Lead story

Turkey plays with fire

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

ANGRY protesters hurled stones and eggs at the Turkish embassy in Moscow on Wednesday following the downing of a Russian jet by a Turkish warplane over Syria. The Turks claim the Russian fighter-bomber had strayed into their territory but the Kremlin says their plane was operating against terrorists inside Syria. Vladimir Putin has accused the Turks of a “stab in the back”, branding them “accomplices of terrorists” and warning that “serious consequences” will follow.

Russian tourists are being urged to boycott Turkey. Russia has broken off all military contact with Turkey and despatched a warship with an air defence system to the eastern Mediterranean with orders to destroy “any targets representing a potential danger” to Russian forces in Syria. The Russian Air Force base in Syria will be reinforced with an S-400 surface-to-air missile system and in future all Russian bombers carrying out airstrikes in Syria will now be covered by jet fighters.

In the Duma (Russian parliament) some deputies have now submitted a bill to allow the prosecution of anyone who denies Turkey’s Armenian genocide during the First World War; others are calling for a complete break in diplomatic relations. But this is being opposed by Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.

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Turkey plays with fire

Striking doctors defy dirty tricks

FORTY thousand junior doctors last week voted for strike action, with a majority of 98 per cent on a 76 per cent turnout, in protest at Government plans to impose new working conditions and pay structures.

The proposed changes would remove enhanced wage levels for weekend working and could lead to junior doctors being forced to work for long hours that would leave them too tired to make safe decisions about patient care.

They now plan to walk out on the 1st, 8th and 16th of December. They will be on standby to return to work if there is an emergency but they will not do any routine work.

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Striking doctors defy dirty tricks

Editorial

Osborne’s road to Damascus moment

CHANCELLOR George Osborne stunned everyone on Wednesday when he delivered his Autumn Budget Statement by abandoning cuts to tax credits altogether. No one looked more astonished than Ian Duncan Smith, the Secretary for Work and Pensions.

This will leave thousands of families across Britain relieved, and looking forward to a much happier Christmas and New Year.

The old cynics among us were waiting to hear about plans to divert the cutting scythe elsewhere but Osborne declared that he has found the £4.4 billion funding to continue with the tax credits unchanged because there is a hitherto unmentioned £27 billion surplus in available Government funds — due to his careful management of the economy. This does beg the question: why were the cuts proposed in the first place? Was it malice or was it ignorance?

It does show the Tories are making up their policies as they go along and are being forced to backtrack on all their major policies — and are deeply divided amongst themselves.

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Osborne’s road to Damascus moment