Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

The BA Strike

As regular readers of this blog will know my views are often leaning left. I am a great supporter of trade unions and believe everyone should be a member. I was myself for a number of years a member of the white collar section of the Transport and General Workers, now enveloped in Unite. I think Unions can do a vital job helping and supporting their members, especially in cases where individual issues arise.

I am, however, seriously opposed to the modern use of the strike. I think the day when this was a meaningful weapon has long gone and it is now to industrial relations what lynching was to justice. Striking to cause maximum distress to families and loved ones trying to meet up at Christmas is mean, spiteful and in all respects despicable. BA cabin crew are overpaid and nothing like as good as those on Virgin flights. They have no excuse for this calculated mischief, ruining the plans of their innocent customers, which include especially the elderly and children at this time of year.

I hope they lose this fight and lose big. I wish their bosses had the bottle to sack the lot.

The Chilcot Enquiry

I like the way this inquiry into the Iraq war is going. I know there are some commentators and a good many disappointed lawyers who feel counsel should be employed so that witnesses can be put under pressure in cross examination to reveal a deeper truth. I think it is precisely because the atmosphere is relaxed and the method inquisitorial that we are learning as much as we are. High ranking diplomats and other officials are being extraordinarily blunt about their misgivings about Government policy and scathing about the incompetence and naivity of the Bush administration. They would be on guard under old adversarial system and would be far less frank.

This is why the record of public enquiries in recent years is so dismal. Not only have they cost the earth and the moon and stars as well, but they have had little credibility outside the Westminster village. This one is different. Already we know that our worst fears were well founded. And there is more, a lot more, to come.