Avant le deluge ...

[most links removed]
SILLY CON GORGE
Hewlett Packard are axing a further 1,300 jobs in the UK to switch the work overseas. This comes on top of 900 job losses announced in June. It's not yet clear how this will affect the HP site at Frenchay, which was considerably downsized last year. However, most of the redundancies are known to be in HP Enterprise Services - the new name for the merger of the HP consulting group with the EDS computer group - who handle outsourced work for banks, corporations and government and have a large presence in Bristol.

Commenting on the Hewlett Packard announcement, the Unite union said, “the government's belief that the hi-tech private sector will be the motor for growth and new jobs is largely a mirage.

“Lax employment protection in the UK compared to other European countries means that the UK is bearing the brunt of cuts, as it’s quicker and cheaper to sack UK people and export their jobs abroad.”

The Public and Commercial Services union are threatening industrial action over the job losses, especially if there are compulsory redundancies. General secretary Mark Serwotka said: “This is not being driven by financial necessity, but by Hewlett Packard’s relentless obsession with profit.

A former HP worker said on the Bristol Evening Post website, "Pay cuts, massive job cuts and arbritary changes to terms and conditions is what happens at HP now. You would have thought that the company was in trouble – but no, they’re making massive profits and the top brass are raking in tens of millions in stock options, whilst thousands of workers are losing their jobs."

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
Jewel in the crown of the city's much-touted creative industries, Aardman, have announced a £2.5 million loss for last year. They are blaming an expensive move to new trendy Harbourside premises and a higher bill for freelance workers.

ECONOMY
The South West Regional Development Agency's chief economist Nigel Jump says the region's businesses will not be able to employ the 115,000 people who may lose their jobs after next week's Comprehensive Spending Review. He believes the so-called economic recovery is already “dramatically slowing down” meaning the private sector will not be able to employ all those who lose their jobs. Five per cent of the South West workforce is set to be cut in next week's spending review..

Price Waterhouse Cooper - who aren't too hot at arithmetic - predict just 80,000 jobs in the South West could be lost as a result of this month's spending cuts. However they say outsourcing and manpower provision (for the public sector) look set to become massive growth industries while some harm "will be mitigated by increased labour market flexibility on wages and hours worked". In other words we're all be working longer hours for less money.

BaE
Airbus boss, Louis Gallois was in Bristol on Monday warning that the Government cuts in defence budgets – to be unveiled next Wednesday – were bound to have an effect on the firm.

Meanwhile, we've been tipped off that BAe are asking some staff at Filton if they are interested in voluntary redundancy. This is a tough choice. Take it and you could give someone else the chance to stay in work, don't take it and if you get made redundant, you'll get a worse deal.

BONFIRE OF THE QUANGOS
The Tories' plans are likely to lead to two large Bristol-based organisations announcing redundancies. The Environment Agency, which employs 1,000 people in the city, will undergo "radical reform" while the Infrastructure Planning Committee, which has its HQ in Bristol, will be scrapped.

BOC
A BOC plant in Bristol producing acetylene gas cylinders is to close with the loss of 30 jobs. There was a major industrial accident at the plant earlier this year.

LIBRARIES
First reported here last week, it's been confirmed by the Bristol Evening Post that vacancies in the Bristol Library Service are running at 15 per cent and some branches are being forced to close on evenings and weekends. Bristol City Council say they need to “maintain flexibility during this period of potential change”.

VACANCY MANAGEMENT
Bristol's libraries are the victim of Bristol City Council's 'vacancy management' strategy. The city council are yet to deny our report last week that they currently have 1,531 job vacancies on hold.

INCREASED CARE CHARGES
Charges to the elderly poor for their care needs look set to rise in Bristol. The council are currently running one of their pointless consultations ahead of raising the fees.

CARE
The care homes saga in South Gloucestershire continues. We reported last week that the council was rushing through the closure of eight care homes against the wishes of the homes' residents. Now it appears the two replacement homes are certain to be privately-run - contrary to the original plans.

