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.




 

The Budget Cuts have Landed

Well the cuts are out there, well to be honest the actual details will be coming out over the next few weeks but we know the kind of cuts we are looking at.

Immediately the usual complaints started, The Unions asked why the Public Sector were the hardest hit, Labour asked why young families were the hardest hit, Age UK asked why pensioners were the hardest hit, Disabled groups asked why the disabled were the hardest hit - all whilst at the same time it actually turns out that the top 2% are actually the hardest hit and the top 15% stand to be 10k a year worse off. On top of all this several analysts have actually come out suggesting that Osbourne has not gone far enough. So what does this all mean?

Personally I think that this is probably proof that the cuts are, as Osbourne has been saying, spread across the board surely if everyone is complaining (Well not the middle class as after all there is no one to speak up for the silent majority.) then it means that the cuts are spread out.

Now obviously there are going to be complaints that the poorest are the hardest hit, but as I posted previously that is unfortunately unavoidable, when the country has run out of money it will be the people who are net costs to the state who will be hardest hit. It is very simple maths, if you receive more money from the state than you give then you will be at risk, for those of us who are net contributors then we will simply have to give more, there is a clear limit to what the government can withdraw from me and that is limited to Child Benefit as that is after all the thing they give me, in actual fact it goes to my wife so personally the government can not withdraw anything from me as they do not give me anything in the first place.

The only question that remains to be asked of the government is can they get all of the disparate groups who are feeling like the victims to see the suffering that is being spread around. If the coalition can not give a sense of empathy to the public then we may see that, as predicted by Socrates over 2300 years ago, Democracy is doomed to fail. Socrates stated of the Athenian Democracy Project that Democracy is always due to fail as the demos will always vote in their own interest at the expense of society, eventually resulting in a society which is unable to support itself (Sound familiar?)

Sir Philip Green Set to Save us £20Bn

Sir Philip Green has completed a review into public spending and has announced that he can save the country £20bn a year in efficiency savings based on procurement and economies of scale, apparently the owner of Top Shop suggests that there is a possibility of saving 6-700M in telecoms alone. This is really just confirmation of what we have known about the Labour Governments attitude to our money all along, The attitude seems to have varied from “It’s not our money so why worry.” All the way to “We need to spend as much as possible otherwise we won’t get as much next year.” And it is this attitude as much as the actual waste that needs to be challenged if we are to ever get a real chance of closing the budget gap, and this is not just the civil servants but has been led from the politicians from the top and the Unions who seem to feel their members have a right to waste this money.

Now this £20Bn saving, if it is achieved will help protect many front line services, unfortunately it will not mean a lot in helping the Quangos and other bodies already facing cuts as after all the deficit last year was £159.8Bn so a further £139Bn of cuts are needed (Just to break even, this will not even start to pay off our now 1 Trillion of debt (or 71% of GDP) simply stop us building up anymore debt and interest. But it is 20Bn less to need to spend than if Labour had been allowed to carry on their policies of waste. After all despite what the last administration seem to believe and the attitude of many people currently living off the state – This is our Money, It comes from our hard work and taxes and it is about time someone started to look after it!

Bob Crow Vs. London

Yesterday saw the second of the one day strikes by the RMT and another less known union - probably as they lack the marmite style leadership of Mr Crow - now as I work out in Bexleyheath this really should have had little or no effect on me, however this strike coincided with my companies annual management conference so I was forced to make my way into London.

There was plenty of debate over if the public supported strike action or the law should be tougher to stop it happening, personally I fully believe in the right of people to withdraw their labour, but I do fear that with an apparent desire for strike for strikes sake as demonstrated by Mr Crow and others (Unite for example) the public will start to support making it harder to down tools, and possibly make it illegal altogether. As I say I think that strike action very much has a place in a unions Arsenal, but if it is not used more sensibly I can see it being removed. For example, when the general public are desperate to keep hold of their jobs they will struggle to understand why BA need more air stewards than their competition (in fact more from Heathrow than Gatwick.) And like wise as you are struggling to get to work, or a job interview, it is hard to have empathy with guys being asked to work outside their ticket office, after they have been assured that there will be no redundancy.

So I would pass on a piece of advice to all Unions - pick your battles, you are out of touch with public opinion and in danger of losing everything.

The Launch of Nu Layb'R - Soft on Crime, Tough on the Victims of Crime

A strange thing happened to me this morning as I watched sunrise on Sky News, I actually gained a great deal of respect for Mr. Miliband, Not Ed obviously but David, I felt on Monday that his speech was very well written and delivered, much better than the excuse for a speech given by Miliband Junior yesterday, But what increased my respect for David is the comment he made to Harriett Haman during his brothers speech, whilst Edward (or should it be Redward?) was trying to pretend that the Iraq war had nothing to do with the Labour party David turned to Labours Deputy Leader and said ‘You voted for it, why are you clapping?’ finally a member of the Labour party who actually remembers that a great deal of the issues they are so upset about are problems of their own making.

