Review of the Papers, Monday 12 March

Government

• Gordon Brown will slap down David Cameron's plan to impose strict personal allowances on tax-free air travel as little better than feel-good politics which do not address global warming at the vital level of coordinated international action. On the eve of tomorrow's publication of the Climate Change bill, the chancellor will use a speech to the Green Alliance to demand a "new world order" that can address the need for urgent cuts in carbon emissions in the same way that the Make Poverty History campaign put pressure on institutions such as the UN, EU and G8. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,,2031762,00.html  
• The Queen, British Aerospace and BP will make billions of pounds from developing the greenbelt under proposals to meet government housing targets. Research by the Guardian and the Campaign to Protect Rural England shows at least 10,000 acres of greenbelt land are likely to be sacrificed to build some of the biggest developments in Britain in the past 30 years. In addition, speculators have bought large areas of greenbelt land, which protects the countryside from urban sprawl, in expectation that the forthcoming government white paper on planning will relax rural protection rules. http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2031755,00.html  
• Hundreds of thousands of men working in the the public sector are facing salary cuts of up to £15,000 a year as equal pay agreements take effect, -The Times- has learnt. Compensation claims for up to 1.5 million workers could cost the taxpayer more than £10 billion and mean that male staff lose up to 40 per cent of their salary. Up to 700,000 female council workers, a similar number of NHS workers and tens of thousands of teaching assistants and Ministry of Defence staff are now eligible for equal pay settlements stretching back over six years. Over the past two years, unions have reached hundreds of compromise agreements with local councils to help to protect male workers' pay and jobs while getting a good deal for women. But aggressive no-win, no-fee lawyers are now unpicking the agreements by winning higher compensation payments for thousands of individual claimaints. The result is a tougher squeeze on male pay, with some men having their salary hugely reduced. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life-and-style/career-and-jobs/public-sector/article1499983.ece  
• Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, was thrust to the centre of the row over junior doctor recruitment last night, after the Tories revealed that she had shrugged off their warnings over the new training system more than a year ago. Hundreds of young doctors have not even secured interviews after applying for specialist posts using a new, online selection system. Many are now considering emigrating to find work. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/12/ndocs12.xml 
• An airline has squandered £2 million flying empty passenger planes between Heathrow and Cardiff - to stop its landing slots falling into the hands of its rivals. To keep landing slots airlines must use them regularly, or risk them being reallocated to other airlines. Competition for slots at Heathrow is so fierce that they have been known to change hands for £10 million. But green campaigners have criticised the practice by British Mediterranean Airways (BMed) - which operates as a British Airways franchise, using its livery. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/12/nairlines12.xml