ASLEFJOURNAL JULY 2019 The magazine of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers & Firemen Going Underground

Meet me by the entrance of the Tube – District 8 special report plus The train drivers ’ Daniel Davis on how to change your community in three minutes; Dave Tyson on the Norwich banner; and Gregor Gall on blacklisting union since 1880

GS Mick Whelan ASLEF’s on track ASLEFJOURNAL JULY 2019 The magazine of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers & Firemen for a diverse and modern railway E HAVE only just W returned from the Mick: ‘Our most diverse AAD first report we’ve had in our 139 year showed the history but there is still a long industry in a way to go before the employers bad light’ have systems in place that encourage proper career mapping and are truly reflective of the communities in which we live 7 and work. 10 In 2012 we published the first On Track with Diversity report which revealed the rail industry News to have very low numbers of women, young, l GTR under fire for ‘false’ passenger poster 4 and black and minority ethnic drivers. We used that report to hit every HR director’s desk and l Susan Calman on her specialist subject – 5 say, ‘We have membership density in this trains – plus Simon Armitage, Roger Scruton, industry in the very high nineties but can only Tim Finch and Neil Jordan go Off the Rails recruit as members the drivers you employ.’ The situation was compounded by the McNulty l New report: On Track With Diversity 2019 6 Report and a Tory government which tried to l Tube drivers’ pay offer is not good enough 7 blame the unions for the lack of diversity on the grounds of ‘flexibility’ – the same government l Soham rail explosion heroes remembered 8 12 which, when asked by us to introduce an Features equalities impact assessment before awarding a franchise, refused. Two decades of campaigning l Daniel Davis on how you can start to 10 for job shares, flexible working, pre-retirement change your community in three minutes links, and reduced hours working, in the years before part-time working attracted pro-rata l DO8 Finn Brennan reports on TfL, London 11 Underground, and the Mayor of London rights to leave and pension, have all been conveniently ignored. l Going Underground: Finn Brennan, Gary 12-13 We launched an updated version, On Track Comfort, Kris Davis, Trevor Robinson and with Diversity 2019, at the Palace of Westminster Marc Tanner on 17 June, calling on employers (not all are bad) to work with us to create more Gregor Gall on the blacklisting scandal that 14 l opportunities to build a workforce which better blights construction sites like Crossrail represents the communities we serve. To those l Dave Tyson proudly unfurls (and explains) 15 14 companies who refuse to respond we will be the history of the new Norwich banner asking what you have to hide. Are you playing Conservative Bingo? Who’s Regulars going to be the next Tory leader, and unelected Prime Minister, with 13 initially out of the traps, l Branch News and 100 Years of Union 16-17 including old union-hating, union-baiting Boris l Obituaries 19 Johnson, the worst London Mayor and Foreign Secretary we’ve ever had, with spectacular Letters and Classified Advertisements 20-21 l integrity and moral issues. Only two candidates, l Last Word: Chris Proctor ponders the big 22 of course, go to members of Conservative question – was she the worst PM in history? 15 constituency associations. Not one of them has pledged to reduce l On Track: Richard Holbrooke and the 23 poverty, food bank usage, or the widening US in Vietnam; Prize Crossword; wealth gap; increase benefits and the minimum Legal Services; and Change of Address wage; scrap tuition fees or the public sector pay Cover: Alice Underground gap, rehome the victims of Grenfell, or protect linocut by Gail Brodholt those in Britain’s core industries which are now under threat. Instead we hear about tax cuts for The ASLEF Journal is published every month by: the rich. Whoever wins should be obliged to call ASLEF, 77 St John Street, London, EC1M 4NN an immediate general election to allow real life Tel: 020 7324 2400 l email: [email protected] 23 and death issues to be discussed for a better website: www.aslef.org.uk l twitter: @ASLEFUnion future for this once great nation.