CAB
Bristol's Citizens Advice Bureau reports a large increase in people appealing against decisions to move them from Incapacity Benefit to Jobseekers Allowance as the ConDems try to slash the welfare bill by ruthlessly targeting the sick.

"RESTRUCTURING THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE"
The headline says it all. The University of the West of England (UWE) is restructuring. "There is the risk of redundancies and demotions", says the UCL union as Lord Browne’s spending review, published this week, proposes the marketisation of university education. The UCL say the report "has caused serious unrest among UWE academic staff".
http://www.uwesu.org/news_events/activities_news/restru...itter

It's a lot quieter at the much snootier University of Bristol. Apparently fixed term contracts aren't being renewed and there's said to be "lots of conflict between the physicists with the big
experiments and those people that don't need so much money but don't do dramatic things". Further information welcome ...

LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIPS
The Government's new plan to promote regional economies is a "complete mess". In the West of England, ministers will approve a bid to create a new local enterprise partnership (LEP) for Greater Bristol and another for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly but will block an LEP covering most of the southern half of Somerset and a South Somerset and East Devon partnership. It is also believed ministers will reject proposals for a body to cover Plymouth, Torbay and the rest of Devon. It's feared that if parts of the region have an LEP and others do not it could create an "uneven playing field".

LANSDOWN
Bristol City FC Chairman, Steve Lansdown (pictured above snuggling up with Bristol's MPs), has cashed in £58m worth of his shares in his stockbroking firm Hargreaves Lansdown. Lansdown is now resident in Guensey in order to avoid tax. Were he to pay tax on his windfall it would almost cover the £22m worth of cuts proposed by Bristol City Council last week.

THE UNIONS
60 trade unionists, invited by South West TUC regional secretary Nigel Costley, from around the South West are meeting in Plymouth today to discuss the Comprehensive Spending Review. Apparently, the hot topic among the delegates will be the unions' response to the review. Rank and file trade unionists are not invited.

The TUC has a blog explaining "the best strategy to resist the cuts". They say it explains the emphasis they are putting on local campaigning and working with service users in these first stages of the campaign .
http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/2010/07/resisting-the-...cuts/.

STRIKE
Workers at Plymouth bed manufacturer Vi-Spring are to continue their industrial action for another three weeks . The GMB is demanding the reinstatement of shop steward Jimmy Dent, dismissed from the company in the summer.

LABOUR NEWS
Kerry McCarthy's Smart Car's gearbox takes another thrashing as Labour's Bristol East MP crunches into reverse gear yet again. Ms McCarthy, pictured above with tax avoider Steve Lansdown, was an avid supporter of Ed Balls for Labour leader. Now she's joined the shadow Treasury team. Balls, of course, was forthright in rejecting Alistair Darling's deficit reduction plans while Kerry's new boss, Labour's Shadow Chancellor, Alan Johnson - who had a fairly undistinguished run in a number of offices of state over the years - thinks they're just great.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK
Is it really wise for Labour's new Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury to be photographed rather coquettishly alongside a tax avoider?

PLAY
Bath and North East Somerset Council have handed 16 of their play areas over to a housing trust to manage. The council claim the deal would provide the Somer Community Housing Trust with an "incentive to invest money into developing the play areas in line with the community wishes".

YOUTH
The Bath Bomb reports on Bath and North East Somerset Council's efforts to close four youth clubs.
http://www.bristol.indymedia.org/article/694799

RAIL
After last week's report, the great and good of Cardiff, Swindon and Bristol appear to have woken up to the fact that the proposed electrification of the Great Western Mainline is about to be scrapped. Their lobbying seems very late in the day. Are they asleep at the wheel?

PUBS
TWO of Portishead's historic pubs have closed. The White Lion closed last Wednesday and The Poacher – the town's oldest pub – closed on Sunday afternoon. Both pubs are owned by the pub chain Enterprise Inns.

