Good luck on the whole redundancy front; the place I've been working for has had three rounds of redundancies in the past 18 months, with the last one not complete yet. I've put in for voluntary redundancy this time as it looks like the European side of things in WorldCom are almost completely screwed and I'd like to get out of the company with something.

As for who they make redundant... they can't hit new starters first as that is targeting people which is a big no-no under UK employment law. Strictly speaking they can only make roles redundant, not the people who occupy those roles.