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Politics Today

elginCity

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Jul 29, 2004
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12,935
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Swindon
Quite a likeable individual, clearly nervous but authentic as indo remarked. Think she’ll do better than expected.
 

Phil Sayers

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Jun 12, 2006
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10,691
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Kernow - battering a drunken Octopus
With regards the rail strike I am surprised that some opinion polls suggest 'almost 60%' of people support it. That is not remotely reflective of what I am hearing from friends, family and in the workplace. The near universal view has been that the RMT are taking the **** to be demanding a wage rise in line with inflation when they are already in comparatively well paid jobs and most everyone in the private sector accepts the brutal economic reality that real terms wage cuts are sadly inevitable in the current climate. It would be very different if the RMT were only demanding 3-5% increases but what they are demanding is simply unaffordable at present.
 

Rosencrantz

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Jul 12, 2019
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10,122
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Tiverton
Her performance in the hustings at Tiverton High School wasn't very impressive but when you either have to defend to indefensible or just evade answering the question asked it's a hard task. If she talked to parents at her school the same tone they would not have been impressed.
 

IndoMike

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May 9, 2010
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34,044
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Touring Central Java...
With regards the rail strike I am surprised that some opinion polls suggest 'almost 60%' of people support it. That is not remotely reflective of what I am hearing from friends, family and in the workplace. The near universal view has been that the RMT are taking the **** to be demanding a wage rise in line with inflation when they are already in comparatively well paid jobs and most everyone in the private sector accepts the brutal economic reality that real terms wage cuts are sadly inevitable in the current climate. It would be very different if the RMT were only demanding 3-5% increases but what they are demanding is simply unaffordable at present.
Most everyone in the private sector has to accept it.
 

lamrobhero

Active member
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
1,303
Location
Hangingstone Hill
I think that RMT members are employed by the private sector.
I think it suits both sides for this Unions v Government / Rail Companies conflict - welcome back to the 1970s.
Difficult to identify a rational reasoned approach. During the Southern Rail strikes some years ago there was a parliamentary committee hearing hearing evidence from Union leaders. It was put to them that there had been massive investment in the railways, a corresponding increase in productivity, that the benefits of this productivity rise had gone largely into wage increases and was this reasonable? For their part the Union leaders pointed out that a senior manager with the rail company had foreshadowed / looked forward to a conflict in itself, not just in terms of the issues involved.
 

arthur

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Aug 18, 2004
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11,484
Indeed.

How do you rate the terminally useless Zarah Sultana M.P. art ?
An embarrassment. Our favourite has to remain Emma Dent Coad who criticised the choice of judge to hold the Grenfell enquiry because "his background meant he couldn't have empathy with the victims".

Doubtless when he produces a corruscating report that takes no prisoners ( but creates plenty of potential ones), this remark, and others like it, will be quietly forgotten. The same happened with MacPherson and the Stephen Lawrence enquiry...
 

Phil Sayers

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Kernow - battering a drunken Octopus
Most everyone in the private sector has to accept it.
Would it be right for me as a lawyer to demand a 11% wage rise and go on strike if my employer refused? Clearly not as that would seriously prejudice the position of my clients which I would not be willing to do under any circumstances. The RMT has no such qualms about preventing their own 'clients' from getting to work which will in turn impact the return their employers get from them leading to wage stagnation and potentially redundancies.

Edit: Criminal law barristers are however going on strike. That is because they genuinely are poorly paid (when compared to the overall legal sector and in any event probably less than the average RMT member) and the Crown Court will adjourn hearings rather than allow criminal law proceedings to go ahead in the absence of professional representation.
 

Egg

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Apr 6, 2004
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9,670
To me, She sounds insincere and will fit in very nicely if elected with the rest of the 2019 intake, These MP's that came in on that election are the worst Tories, You might not have agreed with previous Tory Governments but even those Tories of the past wouldn't have stooped so low as this lot do and the 2019 intake are really Johnson's foot soldiers.
Funny you should say that....
I have covered many by-elections and Hurford is the worst candidate I have found. Initially she says she wants to share “all my ideas and my aspirations for the Tiverton and Honiton”. The definite article is singular to her; she considers everything from her own perspective; her speech is filled with exclamation marks; its content is banality meets rage. “I know what it’s like to raise a family and be brought up in this area,” she says. “It’s beautiful! I’ve had lots of ministers coming down to support me and they’re saying, ‘isn’t it gorgeous?’ and I say, ‘Yeah it is, why would you want to live anywhere else?’”

