Saturday 26 November 2011

26th November 2011

Snow and Strikes, or should that be Strikes and Snow.

If it's Wednesday it must be England, to misquote a famous line from something or somewhere.

On Wednesday there will be a Strike.

And to reinforce the welcome home the weather forecast is for Snow.

Snow is no respecter of people.

Schools will be closed.

Roads will be closed.

Travel will be chaotic.

And, however many days of work will be lost.

The strikers will also be accused of not being respecters of people.

Schools will be closed.

Roads will be closed.

Travel will be chaotic.

And, however many days of work will be lost.

This strike is over pensions. Being for once, in the right place and the right age at the right time I am now a pensioner.

I even retired early so I can't comment, but I can understand the anger when, as it seems is happening, employment conditions are being changed without proper consultation and people will end up working longer and paying more, for less.

Politicians are in a mess over this, the Labour leader is compromised by what he knows will be forced on him if and when Labour is in power. The Conservatives are now hiding behind Danny Alexander who swears that blue is orange and everyone will be better off and they have been listened to.

We'll see what happens on Wednesday.

Italians are used to strikes, often happening at the drop of a hat and without warning.

Our recent visitors were stuck in Gatwick because a strike prevented their plane landing in Genoa.

Apparently the ground crew had walked out, fortunately they walked back in, so the travellers didn't have a sleep over at Gatwick.

But I imagine that some unlucky travellers couldn't join their cruise ships that day.

There are all sorts of reasons to strike but I still think that the work-in at Govan sent out a more powerful message and for that reason my true folk hero has always been Jimmy Reid rather than Arthur Scargill.

We fly on Monday but all week we have been receiving emails from the airline. I cannot quite see how a proposed strike on a Wednesday should affect a flight on the preceeding Monday but apparently check in has been brought forward half an hour.

If the previous two flights are anything to go by that will mean more time stuck in the special assistance lounge at Milan Malpensa watching Italian TV and sinking slowly into madness as the flight delay grows longer.

But there is an upside to all this, a silver lining to every cloud.

According to my newspaper today Downing Street staff are going to staff the Border Controls during the strike.

I am left with a picture of an Angry American ready to give someone hell after a gruelling delay, only to be left tongue tied as s/he is welcomed into a gridlocked Heathrow by an old Etonian!

Unfortunately we are flying into Edinburgh so in our case it will be Alex Salmond, pity it can't be Jimmy Reid. 

1 comment:

  1. I'm awaiting to see too. Probably will be less disruption than expected because of the strike and more than expected because of the snow. I'll watch both from a distance and ponder.

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