EditOR Mick Whelan l dESiGNER Michael Cronin l PRiNtER College Hill Press, London, SW19 4HE Yours fraternally AdvERtiSiNG ASLEF Journal, 77 St John Street, London, EC1M 4NN. Contact Keith Richmond on 020 7324 2407 Mick Whelan, general secretary or [email protected] l clASSiFiEd AdS [email protected] or call 020 7324 2400. The acceptance of a display or classified advertisement does not necessarily imply endorsement of that product or service by ASLEF chANGE OF AddRESS Please post your details to ASLEF, 77 St John Street, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 4NN

July 2019 l The ASLEF Journal 3 News

Standards Authority You spin me round as the poster campaign ‘completely erases the true like a wonky record history of the company’s failure, TR is under tangible passenger without even a hint of fire from benefits and we want an apology. It is clear G passengers to hear how you to us that the and industry analysts want to spend it: advertising materials after an extraordinary either at your local are an attempt to attempt to pull the station or on a wider derive PR value and wool over the eyes of passenger benefit reputational capital their ‘customers’ – as scheme.’ the GtR timetable debacle caused misery for from what is the company likes to GTR was fined by tens of thousands of commuters; and the ‘PR essentially a false call commuters – the ORR after the spin’ poster that has angered passengers political following the timetable fiasco in communication in a privatised train spring last year and etc. One passenger, £15 million on public space.’ operator’s run-in with ordered to spend Simon Tilley, dryly passenger benefits…’ The ORR is also the Office of Rail and £15 million on tweeted John Cannon understood to be Road. improving its service. @roguetrader1980: @johnmcannon unhappy because ‘it is Posters have Not that you would ‘You typed it in a wrote: ‘I think you And Commuter highly doubtful’ that appeared at stations know the truth from hurry and messed up. should be explaining Justice posted: ‘It’s a ‘any such served by Southern, the company’s Fear not. Mr T has why you suddenly fine because you improvements’ will Thameslink, and expensive PR spin. fixed your have money for screwed up.’ ‘constitute Great Northern, Thameslink grammatical error’ passenger benefits. The Association of reparations to those announcing: ‘Govia tweeted @TLRailUK: and waspishly – but Customers need to British Commuters who were affected by Thameslink Railway is ‘We have £15 million accurately – changed know this is a fine for has now reported the the breach of contributing £15 to spend on the opening to ‘We your woeful company to the passenger million towards passenger benefits’ have to spend performance’. Advertising information rules’.

