These strikes are a gift to the Tories

Richard Manns

Wasn't Callaghan doing quite well in the polls until the Winter of Discontent?

What comes around, goes around...

pharbitis

I do hope you're right, Mr Forsyth, in believing the country will rally behind a govt which is set on curbing union power.
I look back to 1974 when the country showed it had lost its stomach for a fight. Heath's minority govt resisted the striking miners' union for six months until he went to the country on 'Who Runs the Country - Govt or unions?'
He lost.
Wilson gave in and unions ran amok, culminating in the Winter of Discontent in 78/79.
Anyone looking back at the 70s and early 80s would not want to re-live those times of militant unionism, strikes and violence.
There are really no winners - just some lost more than others. There is no victory in crushing large groups of working people who inadvisably trust too much in their unions. Cameron will have to walk a line between hitting workers and bashing ruthless union leaders who use their members as pawns in a power struggle -IF he wins.
If he doesn't....

GDT

I must be missing something - these strikes do absolutely nothing but alienate normal hard working people. I work in the private sector and have had a pay freeze. Due to hard times many jobs have been lost. What makes these sectors going on strike so 'special'.
On top of that it absolutely sticks one up the B*m of the Labour Party. Is this pay back for years on Labour neglecting their pals whilst riding high on public support?

emil

The BBC will either push this down below their next Ashcroft revelation or somehow find a way to convince the public that the strike is the fault of the Tories.

Austin Barry

It does seem odd and counter-intuitive that the unions would jeopardize its proxy's chance of re-election by resurrecting the 70s. The union leaders aren't that dim surely - although the picture of the hectoring thug Bob Crow may suggest otherwise.

Tendryakov

Pity that the Tories depend almost entirely on (1) the fact that they are not Labour and (2) accidentally fortuitous events.
Having said that, it's also fortunate that Tony Woodley has a scouse accent. Like it or not scouse is immediately evocative of militant union activity.

toco

It is a gift in the sense that it emphasises how the dysfunctional and alarmingly erratic Gordon Brown is in hock to Unite and his long term pal Charlie Whelan of 'Smeargate' renown.The fact that Unite effectively owns the Labour Party with its 65% funding and 160 Parliamentary candidates enables people to decide whether they are happy for these socialists to run their lives and their childrens' lives.I suspect their thumbs down will be hugely demonstrated within the next few weeks.

teledu

How's this for an unlikely scenario?
Brown delays disolving parliament for as long as possible. Union unrest escalates; there's civil unrest. Brown enacts some sort of emergency law giving him the power to stay on indefinitely,
Couldn't happen could it? Brown's an honoroubale man isn't he?

Fearless Frank

It's not too late as I write (about 7pm) for Gordon Brown to save the world from travel chaos thanks to his firm but fair way of negotiating with hard working British strikers and his excellent one-to-one relationships with reasonably minded union officials.
Or maybe Mr Whelan wants the party he has funded so lavishly to lose...

David Ossitt

“David Cameron recalibrated the party's European policy following the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.”

He will come to regret this; because, he will never be forgiven.

Martyn Rowe

The Tories need to be careful - when slamming the Unions - to differentiate between a Union member and the Union leaders.

Most Union members are normal, everyday people led to vote for Christmas like turkeys by the megalomaniacs running the Unions.

Cameron and co mustn't alienate these people.

My entire political standpoint is derived directly from my experience of a Union. My first job was at a great company; great working conditions, shopfloor staff earning a fortune - and every single day there was a battle between the bemused management and the militant Union. I worked in the offices where us office staff weren't union-affiliated. We just got to watch the battle.

Eventually, after strikes and constant war, the head office closed the factory, putting nearly 300 out of work - moving the business to England, where militancy was less evident.

You should see the faces of the ex-shopfloor staff now. Earning half what they did 15 years ago, far less perks and no job-security. They were all f**ked over by the Unions who led them up the garden path, breeding suspicion and disdain against a genuinely decent management.

Us office workers are all doing just fine.

After witnessing the lies, deceit, misinformation and bullying of their own people, I will never, ever trust a Union leader under any circumstance. From what I witnessed, they just ruined the lives of trusting, hard-working people, then walked away from the wreckage.

Robert Williams

Perhaps Labour are now getting alarmed at the prospect of winning the election & have come up with a cunning plan to land Dave with the mess.

2trueblue

Poor Gordon, bet he wishes he had called the election when the polls were hinting that it looked so good. The Tories can benefit from a lot of the news right now, but must not be seen to be enjoying it. Gordons chickens are coming home all at once and there is little good news on the economic front to come in the long or short term so Liebore have a real challenge, no matter how they play it. Lets hope that the Tories can be clear and use what events present themselves to nail Brown for the creation of our current mess.

anne allan

Another possible scenario is that this whole dispute has been stage managed so that shortly before the GE, Brown can sweep in like Superman, stop the strike and a grateful electorate will vote Labour.
Remember that a certain chum of Gordon's wanders in and out of Downing Street and Parliament as if he owned the joints.

strapworld

Mr Forsyth. You are suggesting that tories, like myself, should just 'overlook' the weak Cameron's slavish bowing of his head to his european masters and reneging on a referendum in such an arrogant manner?

