Rail workers being duped by unions
WHEN will the continuous Boris bashing over Partygate ever stop gracing the pages of our TV and press? As the old saying goes, ‘yesterday’s news is tomorrow’s chip paper’. Another saying is ‘he (or she for the PC brigade) who is without sin cast the first stone’.
Mr Johnson was elected handsomely at the last election, ‘warts and all’ and most people rallied behind him in spite of, or probably, because of his character.
Soon after his election we had the difficult Brexit deal to conclude with all the pitfalls of such a massive undertaking and then the Covid pandemic, which hit the country for six. His vaccination success for our country while other countries, particularly within the EU, dithered was a credit to him, as history will prove, mainly because we were no longer shackled to the EU collective doctrine. A bitter pill which the remainers, much of the media and the EU still find hard to swallow.
Now he is being blamed for the fuel and food crisis and inflation. So let’s put things in perspective, particularly with regards the first two. Putin’s aggression in Ukraine is entirely to blame for the world being denied adequate grain supplies and the West’s sanctions against Russian oil and gas has led to shortages of these commodities. Some would say that the West has cut off its nose to spite its face, but if it helps to stop Putin’s aggression, it has to be a price worth paying. This government pumped billions into the economy through the furlough scheme to protect jobs (airline bosses please note). It also pumped billions into the (at the time) underused railways to keep them viable and enable railway workers to continue to earn their normal wages. Now, as we face a ‘summer of discontent’, the three openly communist leaders of the rail unions are repaying us with threats of strike action to bring our country to a standstill.
And who will be paying the price for their selfish greed? The very population whose sacrifices helped to keep them in their jobs in the first place. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! Railway workers’ pain is nothing compared with the pain experienced by our dedicated nurses and health workers to bring us through the pandemic, who still earn a pittance in comparison with many railwaymen (and women, for the PC Brigade).
No, I believe the railway workers are being duped by their union leaders to undermine this country, which can only help Mr Putin to look on with absolute glee. Shame also on Labour for not condemning their unpatriotic action at this critical time in our history, but I suppose they are hardly likely to upset their union paymasters.
As history shows, 40 years ago Labour wouldn’t back Mrs Thatcher’s stance on the Falklands but fell over backwards to back Mr Blair’s lies for the invasion of Iraq. Can we ever trust Labour to do the right thing? Boris Bashers be careful what you wish for, there could be worse around the corner!
Edward Kynaston
Lydney, Gloucestershire