Adding fuel to a taxing time

While some this week around Westminster have been adding fuel to the fire, others have been busily trying to defuse the fire around them. The latter operation has been of some success.

The next few days could still be crucial, and in the words of the chancellor caught up in the 10p tax row, those government concessions "will take time" - but at least some of the wounds are being healed.

The same can't be said for the dispute at the Grangemouth oil refinery, where time really did run out at those London conciliation talks and the whole of Scotland is beginning to feel the pinch.

The week began with MPs returning from their rather late Easter recess, ready to do battle with a prime minister and chancellor who were determined to stick to what both men continually refer to as their "steady" course.

But Labour backbenchers - supported by the opposition parties - were more than ready to blow them off that course, with a threatened rebellion over the abolition of the 10p tax rate that could have given Gordon Brown his bloodiest nose since taking power.

The prime minister, who was addressing the STUC in Inverness on Monday, still couldn't quite bring himself to see the error of his ways - although in his speech he did admit that there might, just might, be a tiny little bit of a problem.

Waiting for him back at the Commons, was that problem.

More than 70 Labour MPs wanted help for those worst hit by the controversial policy.

Mr Brown turned up to address those backbenchers to try to defuse the escalating row and by the next morning it was clear that ministers were at last beginning to realise that calming this row was absolutely crucial.

Fast forward a few days and that's exactly what happened.

Before Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions, help was at hand from the chancellor, for the five million or so lowest paid who are disadvantaged by the scrapping of the 10p rate.

Mr Brown might have ended up being taunted by the opposition parties in the chamber, for weakness, for a u-turn, for dithering and "panic-measures" ... but he's managed - so far at least it seems, to avert a potentially explosive disaster.

A few miles down the river, that other dispute was being discussed.

This time there were no politicians involved, but the impact of a shutdown and a strike at Scotland's only oil refinery has big political ramifications.

Queues at petrol stations, forecourts running out of fuel and the possibility of emergency measures being introduced simply aren't a good look for a government, and that's any government.

And so ministers in London and Edinburgh had been hoping desperately that round-the-table talks at Acas headquarters might do the trick.

It looked hopeful to start with - as Unite's union chief and the chief executive of Ineos shook hands and entered discussions behind closed doors.

But when news emerged of a defamation case being lodged against the union by the company, all hope really began to fade that a strike by the 1,200 workers at Grangemouth might be averted.

Add to that development, a little fuel on the fire you might say, were 40 Labour MPs accusing the management of "aggressive tactics" and backing the unions fight over pension rights.

The situation began to look irretrievable.

And so it came as little surprise that the talks, even after 17 hours, broke down without a resolution.

Pretty forlorn

Ministers on both sides of the border know that even if this weekend's stoppage can't be prevented, it's crucial that future shutdowns and any escalation in the dispute are avoided.

That means getting both sides, however deadlocked, back around the negotiating table.

That seems a pretty forlorn hope right now.

Neither side has a good word to say about the other.

Ministers will this weekend be breathing a sigh of relief that they did enough to buy off the Labour rebels.

They'll only wish it was so easy to cool the fire at the refinery.

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