangely, he did not seem to want to apply the same term to junior doctors who walk out on strike. We all appreciate what doctors do, of course — yet even miners' leader Arthur Scargill at the height of his pomp was not as unreasonable as the BMA is being. 4 Junior doctors received a 22 per cent pay increase last year and have already been offered an inflation-busting 5.4 per cent this year. Their claim that they need a 29 per cent increase this year to return their pay in real terms to 2008 levels is fallacious. They made that calculation using the Retail Prices Index, a long-discredited measure which has been criticised for exaggerating inflation. Some junior doctors can now earn £100,000 a year, including overtime. What's more, they have a generous pension scheme which involves the taxpayer contributing an extra 20.68 per cent of their pay to their pension pot. When they retire, their pensions will be linked to their lifetime earnings and will be inflation-proofed. Such deals are virtually unknown now in the private sector, where employers make average pension contributions equivalent to just 4.5 per cent of an employee's pay — and where in most cases pension payouts are dependent on the performance of underlying investments. And it is not just the BMA which has lost its grasp of fiscal reality. Public sector unions are living in a parallel, dream universe where there is an infinite pot of money to meet their demands. On their side of the looking glass, workers have a fundamental right to above-inflation pay rises year on year without ever having to improve their productivity. Bankrolled by unions On the contrary, many seem to think they could still enjoy inflation-busting rises if their working week was reduced from five days a week to four. Sorry, but it doesn't work. Societies grow richer by being more productive. And that is something which seems to have eluded Britain's public sector for the past three decades. 4 Astonishingly, according to ONS figures, the average worker in the public sector now produces less than they did when Tony Blair took office 28 years ago. That is an unparalleled era of non-achievement. The unions seem to be counting on the current Government being equally blind to the dire state of the public finances. Starmer's administration has shown itself so far to be a pushover — which is hardly surprising when you consider that the Labour Party is bankrolled by the unions. But no government will be able to ignore for much longer Britain's reckoning with its debts. What happened under Liz Truss was just a foretaste of what is to come if global bond investors lose confidence in the UK Government's ability to repay its dues. When that happens, Britain will be in the situation Greece was 14 years ago when public salaries and pensions had to be slashed to avoid national bankruptcy. Public sector unions will wail all they like, but they would have helped bring the disaster on themselves.
BBC News
2 minutes ago
- BBC News
Shops plan approved for former Normanton Road Gospel Hall
Plans to convert a former gospel hall in Derby into six shops have been given the go-ahead in a bid to "breathe new life" into the City Council has approved proposals to redevelop the Normanton Road Gospel Hall site, which has stood empty for more than four years, according to planning included with a planning application said the existing building had deteriorated over the past four years due to a lack of use and said the proposals would transform the site into a "modern, vibrant commercial space" and "enhance the economy activity" in the area. A report submitted to the council said: "The building is no longer actively serving its intended purpose, and its continued vacancy poses a risk of urban decay."The proposed conversion into six retail shops will breathe new life into the site, improve economic activity, and provide modern, accessible, and sustainable commercial spaces."
BBC News
2 minutes ago
- BBC News
New pub in Leeds could 'disturb Channel 4 news'
A broadcaster has expressed concerns that noise from a new pub could disrupt television news Wharf Tavern has applied to Leeds City Council for a premises licence for its city centre bar to operate until 02:00 BST at a site which is also occupied by Channel 4 are delivered from the first floor of a riverside building at Brewery Place, above the a letter from ITN, which runs Channel 4 News, said daily news programmes were broadcast live at 12:00 and 19:00. "These broadcasts are live and as such are vulnerable to noise and other disruption," the firm were raised over noise from an outside area with space for around 100 said: "In addition, however, we are concerned that even moderate ambient noise – staff chatter, footsteps, laughter, and bar service activity – will be directly audible within the studio."ITN said it was happy to work with the applicant to address the noise concerns, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.A licensing sub-committee will consider the application at a hearing on 29 July.A report to the meeting said conditions had been agreed with the council and West Yorkshire included measures to prevent noise spreading through the building, no loudspeakers in use outside after 23:00 BST and customers being asked to keep quiet."Noise from a licensable activity at the premises will not be audible at the nearest noise sensitive premises after 23:00."Councillors will have the option of granting or refusing the licence, or allowing it with additional Wharf Tavern is a sister venue to sites including Whitelock's, White Cloth Hall and Meanwood Tavern, and would occupy the old Home restaurant unit. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
