Discontent with immigration levels was a key factor behind UKIP’s dramatic victory in Thursday’s local council elections, in which it won over 25 percent of votes and recorded the best result for a party outside the big three since World War Two.

Cameron, who once called UKIP supporters “fruitcakes and closet racists”, conceded his party had to work to win back disaffected voters, and he will try to regain the political initiative next week by outlining new measures on immigration.

“We need to show respect for people who’ve taken the choice to support this party and we’re going to work really hard to win them back,” he said.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage demanded big cuts in immigration during his campaign, playing on public concerns about the prospect of large numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians coming to Britain after they have full rights to work in the EU next year.

On Wednesday, Cameron’s coalition government will outline measures to restrict the welfare benefits available to immigrants, particularly in the field of health.

But for the leader, who like several key advisers attended one of Britain’s top private schools Eton College, the problem is one of image as well as substance.

NO MORE OLD ETONIANS

David Davis, a senior Conservative who challenged Cameron for the party leadership in 2005, said he risked appearing “out of touch” with voters he must win over if he wants to be re-elected in a national ballot in 2015.

“The fact is that if we want to win the next election, we have to break this impression of being privileged and out of touch,” Davis wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

“That means more straight talking and fewer focus groups … and please, please no more Old Etonian advisers.”

The opposition Labor party has long accused Cameron’s inner circle of being “posh boys”, and the issue resurfaced last month when Jo Johnson, brother of London Mayor Boris and Cameron’s friend at Eton, was named head of the government’s policy unit.

Davis also argued for bringing forward a referendum on membership of the European Union, something Cameron has already promised to do if he wins in 2015 and after he has renegotiated Britain’s position within the bloc.

Cameron may now go one step further and enshrine that pledge in law, ministers have hinted.

His Liberal Democrat coalition partners – one of Europe’s most pro-EU parties – would not allow him to simply introduce a government bill to that effect but, the ministers say, there may be ways around that obstacle.

According to Davis, UKIP’s policies on law and order, immigration, taxation, foreign affairs and Europe were like those of a simplified 1980s Conservative manifesto.

“So the electoral answers are Conservative ones,” he wrote, “but the test of our response is less about how right-wing we are than how relevant we are to ordinary people.”

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Discontent with immigration levels was a key factor behind UKIP’s dramatic victory in Thursday’s local council elections, in which it won over 25 percent of votes and recorded the best result for a party outside the big three since World War Two.

Cameron, who once called UKIP supporters “fruitcakes and closet racists”, conceded his party had to work to win back disaffected voters, and he will try to regain the political initiative next week by outlining new measures on immigration.

“We need to show respect for people who’ve taken the choice to support this party and we’re going to work really hard to win them back,” he said.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage demanded big cuts in immigration during his campaign, playing on public concerns about the prospect of large numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians coming to Britain after they have full rights to work in the EU next year.

On Wednesday, Cameron’s coalition government will outline measures to restrict the welfare benefits available to immigrants, particularly in the field of health.

But for the leader, who like several key advisers attended one of Britain’s top private schools Eton College, the problem is one of image as well as substance.

NO MORE OLD ETONIANS

David Davis, a senior Conservative who challenged Cameron for the party leadership in 2005, said he risked appearing “out of touch” with voters he must win over if he wants to be re-elected in a national ballot in 2015.

“The fact is that if we want to win the next election, we have to break this impression of being privileged and out of touch,” Davis wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

“That means more straight talking and fewer focus groups … and please, please no more Old Etonian advisers.”

The opposition Labour party has long accused Cameron’s inner circle of being “posh boys”, and the issue resurfaced last month when Jo Johnson, brother of London Mayor Boris and Cameron’s friend at Eton, was named head of the government’s policy unit.

Davis also argued for bringing forward a referendum on membership of the European Union, something Cameron has already promised to do if he wins in 2015 and after he has renegotiated Britain’s position within the bloc.

Cameron may now go one step further and enshrine that pledge in law, ministers have hinted.

His Liberal Democrat coalition partners – one of Europe’s most pro-EU parties – would not allow him to simply introduce a government bill to that effect but, the ministers say, there may be ways around that obstacle.

