INDUSTRIAL: Power workers will continue a strike until July 22 as Unite urges London Underground management to return to negotiations. 

The strikers called out Tube bosses on their “penny-pinching” attitude in refusing to recognise true length of service in pensions and entitlements for some workers. 

Unite, the union representing them, said that “inexperienced and poorly trained staff” covering striking workers’ duties made a major error in switching on the power supply last Saturday. The technicians have been on strike since July 1.

COURTS: A man accused of assaulting a police officer had his charges dropped yesterday and changed to police obstruction after a first hearing.

The defendant, a black man from south London, was arrested in Brixton last month after officers from the Territorial Support Group accused him of being a drug dealer. The London Campaign Against Police and State Violence claims the man was assaulted by the police — despite collaborating with their requests.

The case will be heard again at the Inner London Crown Court on July 22. Campaigners are organising witness appeals. 

POLITICS: Ex-deputy PM John Prescott blasted Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee yesterday for blaming Labour’s electoral defeats on Dennis Skinner and Tony Benn. 

In a letter to the Guardian, Mr Prescott reminded readers that Ms Toynbee was a founder member of the anti-union SDP, which split from Labour in 1981. 

“It’s fair to say Polly and her fellow ‘social democrats’ made a much larger contribution to keeping Labour in the wilderness for 18 years than Skinner and Benn ever did,” the Labour peer wrote.