Out go the long raincoats with silver buttons famous old police capes and knitted ties

Out go the long raincoats with silver buttons, famous old police capes, and knitted ties. Ponytails have been banned and women must now “wear their hair close to their head but not bushy,” say the Met’s style police.
Jewellery, except wedding or signet rings, is also out of favour. “Earrings and nose jewellery will not be allowed as they could prove potential hazards,” warn the authorities. Women in skirts are frowned upon.Fashion watchers, however, may not be too excited by the replacements. The image of the police officer as a caped crusader took a further dent yesterday when a two-year review came up with a new look for the Metropolitan Police. We have simply made the point in a letter to heads that if they wanted to write they must do so quickly.”The Government’s reply to protesters is that councils still have scope to make efficiency gains and it is up to them to decide how they divide money between services.. We would refute very strongly any suggestion that we have asked them to do so.

Andrew Dakin, assistant chief education officer in Berkshire, home of Sir Gerard’s constituency, said: “I know of no school which has asked children to write. This month councils have been meeting headteachers to tell them how much their schools will lose.Heads have passed the information to parents, but councils insist they are not telling schools to involve children. Oxford parents were organising a protest march for today.In Shropshire, three school governing bodies have said that they will resign if the cuts go ahead. Parents and teachers have formed a group called Joint Action In Shropshire Schools.Both local authority associations have written to their members suggesting that they alert schools to the implications of the cuts. Every school in the county is thinking in terms of losing at least three teachers.”Martin Roberts, headteacher of Cherwell, said he had planned a small group of heads and governors to lobby MPs, but his parents and governors wanted to charter trains for a mass lobby pf Parliament.

Sir Gerard doesn’t like the fact that children and parents understand that schools are facing horrendous cuts.”In Oxfordshire, where there is a vigorous anti-cuts campaign, Bob Osborne, a parent at Cherwell Comprehensive, which may face cuts of up to £135,000, said: “There is a genuine outcry because this is completely different from anything we have ever seen before. The Government delegated budgets to schools and wanted parents to have more information. If the Government refuses to fund their pay award in full, schools will have greater difficulties The teachers’ pay review body is due to report shortly. A leaked letter from Gillian Shephard, Secretary of State for Education, to Cabinet colleagues warns that thousands of people may face the sack.Parents across the country are writing to MPs, preparing to lobby Parliament and getting ready to take part in protest marches, but they deny that children are being manipulated in the campaign.Margaret Morrissey of the National Federation of Parent Teacher Associations said: “Children watch television and read newspapers. In Liverpool, Kirklees, Havering and Bromley, primary education will be cut by more than 4 per cent.Large secondary schools facing the average cut expect to increase class sizes, reduce book buying and make teachers redundant. In Northumberland, Sheffield, Sutton and Sunderland, secondary cuts will top 8 per cent.

They are using children as political pawns.”Cuts in school budgets, which councils say are the worst for 30 years, have provoked widespread campaigning by parents and governors.Ministers say spending on education will rise by 1.1 per cent in cash terms this year, but councils say this fails to take account of 2.5 per cent inflation and a similar rise in pupil numbers.Official figures analysed by Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat education spokesman, show that the average cut in real terms will be 2.5 per cent (£50) for every primary pupil and 6.9 per cent (£194) for every secondary pupil.In some places cuts will be worse. Conservative backbenchers yesterday angered schools and parents by accusing them of making “immoral” use of children in their battle against education cuts. Members of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee complained at a meeting on Thursday night that their large mail bags from parents and children about cuts were the result of a campaign by Labour local authorities.
Sir Gerard Vaughan, MP for Reading East, said he had received a letter from a dyslexic boy who wrote that the special help he received would disappear.”It is really immoral and quite wicked for the local authorities to spread these fears. An industrial tribunal yesterday ruled it unfairly dismissed the former Dan-Air employees when it took over the smaller company.
The pilots, who rejected up to £9,000 from BA, must wait until Thursday to discover the exact awards..

British Airways could be forced to pay compensation of millions of pounds to more than 200 pilots sacked two years ago. More than 13,000 workers walked out in the capital yesterday after a local dispute at the north-west London sorting office in Camden about working practices escalated, forcing the Post Office to seal many post boxes.
Deliveries in the London area were disrupted by the action which is also likely to affect deliveries in the capital and elsewhere today.After talks between management and national officials of the Union of Communication Workers, a peace deal was reached last night and was due to be put to a meeting of workers in north-west London this morning.The union urged all other postal workers in London who took sympathy strike action to return to work as normal tomorrow.The dispute, over the introduction of a new computer system which workers complained increased their work load, went ahead in spite of a court injunction against illegal sympathy strikes obtained by the Post Office.. Striking postal workers who disrupted services in London will be urged by their union to end their action and accept a peace deal today. The judges said the existing system for dealing with claimed injustice was “significantly too closed” and ordered him to hand over all expert and other relevant evidence in the cases.In the light of that ruling Mr Howard now has to make available material in the Silcott case.Silcott, speaking from Swaleside Prison on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, said: “I am not surprised that he has been forced to concede that his decision in my case was unlawful.”. The facts of the matter are that they will be reconsidering the case, after fresh representations will be made following the disclosure.”The decision not to contest the judicial review was taken in the wake of a landmark Court of Appeal ruling in the case of the men convicted of the Carl Bridgewater murder and three others, which halted the secrecy surrounding the way the Home Secretary reviewed claims of miscarriage of justice. Mr Howard’s legal advisers have already had to review the case to decide not to fight the planned judicial review hearing.Silcott’s MP, Bernie Grant, said: “The Home Office is playing with words.