According to Davis, UKIP’s policies on law and order, immigration, taxation, foreign affairs and Europe were like those of a simplified 1980s Conservative manifesto.

“So the electoral answers are Conservative ones,” he wrote, “but the test of our response is less about how right-wing we are than how relevant we are to ordinary people.”

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

She died on Monday, aged 87, after suffering a stroke. During her life in politics Some worshipped her as a modernizer who transformed the country, others bitterly accused her of entrenching the divide between the rich and the poor.

The abiding images of her premiership will remain those of conflict: huge police confrontations with the miners’ union, her riding a tank in a white headscarf, and flames rising above Trafalgar Square in the riots over an unpopular local tax which ultimately led to her downfall.

To those who opposed her she was blunt to a degree – “the lady’s not for turning”, she once famously informed members of her own Conservative Party who were urging her to moderate her policies.

Others who crossed her path, particularly in Europe, were subjected to withering diatribes often referred to as “handbaggings”, named after the black leather bag she invariably carried.

Britain’s only woman prime minister, the tough, outspoken Thatcher led the Conservatives to three election victories, governing from 1979 to 1990, the longest continuous period in office by a British prime minister since the early 19th century.

With U.S. President Ronald Reagan, she formed a strong alliance against communism and was rewarded by seeing the Berlin Wall torn down in 1989 though she worried a unified Germany would dominate Europe.

Her radical, right-wing views broke the mould of British politics, changing the status quo so profoundly that even subsequent Labour governments accepted many of her policies.

The woman who became known simply as “Maggie”, transferred big chunks of the economy from state hands into private ownership.

“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money,” she once said.

Her personal credo, founded on competition, private enterprise, thrift and self-reliance, gave birth to a political philosophy known as “Thatcherism”.

But her tough economic medicine put millions out of work, alienated many and largely destroyed industries such as mining.

Her combative stance antagonized allies in Europe and her intolerance of dissent eventually led to her downfall.

“A brilliant tyrant surrounded by mediocrities,” was how former premier Harold Macmillan described her. “That bloody woman,” was the less charitable verdict of Edward Heath, another prime minister and her predecessor as Conservative Party leader.

At the peak of her powers, Thatcher’s sheer personality made her one of the West’s best known figures. A workaholic, she put in 18-hour days, after which she would relax over a glass of whisky.

CLASH WITH UNIONS

After winning the May 3, 1979 election, she launched social and economic reforms designed to end what she saw as a spiral of industrial decline, crippling taxes and intrusive state control, a period under the Labour government that had become known as the “winter of discontent”.

Fighting inflation-boosting pay rises and modernizing the economy meant curbing the power of organized labour.

After changes to the law and a bitter year-long strike which ended in defeat for the miners in 1985, the days when unions could dictate to British governments were over.

Britain held its breath in 1982 when Thatcher dispatched a naval task force to the Falkland islands, which had been seized by Argentine invaders. Despite losing several warships, the British eventually reclaimed the south Atlantic islands 74 days later. A total of 649 Argentines and 255 British troops died.

An opinion poll in 1981 rated Thatcher Britain’s most disliked prime minister of all time. But, two years later, after the Falklands war, she was swept back to power on a wave of patriotism and in 1987, her third successive election victory gave her another big majority in parliament.

PRIVATISATION DRIVE

Thatcher ushered in an era of “popular capitalism” that raised home ownership in Britain to 68 percent and made one person in five a shareholder.

She launched a sweeping drive to privatize state monopolies such as gas, oil, steel, telephones, airports and British Airways, with electricity and water to follow.

But while Thatcherism made many better off, unemployment doubled by the mid-1980s to more than three million – a level not seen since the hungry 1930s. Opponents said Thatcher had created a nation divided between the wealthier south and the poorer north.

Thatcher developed a close relationship with Reagan, who called her “the best man in England”.

It was the Soviet Communist Party daily Pravda that dubbed Thatcher the “Iron Lady”, but she reveled in the nickname.

When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985 however she formed a strong working relationship with him.

After Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, Thatcher famously cautioned U.S. President George Bush against being “wobbly” in opposing President Saddam Hussein.