ThatI should, in effect, support this man who could not lead anyone, never mind a party, out of a brown paper bag!

I will not vote tory whilst Cameron and his third rate team are in charge.

The strikes are a disgrace and a real leader would be offering himself to assist bringing the two sides together by hosting a meeting between the two parties, tonight!

But one should not be seen trying to help travellers who will be hit by these strikes! Just carp and shout nasty slogans.And make speeches. Opportunism.

Is that what our modern conservatives have come to?

Ian E

>>>David Ossitt posts:
“David Cameron recalibrated the party's European policy following the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.”

He will come to regret this; because, he will never be forgiven. <<<

Can I second that - it's UKIP for me and if that leads to a hung parliament then the traitor Cameron will be politically dead - and maybe then we can have a Conservative Party that will generate some real enthusiasm rather than being an anything-but-Brown option!

Charles

>>>Ian E posts:

Can I second that - it's UKIP for me and if that leads to a hung parliament then the traitor Cameron will be politically dead - and maybe then we can have a Conservative Party that will generate some real enthusiasm rather than being an anything-but-Brown option! <<<<

Cameron's policy was always clear: if there was a Treaty to vote on then we would have a vote. Unfortunately thanks to Labour AND the Liberals breaking their commitments a shabby deal got it passed into law. Why penalise the only party that objected?

Now the Conservatives have made clear that if there is a new treaty following the issues in Greece there will be a referndum on it. Again, keeping their promises. What more can you ask?

Chuck Unsworth

Unite, RMT, Teamsters.

Chuck Unsworth

Oh, and take a look at this - it's very revealing.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/teamsters-and-twu-stand-in-solidarity-with-british-airways-cabin-crews-88595457.html

Seems Mr Woodley is best buddies with the lovely Mr Hoffa. Then take a close look at the history of the Teamsters and the Hoffa family if you really want to be chilled.

Boudicca

Charles "What more can you ask?"
-----------

For a Tory leader who doesn't announce that there will be no EU Referendum because he believes that the UK belongs in the EU. For one who acknowledges that Maastrict and the Lisbon Treaty should not have been ratified without a Referendum and who pledges to allow the British people a retrospective vote on the UK's relationship with the EU. Then to take notice of the result - and if that means withdrawing from the anti-democratic, socialist leviathan - accepting the Will of the people - because he is OUR servant - not our master.

Tyndale

Whistling in the dark... as the ship goes down? Most of those who will resent the strikes are already Tory voters. Rattling skeletons from the 70s, when the Tory Mrs T was celebrated for staking the union vampire for good and all in the 80s, is counterproductive in so many ways. It frightens off Dave's new tories, who actually believe in fairness and decency, unlike most oif the parliamentary party, and it firms up the labour vote. Tories should be trying to solve the issue not inflame it.

David Lindsay

Like Arthur Scargill before him, Bob Crow does not exactly do the cause of trade unionism much good, and the prominence of him and his entourage actively hinders the emergence of a real alternative to New Labour. But on the safety point, has anyone bothered to check whether the signalmen might be right? They have been in the past.

Fergus Pickering

Tyndale, do explain to me how the tories can solve this particular isue. What, in your opinion, should they do?

GDT

Someone should stick a sock in Bob Crow's open mouth. World would be a better place for it!

Ali C

Lets not pick on bankers any more.

According to the Times (17/01/09), Derek Simpson gets nearly £200,000 in pay and benefits, with his pay package went up 17 percent. He also has the right to stay in a £800,000 house in Hertfordshire until he dies, after which his partner will be able to remain there at a heavily subsidised rate.

Simpson, according the Times website, demanded that the union subsidise his accommodation to "make it affordable" - a perk worth about £40,00, bringing his total remuneration to £194,252.

nice!

Dirty Euro

Do the strikes show the tory never fight for working or lower middle class people. They are always on the side of the elites. No matter what the issue!

Roy Smith

It has to be said that unions have been the downfall of British industry. Well known elsewhere as the British disease it has been a virulent deadly aberration to democratic countries with too loose a law in workers ability to disrupt beyond any range of fairness. Always exaggerated by management that lacks some fundamental reorganization that is often lacking.

Frank Leader

Gordon Brown ruined the economy, Stole money from Private Sector Pension Funds, Sold Our Gold at the Lowest Price. He is now short changing the State Pensions of many. With a record like this he should be dumped in the nearest Land-Fill site.

Also about half of Labour MPs and Half of the Cabinet are in the pay of unite. I bet there are a lot more skeletons in the cupboard.