Strikes: no justification

While I suspect that my political leanings are different to Christian Wolmar’s, I often find myself agreeing with him.

However, two recent comments had the opposite effect.

In RAIL 956, he states: “There is no doubt that given 30 of the past 43 years have featured Conservative-dominated governments which have regularly passed legislation hostile to unions, the tide needs turning.”

Really? When we are enduring a national rail strike? I suspect

that great numbers of the people who supply the pay, pensions and perks of railway workers, either by ticket or taxation, and whose own remuneration is far from the same level, would not agree.

Christian suggests that oldfashioned co-operation can solve the problem, but I suspect he is thinking about the sort of co-operation which took place around beer and sandwiches at No. 10, and which generally had only one winner.

And what can be the justification for disrupting the Tube on the

Platinum Jubilee weekend, other than simple ‘blackmail’?

Moving on to RAIL 957, Christian makes many valid comments about the Southeastern scandal, but concludes that this should result in full nationalisation, stating “… given the success of the Operator of Last Resort, which has been running trains on Northern…”.

Yet only a couple of pages earlier, was Barry Doe’s review of the May timetable. Having listed numerous cuts to services by Northern, Barry’s final comment was: “We can but wonder if Northern will sort out its

major problems by December.” Not a very good advertisement for the OLR or nationalisation! Geoff Fisher, Bolton