Relations with Britain’s European neighbors were strained over her reluctance to embrace plans for closer integration.

She demanded a huge refund on Britain’s contributions to the European budget and brought European Community business to a virtual standstill until she got it.

The late French President Francois Mitterrand once said she had “the eyes of Caligula and the lips of Marilyn Monroe”.

NARROW ESCAPE

In 1984 an Irish Republican Army bomb attack on her Brighton hotel nearly killed her entire cabinet. She was unscathed, but five people died and some close colleagues were badly injured.

Within hours of the attack, and on schedule, she gave the closing address to her party’s annual conference, vowing there would be no weakening in the fight against terrorism.

In 1984 Thatcher and China’s then-Premier Zhao Ziyang signed a declaration under which Britain agreed to hand over Hong Kong to China in 1997 after 156 years of British colonial rule.

After 11 years in power, Thatcher bowed to a revolt and pulled out of a leadership contest with her former defense minister Michael Heseltine. A new local tax, known as the “poll tax”, which had led to riots, contributed to her downfall.

Thatcher retained enough influence to ensure Heseltine did not succeed her, advancing the claims of her protege John Major, who served as prime minister until 1997.

“We are leaving Downing Street for the last time after 11 and a half wonderful years and we are very happy that we leave the United Kingdom in a very, very much better state than when we came here,” Thatcher said with tears in her eyes.

She suffered a series of mild strokes in late 2001 and 2002, after which she cut back on public appearances and later canceled her speaking schedule.

Her decline into dementia was chronicled in the Oscar-winning film “The Iron Lady”, with Meryl Streep. Cast as bewildered widow, the very lonely Iron Lady was left only with her memories.

(Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Giles Elgood)

Cameron has pledged his personal support for a gay marriage bill but many in his party and among his legislators oppose it on moral grounds and say the government has no mandate to push it through parliament.

As the bill is supported by Britain’s two other main parties, opposition Labour and Conservative coalition partners the Liberal Democrats, it is in no danger of being defeated.

But a letter signed by more than 20 chairmen of local Conservative associations was being handed in to Cameron’s Downing Street residence on Sunday afternoon.

“We feel very strongly that the decision to bring this bill before parliament has been made without adequate debate or consultation with either the membership of the Conservative Party or with the country at large,” the letter said.

It added: “Resignations from the party are beginning to multiply and we fear that, if enacted, this bill will lead to significant damage to the Conservative Party in the run-up to the 2015 election.”

One Conservative association leader, Geoffrey Vero, said Cameron should have taken the issue more slowly.

“I think a number of Conservative supporters and voters will sit on their hands on the issue and that may well seriously affect David’s opportunity to get re-elected in 2015,” he told Sky TV.

“We think that is a dangerous risk to take with your core supporters.”

PUBLIC OPINION

The proposals, due to come into effect in England and Wales in 2014, will also allow civil partners to convert their partnership to a marriage and enable married people to change their legal gender without having to end their union.

Usual rules requiring loyalty to the party line have been lifted for Tuesday’s so-called “free” vote and political analysts say as many as half of the 303 Conservative MPs might vote against the bill or abstain.

The issue has sparked heated debate in Britain, particularly among faith groups, but 55 percent of British people support same-sex marriage, according to a YouGov survey in December.

Gay marriage supporters say that while the existing civil partnerships for same-sex couples give the same legal rights as marriage, the distinction implies that they are inferior.

Cameron himself said two months ago: “I’m a massive supporter of marriage and I don’t want gay people to be excluded from a great institution.”

But the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches are both strongly opposed and the bill will not force them to conduct gay marriages.

Other religious groups, such as Quakers and liberal Jewish groups, could choose to marry gays, but under the proposals no individual minister would be compelled to wed a same-sex couple.

After the expected approval in the Commons on Tuesday, the bill will move to parliament’s upper house, the House of Lords, which is expected to vote on it in May before the bill returns to the Commons for a second vote.

(Reporting by Stephen Addison; editing by Andrew Roche)

Cameron has pledged his personal support for a gay marriage bill but many in his party and among his legislators oppose it on moral grounds and say the government has no mandate to push it through parliament.

