A fresh strike by firefighters looks certain to go ahead next week after new talks aimed at resolving the bitter pay dispute ended without agreement today.
As the current eight-day strike entered its final full day, leaders of the Fire Brigades Union met local authority employers for more than three hours in a central London hotel but no new offer was made.
Mike Fordham, assistant general secretary of the union, said as he left the talks that the government's position in the dispute had been "less than helpful".
The present strike ends at 9am tomorrow and the next eight-day action, due to start next Wednesday, remained on, according to Mr Fordham. "The employers have made their position clear as well as that of the government. No new offer or proposals have been put to the union."
Charles Nolda, chief executive of the employers' organisation, said the two sides had a "useful" exchange of views during the talks. He said there was still time for the union to call off next week's strike.
He described the atmosphere in the talks as "very businesslike and perfectly amicable", but stressed that the employers were now focusing on modernising the fire service.
Both sides will hold separate talks on Monday, with the union's executive having to decide whether it wants to call further industrial action after Christmas.
Today's talks were held in a hotel about 100 yards from a firefighters' picket line next to Euston railway station in London.
Earlier, John Ransford, one of the employer's negotiators, said the talks were to exchange notes at "secretarial" level and called on the union to suspend next week's strike to allow "technical work" to continue unimpeded by the dispute.
This morning, the prime minister, Tony Blair, repeated his warning that firefighters will not achieve anything through strike action. And last night the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, wrote to Sir Jeremy Beecham, chairman of the local government association, to make the government's position "absolutely clear".
Mr Prescott wrote that the government would not risk economic stability and would insist that "any pay award not affordable within existing public expenditure provision must be paid for by modernisation".
Employers must not commit the government to any additional funding and any agreement must set out how additional pay would be met by savings through modernisation, said the letter. "These negotiations are between you and the Fire Brigades Union," Mr Prescott wrote.
"But there are serious implications for government, for public sector pay policy as a whole, and the broader public interest. Therefore, it is right that the government is kept fully up to date with the discussions. I will be appointing a named senior official to act as the government's point of contact so that there is regular reporting back to ministers on the progress in the negotiations."
Before today's talks broke up, Andy Gilchrist, general secretary of the FBU, said he was "bewildered" by the government's actions. Meanwhile, the union announced it will stage a march and rally in central London next weekend [December 7] in support of its pay campaign.
Mr Blair was today visiting a territorial army centre in Darlington, Co Durham, when he was heckled by angry firefighters from behind the metal railings of an adjoining used car garage.
He stood impassively and watched a mock car crash which involved army and RAF crews using a green goddess, a reserve red fire engine and a rescue vehicle with breathing gear.
The strikers, standing around 100 yards away shouted: "Come and talk to us Tony Blair, come on Blair you can't hide forever ... don't be shy Mr Blair, you may as well talk to us, because Prescott doesn't know what he is talking about."
After the 15-minute rescue demonstration Mr Blair met members of the 40th regiment royal artillery and thanked them for their efforts. He spent about 15 minutes having a cup of tea with army, RAF and the police staff who are stationed at the centre during the strike. On leaving the center, Mr Blair was adamant the current strike action would not achieve anything.
He said: "Under the existing pay formula which has been in place for 25 years, there's 4% on the table. That's as much as anyone is getting in other parts of the public sector. If they want more than that, it's got to be paid for by a change in working practices and people have to get round the table and negotiate on that basis.
"We have got to look at the broader interests of the country. If they want to change the existing pay formula, then fine, but not by a series of strikes that cannot be justified.
"The armed forces have coped brilliantly and we have learned about shift work and part-time and full-time people responding to incidents together and these are the basic changes that can be achieved. We have learned a lot from how the armed forces have coped while the firefighters have been on strike."
The prime minister was later jeered again by firefighters and their supporters. Around 100 protesters blew whistles and sounded klaxons as Mr Blair's official motorcade arrived at Gosforth high school on the outskirts of Newcastle where he was opening a £9m new wing.
After the visit, as the prime minister's Jaguar swept past the demonstrators on its way to the Nissan plant in Sunderland, many of the firefighters turned their backs and loudly voiced their claims for more pay.