A woman in a straw hat rises to ask: “In light of the resignation of two ethics advisers in less than two years, what is your personal view on the moral character of Boris Johnson?” “It’s hard to know where to start, just the lies, the repeated lies,” says Liz Pole, looking phlegmatic because the alternative is screaming: “The brass neck of the man.”

“The first part of that question, I believe, was about the resignation of the ethics advisers,” says Hurford. “It’s very Westmistery. That’s the expression I use. I’m not in Westminster but my understanding is that it was a commercially sensitive issue.” There are heckles at this, but she moves through them like a tank: “That’s what I’ve been told, thank you very much!” The chair presses her: do you have any concerns about his character? “I have no concerns that his pledges are honest”. Foord says: “To lose one ethics advisor could be regarded as misfortune, but to lose two ethics advisers can only be carelessness.”

Hurford is pressed on the cost of living (“I’m feeling it too!”) the environment (“I don’t have the answer!”) and the policy of sending refugees to Rwanda: when the refugees get there — “and it will happen” — they should “be treated kindly and fairly!” She summons Zelenskyy in her support and, at the end, when she is asked who her favourite thinker is, she names her grandfather. (Westcott names Gandhi, Pole Dickens and Foord W. B. Yeats and Paddy Ashdown). “You know, I hated school,” Hurford says conversationally, and it sounds like the truest thing she has said. “Slightly ironic that I became a head teacher.”

I think of May Welland from The Age of Innocence: Hurford has that hard, unyielding brightness. It shines. It lets nothing in. She is a typically Johnsonian Tory; evasive, anti-intellectual and self-obsessed; quick to anger when threatened, slow to change her mind, if she ever does. Every time she speaks, I feel materially closer to autocracy. At the end she says: “This is a fantastic opportunity for a girl that was born and raised and absolutely adores this constituency Tiverton and Honiton”. I wonder if she will burst into song. “Everything that I do will be for the benefit of Tiverton and Honiton because I am Tiverton and Honiton.”
From: https://unherd.com/2022/06/the-tories-deserve-to-lose-tiverton/
 

DB9

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Joined
Jun 19, 2005
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24,504
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Hampshire. Heart's in N Devon
With regards the rail strike I am surprised that some opinion polls suggest 'almost 60%' of people support it. That is not remotely reflective of what I am hearing from friends, family and in the workplace. The near universal view has been that the RMT are taking the **** to be demanding a wage rise in line with inflation when they are already in comparatively well paid jobs and most everyone in the private sector accepts the brutal economic reality that real terms wage cuts are sadly inevitable in the current climate. It would be very different if the RMT were only demanding 3-5% increases but what they are demanding is simply unaffordable at present.
They've asked for 7%, Inflation is at 9.1% There is also the matter job cuts and working conditions, Plus its only been highlighted what drivers are paid, There are a lot of rail workers on just over £20k pa, Bit like when Public sector workers ask for a rise, They concentrate on the big earners who are really in the minority, Not the cleaners, Security Guards etc. The rail workers are NOT public employees, They are private sector workers simply because the rail companies are privatly owned, Network Rail is Government-owned company/Non-departmental public body (incorporated as a private company limited by guarantee without share capital) (Had to google that) so really its private/public owned (I think)

As for the poll support, I've heard the opposite, If this was just about pay then i think they'd be on a loser but its not and because the rail workers were lauded for working through the pandemic this is given them more sympathy plus with the threat of trying to make these strikes illegal it will garnish support because if you can't withdraw your labour by law then the management/Government can put anything to you and you'd have to accept it, Remember RMT didn't call the strike unilatrily, They balloted their members (Which they have to do by law) and there was overwhelming support for it and the RMT are only carrying out their members orders, Totally democratic.
 

DB9

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Jun 19, 2005
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Location
Hampshire. Heart's in N Devon
Would it be right for me as a lawyer to demand a 11% wage rise and go on strike if my employer refused? Clearly not as that would seriously prejudice the position of my clients which I would not be willing to do under any circumstances. The RMT has no such qualms about preventing their own 'clients' from getting to work which will in turn impact the return their employers get from them leading to wage stagnation and potentially redundancies.

Edit: Criminal law barristers are however going on strike. That is because they genuinely are poorly paid (when compared to the overall legal sector and in any event probably less than the average RMT member) and the Crown Court will adjourn hearings rather than allow criminal law proceedings to go ahead in the absence of professional representation.
You don't "Demand" it, If you're in a Union then that is what you pay your subs for, They represent you and they don't go in demanding things straight from the off, Striking is a final option, A lot of talking goes on before a strike happens, The RMT are only answerable to their members, Not Joe Public
 
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