As the bill is supported by Britain’s two other main parties, opposition Labour and Conservative coalition partners the Liberal Democrats, it is in no danger of being defeated.

But a letter signed by more than 20 chairmen of local Conservative associations was being handed in to Cameron’s Downing Street residence on Sunday afternoon.

“We feel very strongly that the decision to bring this bill before parliament has been made without adequate debate or consultation with either the membership of the Conservative Party or with the country at large,” the letter said.

It added: “Resignations from the party are beginning to multiply and we fear that, if enacted, this bill will lead to significant damage to the Conservative Party in the run-up to the 2015 election.”

One Conservative association leader, Geoffrey Vero, said Cameron should have taken the issue more slowly.

“I think a number of Conservative supporters and voters will sit on their hands on the issue and that may well seriously affect David’s opportunity to get re-elected in 2015,” he told Sky TV.

“We think that is a dangerous risk to take with your core supporters.”

PUBLIC OPINION

The proposals, due to come into effect in England and Wales in 2014, will also allow civil partners to convert their partnership to a marriage and enable married people to change their legal gender without having to end their union.

Usual rules requiring loyalty to the party line have been lifted for Tuesday’s so-called “free” vote and political analysts say as many as half of the 303 Conservative MPs might vote against the bill or abstain.

The issue has sparked heated debate in Britain, particularly among faith groups, but 55 percent of British people support same-sex marriage, according to a YouGov survey in December.

Gay marriage supporters say that while the existing civil partnerships for same-sex couples give the same legal rights as marriage, the distinction implies that they are inferior.

Cameron himself said two months ago: “I’m a massive supporter of marriage and I don’t want gay people to be excluded from a great institution.”

But the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches are both strongly opposed and the bill will not force them to conduct gay marriages.

Other religious groups, such as Quakers and liberal Jewish groups, could choose to marry gays, but under the proposals no individual minister would be compelled to wed a same-sex couple.

After the expected approval in the Commons on Tuesday, the bill will move to parliament’s upper house, the House of Lords, which is expected to vote on it in May before the bill returns to the Commons for a second vote.

(Reporting by Stephen Addison; editing by Andrew Roche)

Two key moments will be Cameron’s long-awaited speech on
Britain’s relations with the European Union, expected in the
next few weeks, and local government elections in May which
could prompt a revolt against Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime
Minister Nick Clegg.

Also expected to weigh on coalition sentiment in 2013 will
be the improved standing of Labour opposition leader Ed Miliband
and the rise of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP).

“It has always been tricky for Cameron and Clegg to present
themselves as united,” said The Observer. “This tension will
become more acute in the 12 months ahead.”

Unable to win an outright victory in the 2010 general
election, Cameron’s centre-right Conservatives persuaded the
much smaller, left-leaning Liberal Democrats to join them in
coalition to help solve Britain’s economic problems.

The unequal electoral strength of the two parties and the
ideological gulf between them have long encouraged Britain’s
newspapers to speculate whether they will be able to last
together until the next election in 2015.

Nowhere is the divide more marked than over Europe, with the
Conservatives increasingly divided on the EU as the euro zone’s
economic problems have worsened and the LibDems staunch in their
support for Britain’s EU membership.

“The coalition has proved far stronger than many wiseacres
had assumed and the two parties have agreed to differ in ways in
which some had thought impossible – but Europe may prove a
bridge too far,” said the Sunday Times.

The Sunday Telegraph warned: “The centre of gravity in the
Conservative Party is shifting unambiguously towards a much
steelier collective position on Europe.

“The question in 2013 is whether Cameron can keep pace with
his party on Europe…and still hold together his governing
partnership with the most Europhile party in the U.K.”

A defining moment, the papers agree, will be Cameron’s
long-awaited speech in which he is expected to give details of
how he sees Britain’s future relationship with Brussels. No date
for the speech has yet been announced.

UKIP THREAT

The rise of UKIP, which has been beating the LibDems in
by-elections this year, has sharpened the debate on Europe by
offering a potential alternative to anti-EU Conservative voters.

