RIP Bob Crow

Bob Crow 1961 - 2014

Looking through the news headlines this morning my I read "RMT Union Leader Bob Crow..." and immediately I thought 'Oh great what now.' I clicked on the link ready to get wound up by whatever Bob was going to be complaining about this time. As long as I have had an interest in politics I have had a dislike for Bob Crow, His complaints often seemed very self serving and trivial and his view of strike chaos being his ultimate symbol of success I always found abhorrent. However when I read that the final word of the headline was "..Dies" I actually found myself sitting in a mild state of shock. As tends to be the modern way I immediately went onto Twitter to try and cage the reaction of my fellow man and most seemed to be in agreement - there were a few distasteful comments, as there always are unfortunately, but the general view was altogether very respectful - Which is how I feel it should be. As much as I disliked pretty much everything about Bob Crow's Politics I still appreciate that he is a human being with family and friends who are in mourning.

When all of the nasty negative attacks were circulating after the death of Margaret Thatcher I did have a conversation with a "leftie" friend of mine in which I said. "How would you like it if everyone acted like this if Bob Crow died." Ironically I picked Bob Crow as I reasoned that despite being a Union Boss rather than a publicly elected official he has probably been the most important and gutsy Left wing politician since Gordon Brown sneaked away. Whatever your feelings on the politics of Bob Crow you can not say that he has had no effect and whilst I personally will not miss him from our political landscape I am sure that he will be greatly missed and I feel slightly sorry for whoever succeeds him as RMT Secretary as they will have very big shoes to feel - I do worry that in order to try and make a name for themselves they may over reach early on so I would expect some interesting times ahead for the London Underground.