LUCIO ELECTED TWEETS OF THE MONTH Lucio Buffone, Paddington branch chair and Lights! Camera! Action! GWR company council, has been elected to Where on earth was Michael Gove the national committee of LGBT+ Labour, the when we needed a Tory leader that campaign for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans was passionate about coke? #Orgreave rights, on a job share with Maria Exall, of the #MinersStrike #TruthAndJistice #Gove CWU, as trade union liaison officer. #Thatcher www.otjc.org.uk Richard Fisher @Aslefisher CROSSRAIL OF THE NORTH More than 5,000 businesses have called on the Number of jobs at risk from the government to invest in a £39 billion high collapse of British Steel is over 32,000, speed rail link – dubbed the Crossrail of the much higher than previously feared – new North – across the north of England. study by @GMB_union @AlanJonesPA ARE FRIENDS ELECTRONIC? Members can receive the ASLEF Journal – and BBC bosses blundering badly again by reps can receive circulars – electronically if dan Smith, executive producer of an itN not loudly pinning blame on election they choose to do so. Just contact admin at documentary about crossrail, to be manifesto promise breaking Tories for head office. broadcast on channel 5 this summer, spent axing free TV licences. The corporation will an hour interviewing GS Mick Whelan at carry the can unless it revolts. Tony Hall’s head office in St John Street last month. effing this up big time QUOTE… @Kevin_Maguire ‘The Intercity 125 was probably the most iconic train operating in the UK.’ Duck! Donald offers Brexit Britain a Let’s celebrate the moderation of – Andrew McLean , head curator, ‘big trade deal’ – if he gets the NHS people who chuck milkshakes at National Railway Museum those who would be happy to send trade …UNQUOTE Although the president’s unionists to concentration camps men tried to row back @FinnBrennan after Donald Trump, on a state visit to Britain last The simple joys of 6 year olds: my son Our hip, hot and very much month, said the NHS worked out that the toilet on the happening red baseball would be ‘on the table’ in any future trade deal heritage train carriage emptied directly cap will keep the sun out of between the UK and the US, and Matt onto the track after he had flushed it (in a your eyes this summer. Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health, station) so he ran to the back of the £5 (inc p&p); email insisted ‘the NHS is not for sale’, Jason Cowley carriage as we departed so he could see his [email protected] or visit pointed out in the New Statesman : ‘The US, by poo on the track our online shop at www.aslef.org.uk virtue of its size and power, will dictate the Kerry Cassidy @ladytraindriver terms of any deal.’