In November, for example, UKIP came second to Labour in the
safe northern Labour seat of Rotherham while the LibDems could
only manage eighth place.

Clegg’s standing among LibDem voters has plunged due to the
compromises he has had to make in coalition – notably on the
controversial tripling of higher education tuition fees – and
several observers predict he may face a leadership challenge if
May’s local government elections prove a disaster for the party.

“If the May results are as bad as expected, his party will
weigh up whether continuing with the service of the deputy prime
minister spells near certain obliteration,” wrote the Sunday
Times.

“A change at the top need not, of itself, destroy the
coalition but would, at the very least, change it beyond
recognition,” it added.

Among those who might replace Clegg, several pundits have
said, is former energy minister Chris Huhne if he wins a
criminal case being brought against him next year for allegedly
perverting the course of justice.

LABOUR GAINS

The prospect of a squabbling government and more economic
pain being heaped on voters as austerity measures cut even
deeper in 2013 could offer a real opportunity for Labour leader
Ed Miliband to increase his lead in the opinion polls, the
papers say.

“This time last year, Labour’s leader was still regarded as
a lightweight, but a showy party conference speech and some
steady (parliamentary) performances have changed that,” the
Sunday Times said.

But most commentators agreed Miliband needs to put more
flesh on the bones of Labour’s policies in 2013.

“What is missing is the picture inside,” said The Observer.
“It may be far too early for Labour to be trying to write a
detailed manifesto for an election…but in 2013 his rebooted
policy review will have to start producing some concrete
results.”

Contrasts abound between the glowing Olympic memories of the
past Summer and the relentless austerity to come.

“These memories have substance and will serve us well in the
bleak times ahead,” wrote the Sunday Telegraph. “But memories
are what they are and will be. What’s left will be jagged,
arduous and demanding.”

Tony Hall, a former director of BBC news, will replace
George Entwistle, who resigned as director-general this month
after failing to get to grips with a crisis which threw the
90-year-old state-funded organisation into turmoil.

Hall’s immediate task will be to rebuild the confidence and
image of a news organisation buffeted by the fallout from a
scandal centred on former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile, who died
at 84 last year and has since been exposed as one of Britain’s
most prolific, predatory child abusers.

“I care passionately about the BBC, about what it can do,
its programme makers and the impact we have,” Hall told
reporters.

“It’s one of those extraordinary organisations which is an
absolutely essential part of the UK, of Britain, of who we are,
but also has this incredible impact around the world, too.”

Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust which overseas the
broadcaster and appoints its director-general, said Hall had
been the only candidate approached, but denied there had been
any external pressure to rush the appointment.

“I’m delighted that in moving fast we’ve also managed to
find the out-and-out outstanding candidate,” said Patten, who
has warned that the future of the publicly-funded broadcaster
was at risk unless it underwent radical reform.

“If we’d spent the next four months on this, you would have
all been telling us we were off our trolleys and quite properly
as well,” he added.

A series of senior BBC managers have stood aside while
investigations continue into serious editorial failings, leaving
the broadcaster vulnerable to claims it lacks leadership.

Patten said Hall was “the right person to lead the BBC out
of its current crisis” and that his journalism experience would
be “invaluable as the BBC looks to rebuild its reputation”.

Hall, 61, who will take up the role in March, left the BBC
shortly after missing out on the top job in 2001.

He will also face the task of streamlining an overly
bureaucratic institution accused by its journalists of being
top-heavy with multiple layers of management.

CHAT SHOW

Entwistle lasted just 54 days in the job, quitting after the
BBC’s flagship programme Newsnight wrongly claimed a senior
Conservative politician had been involved in child sex abuse.

The broadcaster last week paid 185,000 pounds ($295,000) in
settlement to Lord Alistair McAlpine, a former treasurer of
Britain’s Conservative party, who had faced public opprobrium on
the heels of the Newsnight report.

Repercussions from the flawed programme have spread beyond
the BBC. Commercial rival ITV agreed on Thursday to pay McAlpine
125,000 pounds after a chat show presenter showed a card with
the names of alleged sex abusers during an interview with Prime
Minister David Cameron.

