Today’s news summary – Paper Talk
Wednesday’s front pages report on the latest from the Ukraine war – one year on from the Russian invasion.
Both President Biden’s and President Putin’s speeches feature prominently in the papers. Biden pledged “unwavering” support for Ukraine and Nato yesterday, telling Putin there would “never be a victory for Russia.”
Elsewhere, the massive 48-hour nurses’ strike has been paused and the Royal College of Nursing are to enter ‘intensive’ pay talks with the government and grocery shops are forced to introduce rationing as fruit and vegetable shortages leave shelves bare.
Ukraine one year on
“Putin signals the return of Cold War nuclear tests”, is the Times headline on Putin’s state of the nation address. The paper describes it as a “fiery” two hours and says Putin used the speech to abandon Russia’s arms control treaty with the US.
“Your lust for land and power will fail,” says the Daily Mail which leads with President Biden’s words. The Financial Times says the speeches “sharpened the contrast” between the two leaders “whose legacies might be defined on the battlefields of Ukraine”.
Public sector workers’ pay increase
The i newspaper reports “resign if you want to,” that’s the message from the PM who, according to the paper, has “faced down threats of dissent” over his plans to strike a new deal with the EU to govern post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland.
The Daily Telegraph reports on submissions to independent pay review bodies, which suggests public sector workers should receive 3.5% wage rises next year. The Treasury is understood to believe that exceeding that figure would require deeper spending cuts while exceeding 5% would fuel inflation.
But the FT says the PM is exploring offering 5% because borrowing is likely to be £30bn lower than expected. A Treasury memo seen by the FT also indicates that offering 5% would come with “low risk” of setting a benchmark for protracted high private sector wage growth.