Punch Taverns, which owns 6,000 boozers across the UK, is looking to dispose of at least 1,300 of them after announcing a £130m loss. The highly leveraged corporation owns 40-plus pubs in the Bristol area and says they will be looking to offload unprofitable 'traditional pubs' often associated with poorer areas in favour of 'a more upmarket approach'.

EDUCATION
All Bath's secondary schools could soon leave local authority control and become academies to save BANES council some money.

DEEP CUTS
Mendip District Council said this week it faced losing a quarter of its annual government grant. The council's leader, Harvey Siggs, says its budget is likely to be nearly £2 million short next year

MoD
First signs of big changes ahead at the MOD. It appears their Abbey Wood site in North Bristol may actually be expanding to bring in work from elsewhere. A ban on anyone living within 3 miles of the site getting a parking permit is to be introduced. You don't do that unless your car parks are expected to overflow ...

HEALTH
Patients being referred by their GP to hospital to see a specialist will be put through 'a filtering system' as part of the plan to tackle a £44 million shortfall facing the NHS in Bath.

PRESCRIPTIONS
Heathcare insiders say the government has issued guidance to PCT's to cut down on expensive prescriptions. This is a thinly veiled attack on the elderly, the ill and the disabled.

BANKING
Lloyds Banking Group - 40% taxpayer-owned - is axing another 4,500 jobs. They're now on course to cut 20,000 posts as they integrate HBOS with existing Lloyds operations. Both HBOS and Lloyds have headquarters in Bristol. Some of the jobs will be relocated to offshore centres the bank have said.

Lloyds have announced more job cuts at their Cheltenham & Gloucester subsidary. At least 100 staff are expected to be laid off in Gloucester and 120 in Bristol.

COPS
Police chiefs have told community support officers in Clevedon and Portishead to catch the bus while on duty to save money.

YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP IF YOU TRIED
A private fringe meeting at the Tory Party Conference on personal debt organised by Welfare Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice was sponsored by Cash Converters.

NON-JOBS
The Tax Payers Alliance are up to their old tricks discovering "non-jobs" in local authorities.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-11521009

FIRE SALE
Plymouth has put its Civic Centre up for sale. The Grade II-listed council HQ went on the market yesterday with Plymouth City Council saying it is eager to find out if developers or investors want to buy the place.

PAY CUT
Cornwall County Council chief executive Kevin Lavery has taken a voluntary 5% pay cut "in recognition of the difficult financial situation facing Cornwall". Cornwall Councillors should do us a favour and put a zero after that five.

GOLDEN HANDSHAKES
Chippenham MP Duncan Hames has asked ministers to change rules that allowed four senior Wiltshire County Council officials to enjoy generous golden handshakes. They shared £2m between them. In Bristol it's common for senior local government officers to retire with large payouts and then be rehired as consultants. The council's Head of HR, Bob Britton, recently performed the scam!

SIGN O' THE TIMES?
The Bristol Evening Post's relentlessly upmarket foodie restaurant reviewer, Mark Taylor, is now eating and reviewing breakfasts for £1.95 in Broadmead.

HISTORY REPEATING
Warnings are emerging that 1930s-style competitive currency devaluation is starting to take place. Hold on, it could be a bumpy ride ...

REMEMBER!!!
Demonstration and rally against the cuts starts in Castle Park, Bristol on Saturday 23 October at 11.00am. Be there!
bristolanticutsalliance@yahoo.co.uk

Being made redundant? Problems at work? Being cut? Contact BRISTOL IWW - the union where you're invited. bristoliww@riseup.net or Tel: 07506 592180

Got any news about cuts in Bristol, Bath or beyond? Send stories, rants, gossip and informed speculation to Cutz, the brashest and best cuts news in the west: bristol_citizens@yahoo.co.uk

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