4 The ASLEF Journal l July 2019 News

That’s entertainment! Off the Rails USAN Calman, the diminutive stand-up SIMON ARMITAGE , born into a working- S comic, TV presenter and class family in a terrace house in panellist on radio shows such as Huddersfield in 1963, is the new Poet The News Quiz and I’m Sorry I Laureate, for which he will be paid the Haven’t a Clue , confesses in her princely sum of £5,750 and a barrel (720 Good Housekeeping column that bottles) of sherry a year. It is, notionally, a ‘train stations of the UK’ was near royal appointment, and Simon cheerfully the top of her list of potential told the Press Association, ‘I’m hardly a rampant republican.’ specialist subjects when Celebrity This will come as something of a surprise to readers who Mastermind came calling. remember his sonnet Those Bastards in Their Mansions from ‘Entirely based on my lifestyle. I his 1993 collection Book of Matches : ‘Those bastards in their travel all around the UK by train mansions: / to hear them shriek, you’d think / I’d poisoned and I know many of the stations the dogs and vaulted the ditches, / crossed the lawns in better than I know my own house. Susan calman: ‘ the most stocking feet and threadbare britches, / forced the door of I can tell you where the coffee terrifying part of Mastermind is one of the porches, and lifted / the gift of fire from the shops are, which end of the train the specialist subject’ burning torches, // then given heat and light to streets and to disembark from, and where the Instead, I resolved to carry on houses, / told the people how to ditch their cuffs and taxi ranks are located. Sadly, I have shouting at people on the TV. shackles, / armed them with the iron from their wrists and a feeling that this might not pass Because that’s a specialist subject ankles. // Those lords and ladies in their palaces and castles, for entertainment and I would just at which I really excel…’ / they’d have me sniffed out by their beagles, / picked at by look really dull. Rejected.’ their eagles, pinned down, grilled / beneath the sun, // Me, I Susan adds that she also stick to the shadows, carry a gun.’ considered Cagney and Lacey , QUOTE… Marks & Spencer’s petite range, ‘Some people still want ROGER SCRUTON , the free-wheeling, free- cats, and, er, toilets in National their unicorns.’ – Neil thinking, right-wing philosopher, lost his gig Trust properties (‘Quite niche but Coyle , Labour MP for as head of the government’s Building Better, very important’). Bermondsey & Old Building Beautiful commission after George ‘After several sleepless nights, Southwark Eaton tweeted a couple of carefully selected and endless lists, I decided to say …UNQUOTE quotes from an interview he had conducted no to being on Mastermind . for the New Statesman . In the published piece, though, Eaton wrote: ‘Scruton, who is repulsed by some of the consequences of globalisation – “It is outrageous that Amazon doesn’t pay any tax in this country” – retains a scepticism of the free market [and] Aye, Eye , Grayling confessed that he was “tempted by the idea of renationalising the railways – they seem to run quite well in Private Eye has spoofed Failing Grayling with this report: ‘A lone places that they’re nationalised”.’ Way to go, Rog… individual was blamed last night for single-handedly disrupting hundreds of trains all over the country and causing massive TIM FINCH steps down as head of inconvenience to travellers. The man, known to police only as industrial relations in August to spend Chris Grayling, managed to reduce Britain’s railways to chaos more time on the terraces of Belper Town simply by turning up for work at the Department for Transport. in the Evo-Stik League, East Division, the Mr Grayling defended his actions. “I wanted to make a political eighth tier of English football. Tim was point,” he said, “which is that I shouldn’t be allowed to run a bath, warmly thanked for his work by the GS at let alone a government department.’ AAD in Leeds in May. As he exited stage left, blushing, and clutching a gift, with the applause of CONFERENCES & RALLIES delegates ringing in his ears, Tim, a former shop steward at The durham Miners’ Gala is on Saturday 13 July. The tolpuddle Rolls-Royce in Derby, muttered, in his usual dry and self- Martyrs’ festival , near Dorchester, is from Friday 19 to Sunday 21 July. deprecating way: ‘I do get paid to do this, you know…’ The Burston strike school rally at Burston, near Diss, in Norfolk is on Sunday 1 September. The trades Union congress is at the Brighton NEIL JORDAN , who wrote and directed Centre from Sunday 8 to Wednesday 11 September. The labour Party award-winning films such as The Company of conference is at the Brighton Centre from Saturday 21 to Wednesday 25 Wolves , Mona Lisa , and The Crying Game , was September. born at Rosses Point in County Sligo. Asked what would make his life better, he muttered 500 CLUB: John Simpson, with number 7, won the June draw, scooping miserably : ‘More bookshops. Better weather the RMS prize money jackpot of £422. in Ireland. I love the country, but it’s so bloody dank and miserable for most of the year.’

