Rail strikes not about pay but Tory bashing

RMT members are considerably overpaid by an industry dependent on public subsidy and patronage without which they would be out of a job.

The Government’s approach to the impending rail strikes should learn from Margaret Thatcher’s dealings with Arthur Scargill and the miners’ unions in the 1980s.

The rail strike may strictly be a dispute between private employers and employees, but the paymasters are the Government and the public.

We need to mobilise against tyranny at a time when we are threatened with rampant inflation. Outrageous union demands must be faced down.

J. H. PEARCE, Warwick.

It’s just political

I’M NOT surprised union baron Mick Lynch has called a strike to cause as much disruption as possible. We are just beginning to get back to normal after Covid so, as far as he’s concerned, this is the ideal time for industrial action.

It’s nothing to do with higher pay or better conditions, but is entirely political.

PETER WESToN, address supplied.

Holiday ruined

ThANKS to the selfish RMT union, I’ve had to cancel my longed for holiday to Paris by train departing on June 21.

Don’t railway workers realise their actions only affect ordinary folk trying to have a break or commute to a much-needed job? RoGER FoWNES, Bromsgrove, Worcs.

Throwing a hissy fit

ThANK you to the rail unions for putting two fingers up to the hardworking public. We all want better pay and conditions, but we’re not throwing a hissy fit about it.

The economy is struggling, we are trying to get back to some form of normality and a lot of people need to use the railways for work and recreation. how

selfish to put other people’s jobs and long-awaited holidays at risk.

K. GoLDSBoRoUGH, Brough with St Giles, N. Yorks. TheSe strikes are not about wages, working conditions or unsociable hours.

They are about one thing only: Bringing down the Government.

The terrible toll of the past couple of years has brought many of us to our knees. To go on strike at such a time is disgusting.

Mrs D. A. DoBSoN,

Beccles, Suffolk.

How do they manage?

I hAVe every sympathy for rail workers who are going on strike for higher wages.

To take an example at random, Mick Lynch, Secretary-General of the RMT, has to scrape by on a meagre package of £124,000 a year.

If that’s what the poor man has

to subsist on, no wonder he intends to bring the rail network to a halt.

JoHN WHAPSHoTT, Westbury, Wilts. YOu know the Covid crisis is well and truly over when the political scene returns to normal with Tory sleaze and strikes. GILLIAN PINNoCK, Glemsford, Suffolk.

Woke should wake up

The woke brigade should join the real world.

The latest ridiculous trigger warning is that students on a forensic science course may see photos of murder scenes.

TV viewers are warned they may get upset by news items.

What next? Scenes of violence in boxing matches being flagged up and Chris Packham on Springwatch telling viewers the show

may contain scenes of animal predation or procreation?

IVAN HoLDER, Welwyn Garden City, Herts. WITh archaeology students being warned about being shown pictures of human remains, we appear to have an educational system where you come out more stupid than when you went in.

T. PHILLIPS, London E10.

What Boris needs to do

ANDReW NeIL and Sarah Vine are right. For Boris Johnson to save his premiership and the Conservative party, he must change his attitude to leadership.

Whether he is capable of doing this is open to question.

he has been brilliant in matters such as Brexit, Covid vaccinations and the ukraine war, but has fallen short on the finer points of Tory policy and administration.

As he can’t seem to organise his own personal life, he finds it difficult to organise other people.

Sarah Vine is also correct about Dominic Cummings. Like him or loathe him, he had the organisational skills Boris lacks and was a strong influence in securing our exit from the eu.

Boris desperately needs people around him who can put him back on the right track and keep him there. Margaret Thatcher had Willie Whitelaw and Sir Bernard Ingham, two wise heads.

The Prime Minister must return

to the traditional Conservative principles of low taxation and small state government.

he has been unduly influenced by the green lobby and climate change zealots. Though important, these issues must be kept in perspective. I hope he can step up to the plate for his own good and that of the country.

DAVID MoRGAN, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. WhAT a state to be in: Britain is officially at the bottom of the economic growth forecasts for developed countries.

Is this the promised ‘taking back control’ or just the inevitable result of the Brexit bounce? JAMES RoBERT-PoULAIN,

Bexhill-on-Sea, E. Sussex.

Naps not apps

APPS are causing consternation, but not to everyone (Letters).

My 85-year-old uncle Jackie was told he would have to start ordering his daily pint and whisky at the local pub by app.

he said that wouldn’t be a problem as he generally needed a nap in the afternoon after the whisky and pint anyway . . .

KEITH BULLoCH, Halesowen, W. Mids.