As for Miliband the Younger’s Speech I think it was a weak speech, weakly given in which Jr tried to be a soundbyte to all people and ended up being a politician to no one. I actually gave an audible laugh to the comment he made about how New Labour had realised they had to be tough on crime as well as tough on the causes of crime, and they were right to do it!! Right to do what exactly? How out of touch can the Labour party be if they honestly believe that we live in a society where the man on the street believes that there is justice and the streets are safe, I would perhaps suggest that Labours mantra really should be “Soft on Crime, Tough on the victims of crime!” He came out with another claim to be the next generation of Labour (I know that Red is a little bit of a non-personality but surely people remember that he was in the last cabinet, so not exactly a fresh start, and surely if Ms. Harman is still involved we will still get the constant stream of ridiculous ill thought out edicts.) We have had Labour then New labour so I guess Lill’ Mill must be announcing the launch of Nu Layb’R

I think the real question is that when Ed Milibland (Yes I can keep coming up with new names.) gives a speech to the TUC what will he use as his entrance music? “Puppet on a String.” Or “A little help from my Friends”?

And the winner is ...

The Labour Leadership campaign is over and the Winner is Ed Miliband, despite not being able to hold the majority of support of MPs, Euro MPs and Labour activists, the stranger looking Miliband was able to overcome the odds and beat his much more experienced (and more normal looking - ok I wont keep going on about his look as it really isn't important in a politician but you have to admit he is a strange looking guy.) Brother.

Anyway, what does this mean for the country? personally I have no idea! in theory the fact that anyone is willing to vote for Labour, a party who have never had a government who have not bankrupted the country, is completely beyond me. but I am happier to be up against Ed than David as I think that the public are starting to see right through the Unions so I can't imagine anyone would happily elect the Unions boy to run the country.

Can a Council Outsource all Services?

Suffolk County Council has revealed plans to Out Source all of its services, they claim to be able to save approximately 30% of their 1.3bn pound budget. This will basically transform the council from a service provider to a contract manager.

When I first heard this I suspected it could simply be a headline grab and that there was even a chance that it was simply some grandstanding aiming at making a point to central government however the more I think about it the better it actually seems, after all, why do we feel that the government should be a service provider? I agree that the government have a duty for order and protection of the most vulnerable in society but have we become so convinced over the years that this can only mean direct service provision that we have stopped thinking there is any alternative?

Obviously the Union (Unison this time) have warned that this will lead to danger for the poorest members of society and there will be massive redundancy of the staff, but as I have mentioned before I would take more notice if the unions said something different just occasionally, but I doubt that is happening anytime soon.

Anyway, I do agree that this is a highly risky strategy and if Suffolk are to go ahead with this they really need to ensure that the contracts are well written and contain very clear service level agreements. I also hope that the government keep a close eye on it as although I doubt it will be a fit for all areas it will certainly be a very interesting model.

Bob Crow rattles his cage again

Just seen an interview with Bob Crow on Sky News calling for a campaign of civil disobedience in response to budget cuts. Mr. Crow has called for people to sit down in the middle of motorways. It sounds like a good way to campaign to me, just as long as he starts early and lets the tube passengers who are so regularly effected by his ridiculous demands of TFL know where he will be doing it. unfortunately though once again this loud minority will be the one to get the most protection, they probably wont let us drive through them.

Does the involvement of Unite weaken a protest

I heard today about a protest at Billingsgate Market, there were concerns over licenses and the workers were worried that it could be the end of the famous fish market.

I have been to this market a few times and it really is a great experience, I was concerned therefore when I heard about this, until I heard that it was our old friends Unite who were organising it. I am sure there is a chance that Unite have had legitimate protests in the past, but ever since the BA insanity, I have really struggled to take them seriously.

BA Vs. Unite - The Stupidity Continues

News is just starting to come through that Union Unite are to take British Airways to court over the ongoing dispute, particularly the withdrawing of travel privileges of strikers last year. Now I am not against Unite trying to get back the privileges to their members, this is after all what Unions are for. What made me shake my head in disbelief on this one was that they are taking them to court on grounds of Human Rights - I am guessing the Right to subsidised travel was somewhere hidden into the declaration of Human Rights where I wasn't reading.

Freedom from Persecution, Torture, Detention Without Trial and Free Flights to Spain!!

It seems to me that if the Staff of BA go into work and actually complete the work they are paid for, whilst they thank their lucky stars that even after the cost saving measures were implemented they will still have better than industry standard conditions, Then the management are bound to give it back. But first you have to let go of the righteous indignation that characterises the Unite members.

Unemployment Rises make (Bob) Crow's Day

A leaked presentation seen by the Guardian has announced that there may be a 1.5 Million rise in unemployment from the Public Sector. Now to deal with that first even the Guardian have admitted that the (Independent) Office for Budget Responsibility have said that the Private sector should create 2.5 Million jobs in the same period. These seems like typical Best Case/Worst Case politics, I would imagine therefore that we have to look somewhere in the middle to find the truth, supposing that without the Public Sector millstone round the nations neck the public sector should be able to create 2 million jobs, but there will probably be an increase of around 1/2 a million unemployed from the cut backs. However the main question here is how many people would have been made redundant had George Osbourne not decided to cut quick and fast? I have always believed that if the public debt got to 1.5 Trillion that it would have necessitated the near collapse of our public economy with a near total paralysation of our Private economy - surely a much higher level of unemployment would have followed.

So despite the fact that the case for these figures is in no way proved RMT Leader Bob Crow has called for a summer of wide spread strikes, he has called for all unions to join together with community groups to have full disruption to society. Now Bob Crow is considered one of the more extreme Union leaders (which could explain why the Train Drivers are constantly on strike - £30,000+ for sitting down holding a handle?) but I think this shows the typical arrogance and selfishness of the Union movement.
"WAKE UP, THE COUNTRY IS ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE"
This is not the time to try and destroy the economy, this is the time to pull together and work to try and undo the damage of 13 years of the worst financial management