ALLISON PEARSON in the Daily Telegraph Our new ASlEF lGBt+ purple polo said her ‘instinctive sympathy for someone shirt – ‘driving for equality’ – is so ill-equipped’ to do her job – Theresa May – available in S, M, l and Xl. £15 inc was supplanted by anger and disbelief. ‘Why p&p; email [email protected] or visit had the Conservative Party not acted sooner our online shop at www.aslef.org.uk to put her – and us – out of our misery?’

July 2019 l The ASLEF Journal 5 News

the GS: Mick: ‘I want to see fewer 'We believe a train people who look like me’ driver is a train SLEF launched its new edge on some of these issues, driver is a On Track with Diversity this trade union is absolutely train A report – which reveals a committed to equality and driver’ glaring gap between those in diversity in the rail industry. the cab at the front of the train ‘But, as a trade union, we can and the communities we serve – only recruit, as members, those at the Houses of Parliament on who have been employed as Monday 17 June. drivers by the privatised train GS Mick Whelan told MPs, and freight operating companies. ‘We believe that a train driver recommendations. peers, rail industry staff and We work with these companies, is a train driver is a train driver – ‘There is, we believe, light at journalists: ‘When I stood up at every day of every week, to regardless of gender, sexuality, the end of the tunnel. Especially our annual assembly of ensure they encourage women, religion, or race – and we’ve if the recommendations in our delegates in Leeds this year I as well as men, and black and been pushing companies to report are implemented. We was pleased to see how diverse minority ethnic, as well as well as allow more part-time and know the rail industry needs to the room looked. Because I have white, people to become drivers.’ flexible working because the do more to improve its spent 35 years on the railway, But the harsh facts are that, in lack of such agreements has recruitment policies and will and 35 years as an active trade 2019, only 6.5% of train drivers in been a barrier, in the past, to work closely with the companies unionist, and I know how many England, Scotland and Wales are women coming into our industry to ensure this happens. train drivers look just like me. women; just 8% are from an as many still take on the primary ‘ASLEF has been at the Middle-aged, male, and white. ethnic minority; and only 15% responsibility for child care.’ forefront of promoting diversity And that’s why I was delighted are under 35. These figures do Mick thanked Carolyn Jones, in our industry, and we want to to see so many young members, not represent the communities director of the Institute of ensure that train drivers are women drivers, and black reps at we serve because 51% of the Employment Rights, and Nadia more representative of the conference. people in this country are female; Motraghi and Ijeoma Omambala, communities we serve. So that ‘Because while the trade 20% in the last census identified of Old Square Chambers, authors next year, at AAD, I will see even union movement has not always as ethnic minority; and 23% are of the report, for their detailed fewer people who look just like been at the progressive cutting aged 18 to 35. research, analysis, and me.’ Getting on your goat Goats who delayed coz ov us? Ronnie, Rosie and Thameslink trains last #sorrynotsorry’. A Hope – have since month by grazing on spokesperson for the been named and the line between West Kentish Town city shamed. Hampstead and farm coyly told The farm later Kentish Town in north commuters: ‘It seems tweeted: ‘Hoof! We London told those cheeky goats have told our goats passengers that they have been making multiple times it’s not weren’t really sorry. you a sign; we asked cool to play on the A hastily-painted them for an apology, tracks! Thank you to sign – possibly not by but it seems naughty the super helpful train hooves – at the scene goats will always be drivers and engineers of the crime said: ‘Wer naughty goats.’ who pulled together yoo delayd on fryday Three goats – to get them all in.’ Goats: #sorrynotsorry Putting the brakes Platform sign urges QUOTE… passengers to ‘jump’ on HS2 ‘Workers across the global North have Southeastern has Although the Chancellor of the had enough of neoliberal globalisation.’ apologised after an Exchequer, Philip Hammond, is – Grace Blakeley , New Statesman ‘inappropriate’ message on standing firm, pressure to scrap …UNQUOTE a whiteboard on a platform HS2 is growing from other Tories. at Canterbury East station David Davis, Conservative MP for in Kent urged people to Haltemprice & Howden, says: jump: ‘When it feels scary to ‘The case to scrap HS2 is getting carry all your stuff – jump, that is exactly when stronger and stronger each day. papers, sandwiches, you jump, otherwise you It is becoming increasingly clear keys – in style with our end up staying in the same it will not be value for money, it smart new sturdy black place your entire life.’ Angry 'Jump': the 'tone-deaf' will not bridge the north-south ASlEF bag. Price £17.50 (inc p&p); commuters accused the Southeastern whiteboard divide, and it will not help ease email [email protected] or visit our company – which later said people are going through congestion across the rail online shop at www.aslef.org.uk ‘We do work closely with difficult times’ – of being network.’ the Samaritans when ‘tone-deaf’ to suicides.

