BA cuts backfire

Last year British Airways made hundreds of its computing staff redundant and moved the work to India. No doubt that paid for some juicy dividends and executive bonuses, the usual motive for corporate greed.

But on Saturday the entire computing system crashed. No BA flights could take off. Tens of thousands of passengers spent the Bank Holiday milling around Heathrow and Gatwick, which were paralysed because of the high proportion of BA flights using those airports.

BA could not move baggage or issue credentials to passengers and told thousands more of its customers to abandon their journeys and not travel to airports. Aircraft arriving at Heathrow and Gatwick could not park up because BA aircraft could not leave the gates they were parked at.

It was a perfect example of Britain in 2017 – the cost-cutting, the management arrogance, the destruction of the jobs of loyal and dedicated staff, the damage to the company itself as a result of downsizing and outsourcing.

And another thing was characteristic: the GMB union sticking up for the BA staff who were got rid of and pointing out the stupidity of making them redundant.

And another thing is also characteristic of Britain in 2017 – the actions of a Conservative government, funded by company bosses, trying to weaken trade unions because they are determined that working people should not have a voice.

It did not used to be this way and it does not have to be this way in the future, if we vote to change.

ROSI MACKENZIE Beaufort Road, Edinburgh