Weekend news wrap: second strike at British Airways, budget disappoints UK voters

A recent BBC poll showed that Labour is more trusted to run the economy with current Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling securing 33% against 27% for Conservative leader David Cameron and shadow Chancellor George Osborne. This was the first public opinion poll of this kind following Wednesday’s budget speech by Darling, who has pledged to cut the budget deficit in half in four years via tax hikes and spending cuts. An online poll by YouGov for the Sunday Times showed that 51% of responders were not happy with the budget, while another poll demonstrated that 24% of voters were less likely to go for Labour after Darling’s budget.
The prospect of a hung parliament has been weighing on the equity markets, raising questions about the UK’s ability to solve the problem with its budget deficit, which is set to balloon to £178 billion this year. Last week, opinion polls by both the News of the World newspaper and the Sunday Times reported that 38% of voters supported Conservatives over 32% and 31% for Labour respectively.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives have raised more doubt about their ability to cut the deficit after Cameron pledged to preserve some £4 billion worth of benefits for the elderly.
Airline British Airways (LSE: BAY) got hit by a second round of strikes following last week’s three day strike of its cabin crew staff, which was estimated to cost BA some £30 million per day. More than 90 flights were cancelled yesterday with about two thirds of cabin crew staff reporting for work at the Heathrow airport in London. Union said more strikes were likely after Easter if the sides reach no deal over BA’s reductions of cabin crew on its flights. According to estimates, BA’s total losses from the two strikes could amount to £100 million.
It was announced this week that the Times and the Sunday Times, which both belong to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, will soon start charging readers for access to their websites. Murdoch made the news last year, when he launched an attack on Google was depriving it of revenues by including News Corp’s content on the Google News. News Corp’s other two publications, the Sun and News of the World, could also start charging readers for content.
European markets and the euro got a little bit of a relief at the end of this week after EU leaders agreed on a loan up to €22 billion to Greece jointly with the IMF in the event that the country is unable to raise enough money in the market. The deal, however, did not improve the long-term outlook for Greece’s debt and the gains in the euro and European stock markets were limited.

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