McAlpine is also pursuing Twitter users who sent messages
over the social network naming him.

Entwistle had been widely criticised for lacklustre
leadership in dealing with disclosures on Savile and Newsnight’s
dropping of an investigation into the late presenter last year,
shortly before the BBC broadcast programmes in tribute to him.

“The past eight weeks have been very traumatic for the BBC
but this is a significant day … (that) marks the beginning of
a new phase,” Patten said.

Hall’s appointment was widely greeted as a sound choice,
although there were some concerns at his limited experience
outside the publicly-funded sector.

“I’m delighted. I think he’s a very wise appointment,” Roy
Greenslade, professor of journalism at London’s City University.

“He’s a rare combination: someone who rose very high at the
BBC, but who’s also done well outside it.”

John Whittingdale, chairman of parliament’s media committee,
said the Trust had been sensible to move quickly in making a new
appointment but he questioned whether Hall would be able to deal
with reforming BBC bureaucracy.

“That, possibly, is an area where Tony Hall doesn’t have
experience and there might have been a case for somebody with
more external management experience,” Whittingdale told Reuters.

Tony Hall, a former director of BBC news, will replace
George Entwistle who resigned as director-general this month
after failing to get to grips with a scandal that threw the
90-year-old state-funded organisation into turmoil.

Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust which overseas the
broadcaster and appoints its chief, said Hall was “the right
person to lead the BBC out of its current crisis” and that his
journalism experience would be “invaluable as the BBC looks to
rebuild its reputation.”

Hall, who will take up the role in March, left the BBC
shortly after missing out on the top job in 2001.

His predecessor lasted just 54 days in the job, widely
criticised for lacking leadership amid a scandal centring on the
former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile, who died last year and has
since been exposed as a predatory serial child abuser.

Already under fire for his handling of the Savile affair,
Entwistle quit after the BBC’s flagship programme “Newsnight”
wrongly claimed a senior Conservative politician had also been
involved in child sex abuse.

“The past eight weeks have been very traumatic for the BBC
but this is a significant day … (that) marks the beginning of
a new phase,” Patten said in a statement.

In early reaction, media analysts greeted the appointment of
Hall as a sound choice.

“He is an insider in the sense that the BBC will not be
strange to him, but he is an outsider in the sense that he has
good experience of running quite a difficult public sector
institution, and doing so rather well,” said Steven Barnett,
professor of communication at Westminster University.

Hall, he added, was “definitely someone who the BBC can rely
on to get it out of the mess that it is in now.”

Roy Greenslade, professor of journalism at City University,
London said: “I’m delighted. I think he’s a very wise
appointment.

“He’s a rare combination: someone who rose very high at the
BBC, but who’s also done well outside it.

“I think he covers both essential facets of what you need in
a director-general. He has news experience – which will be
essential to clean up this Newsnight mess – and he has business
experience at the Royal Opera House.”

John Whittingdale, chairman of parliament’s media committee,
said the Trust had been sensible to move quickly in making a new
appointment but he questioned whether Hall would be able to deal
with reforming BBC bureaucracy.

“The area where there does need to be strong leadership is
in streamlining and getting to grips with the bureaucracy and
structure within the BBC,” Whittingdale told Reuters.

“That, possibly, is an area where Tony Hall doesn’t have
experience and there might have been a case for somebody with
more external management experience.”

(Additional reporting by Tim Castle and Peter Schwartzstein;
Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

The offending advert shows an Argentine hockey player
training in the Falklands – the contested archipelago in the
South Atlantic which the two countries fought over in 1982 – and
exercising on the steps of a war memorial to British soldiers.

The 90-second ad was made to coincide with the runup to the
Olympic Games in London this summer and ends with the
voice-over: “to compete on English soil, we are training on
Argentine soil.”

British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond called for the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) to examine the advert,
strongly condemning its broadcast.

“It’s tasteless, it’s provocative and very insulting to the
many British soldiers, sailors and airmen who gave their lives
protecting the Falklands,” Hammond told Sky TV.

“I think it’s a breach of one of the fundamental principles
of the Olympics – that politics are set aside, that nobody
should exploit the Olympic logo, the Olympic message for
political purposes and I hope the IOC will be looking at that.”

