political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Iain, I know you are a student of industrial relations. I don't know whether you heard Bob Crow on the Today programme Friday morning, he didn't do very well at the hands of John Humphrys. "Raising suspicion that the ballot was rigged", was a good statement by Humphrys, and Crow's behaviour during the interview didn't help clarify matters.
Most people with industrial experience would have recognised the trademark union-organiser tactics of filibustering and minor point-scoring when trying to get the better of opponents. And now I hear the faux outrage at the word "rigged", well I'm not surprised. If I were taking unpopular action that would bring the railway system to a standstill I too would be clutching at straws to help build some sympathy for my cause, even if I had to manufacture a verbal slight, as Crow is attempting here.
I was wondering, given that the dispute is about health and safety, whether the Health and Safety Executive (or the railway equivalent) had been involved at all, after all we are quite good at implementing H&S regulations in this country. What would they say about the union's claims of unsafe working?
The Cortina is too cool for the role, the Maxi (http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2010/04/conservatives-take-all-joy-from-labours.html) was a better choice. There is absolutely nothing cool about Gordon Brown and so the car should be totally lacking in cool.
Given that the RMT rather famously isn't affiliated to Labour anymore and has supported other electoral campaigns for a number of years, isn't this a bit like us doing a poster with David Cameron and Stuart Wheeler in it?
From Postergirl
My car of choice for that poster would have been an Austin Maestro.
ReplyDeleteLabour were asking, variations on this theme are what most of us must have thought when we saw it.
ReplyDeleteAn i support neither party.
*yawn*
ReplyDeleteAs The Crow Flies:
ReplyDeletehttp://fxbites.blogspot.com/2010/04/as-crow-flies.html
Bob Crow gets lost in the matrix.
ReplyDeleteIain, I know you are a student of industrial relations. I don't know whether you heard Bob Crow on the Today programme Friday morning, he didn't do very well at the hands of John Humphrys. "Raising suspicion that the ballot was rigged", was a good statement by Humphrys, and Crow's behaviour during the interview didn't help clarify matters.
Most people with industrial experience would have recognised the trademark union-organiser tactics of filibustering and minor point-scoring when trying to get the better of opponents. And now I hear the faux outrage at the word "rigged", well I'm not surprised. If I were taking unpopular action that would bring the railway system to a standstill I too would be clutching at straws to help build some sympathy for my cause, even if I had to manufacture a verbal slight, as Crow is attempting here.
I was wondering, given that the dispute is about health and safety, whether the Health and Safety Executive (or the railway equivalent) had been involved at all, after all we are quite good at implementing H&S regulations in this country. What would they say about the union's claims of unsafe working?
The Cortina is too cool for the role, the Maxi (http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2010/04/conservatives-take-all-joy-from-labours.html) was a better choice. There is absolutely nothing cool about Gordon Brown and so the car should be totally lacking in cool.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Brown taking empty tins of beer and a brick to parties in the 70s? And after 30 years, he is still making himself just as popular...
ReplyDeleteThere's a cool one of Brown sat on a cortina in flares harking back to the 70's - hee hee.
ReplyDeleteBrianSJ ... surely an Austin All Aggro would be more appropriate.
ReplyDeleteBrianSJ
ReplyDelete"My car of choice for that poster would have been an Austin Maestro."
Too new for the early '70s. Should have been a Morris Marina.
Given that the RMT rather famously isn't affiliated to Labour anymore and has supported other electoral campaigns for a number of years, isn't this a bit like us doing a poster with David Cameron and Stuart Wheeler in it?
ReplyDeleteJust askin' as Iain would say.
Should've been a Lada. Soviet origin, way too expensive and crap reliability, crap to drive, in fact crap at everything.
ReplyDeleteno. this one is crap.
ReplyDeletethe quattro poster is much better.
bob crow head seems a little too large for his body!
ReplyDeleteand isnt bob crow rather over weight too.
bob crow has certainly never looked so cool.
Last time I looked Bob Crow was supporting John Marek - what happened to him I wonder?
ReplyDelete