He stopped short of calling for Argentina to be banned from
the Games but added: “I think at the very least the Argentines
should withdraw that video and apologise for it.”

The advert is the latest in a series of diplomatic spats
between London and Buenos Aires over the past year. A move by
British companies to look for oil off the Falklands has
reignited old tensions, 30 years after the two countries fought
a brief war for control of the islands which Argentina refers to
as Las Malvinas.

The broadcast aired the day after the 30th anniversary of
the sinking of the Argentine cruiser Belgrano by a British
submarine, which led to the loss of over 300 lives, and comes as
the British and Argentine womens’ hockey teams prepare to meet
on Saturday in London for a pre-Olympic warm-up match.

DIPLOMATIC OFFENSIVE

The advert shows Argentine hockey captain Fernando
Zylberberg going through early-morning training exercises on the
Falklands.

He is seen running past several symbolic British landmarks
like the Globe Tavern in the capital Port Stanley, the offices
of the local paper “Penguin News,” and a red telephone box.

Most controversially, he uses a memorial to World War One
British soldiers to perform a series of step-ups.

According to Argentine newspaper Clarin, it was filmed when
the player was in the islands in March to compete in a marathon.

Foreign Secretary William Hague branded the advert a “stunt”
and accused Argentine President Cristina Fernandez of misusing
the Games.

Fernandez has launched a wide-ranging diplomatic offensive
to reassert Argentina’s claims to the remote islands, accusing
Britain of maintaining “colonial enclaves” and calling on it to
open sovereignty talks.

However, London refuses to discuss sovereignty of islands it
has ruled since the early 19th century for as long as their
inhabitants want to remain British.

Filmed without permission from the islands’ authorities, the
advert appeared to contradict a recent statement by the
Argentine government that it would not seek political gain from
the London Games which take place from July 27 to Aug. 12.

Argentine Sports Secretary Claudio Morresi told Reuters last
month: “The Argentine delegation will travel to London with the
conviction in their minds and hearts that the Malvinas are
Argentine but all they will be going to London to do is take
part in the sporting event.”

(Additional reporting by Rosalba O’Brien in London and Rex
Gowar in Buenos Aires; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

A spokeswoman for the Unite union said it needed to give
seven days’ notice, so a strike could begin next Monday at the
earliest.

The vote unnerved the Conservative-led coalition government.
The previous Labour government suffered a dent to its popularity
in 2000 when a previous strike led to petrol stations running
dry.

“With the London 2012 Olympics approaching, it is
unacceptable and selfish to behave in this manner and jeopardise
our international reputation,” Ed Davey, the minister
responsible for energy and climate change, said.

The union, which represents 2,000 members who are involved
in the action, said that drivers face growing job insecurity as
a result of insecure contracts and a ‘beat the clock’ culture.

“These votes send a clear message throughout the industry
and should prompt all the major companies to get around the
table to establish minimum standards,” Diana Holland, Unite
assistant general secretary, said.

CONTINGENCY PLANNING

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron said: “This
is obviously a great shame, but we’ve got plans in place to make
sure there’s minimum disruption to the country.”

The threat of a strike prompted the government to say over
the weekend that it might draft in soldiers to drive fuel
tankers.

“We are encouraging stocks to be built up, so that the
essential services don’t get left short,” Cabinet Office
Minister Francis Maude told Sky TV.

“And we have asked the Ministry of Defence to start training
a number of potential tanker crews, so that we can do our very
best to keep supplies going.”

Wincanton, the biggest company affected, has been
working with the government to keep tankers on the road.

Chris Kingshott, managing director for manufacturing at
Wincanton, said the strike appeared to be politically motivated,
to secure the right to bargain on behalf of the workforce across
the whole country.

“They seem to be arguing for national bargaining. It’s
impractical and we can’t do it. The drivers that are going on
strike operate in the top quartile for standards.”

Some 61 percent of those voting across seven companies were
in favour of strike action, the union said. There was an average
turnout of 69 percent.

Unite is the largest trade union in Britain and Ireland,
with 1.5 million members across a wide range of sectors.