6 The ASLEF Journal l July 2019 News Tube offer not DfT wants to know good enough if HS2 will deliver Transport Secretary deliverable and not SLEF formally Chris Grayling says [focus on] decisions rejected London the £56 billion HS2 that are not A Underground’s offer high-speed rail line deliverable.’ of a 2.6% pay rise for Tube connecting London He was speaking Alstom’s proposed high-speed locomotive drivers this year, and RPI plus with Birmingham as images were 0.2% for 2020, at pay talks and, eventually, the unveiled showing the Virgin Pendolino. a joint bid by Hitachi on Wednesday 5 June. We north is under review futuristic design of They will reach and Bombardier – think that, while LU plans to Finn: ‘time for to ensure it can be HS2 trains. They will speeds of 225mph have been revealed. double its operating surplus, lU to come up delivered within its be 400m long and but be quieter than Bids have also been staff deserve to be properly with a serious existing budget. He capable of carrying any other train in the made by Talgo and rewarded for their work and offer’ said decisions have up to 1,100 people, UK. CAF. The contract for to see progress on increasing quality time off to be made ‘in the with twice the Three designs – by the trains is worth and the other parts of our claim. context of what is number of seats on a Siemens, Alstom and £2.75 billion. ‘This offer is just not good enough,’ said Finn Brennan, ASLEF’s organiser on the Underground. ‘More talks will now be arranged, involving the conciliation service LU’s first female driver honoured ACAS, but it is time for LU management to come up with a serious offer if they want to Hannah Dadds, London Underground’s first avoid a dispute.’ female Tube train driver, has been honoured with a plaque at Upton Park station. Hannah, who was born in Forest Gate, worked as a ‘railwoman’ at DRIVERLESS TRAINS FAIL DOWN UNDER nearby Upton Park from 1969, becoming a driver Angry commuters expressed their frustration in 1978. She drove trains on the District, Bakerloo after new driverless trains on the Sydney and Jubilee lines – working, sometimes, with her Metro broke down between Cherrybrook and sister Edna, who was an Underground guard – Epping, causing long delays. Other trains have before retiring in 1993. been taken out of service after the doors Hannah’s niece Vivian Parsons, speaking as the would not open. plaque was unveiled on Friday 31 May, said: ‘Hannah made sure she was accepted as a driver – not a token female driver – and there was no QUOTE… special treatment.’ ‘I knew Andrew Marr when he was a Trotskyite selling Trotskyite newspapers to bewildered railwaymen.’ – George Galloway …UNQUOTE

Keep cool in the long, hot summer with this red ASlEF water bottle. Price £5 (inc p&p); email [email protected] or visit our online shop at www.aslef.org.uk hannah dadds (1941-2011) climbs into the driver’s cab (right); the plaque at Upton Park (top); and her family and friends at the unveiling (above)

July 2019 l The ASLEF Journal 7 News For whom the bells toll HURCH bells Soham, in flames coming from rang out last Cambridgeshire, the leading wagon, C month to shortly before 2am which contained 44 remember the heroic on 2 June 1944. general purpose railwaymen who died Driver Benjamin 500lb bombs,’ said and were seriously Gimbert, 42, and local historian Mike injured in an fireman James Petty. ‘He brought the enormous explosion Nightall, 22, were train to a stop and, while saving a town trying to drive the rather than running in East Anglia from train out of town for safety, instructed destruction on the when it exploded, Nightall to uncouple eve of D-Day. killing Nightall and the first wagon from it about 140 yards A train with 44 signalman Frank the rest of the train. but was still wagons carrying high Bridges. Gimbert was ‘Nightall quickly alongside the explosive bombs, ‘fearfully maimed’ managed this and, platforms at Soham and a further seven but survived. although the fire was when the bombs containing ‘As the loco was now quite serious, exploded. If it had components such as approaching Soham Gimbert started to exploded closer to driver Gimbert and fireman Nightall received tail fins, caught fire station the driver draw the wagon the town there would the George cross after they ‘risked their lives on its way through looked back to see away. He had moved be no Soham.’ in order to minimise the effect of the fire’

End of the line QUOTE… ‘Defibrillators are placed in signal for Northern? boxes – but we’re losing signal boxes at an alarming rate.’ – Grant Murchie , HE Sunday Times has reported that Perth branch the ‘viability of the rail operator …UNQUOTE T Northern’ is being investigated by the DfT ‘amid growing expectation that it will be A Northern service crossing the victorian the next train franchise to be renationalised.’ four-span stone viaduct over the River Nidd Swedes on track after John Collingridge, deputy business editor at Knaresborough in North Yorkshire at the paper, and a former reporter with PA, back into state hands. suffering flygskam the Yorkshire Post , and the Hull Daily Mail , ‘The OLR already runs the East Coast line, wrote: ‘The Operator of Last Resort, a renationalised last year when Stagecoach and government arm that takes over ailing rail Virgin gave back the keys after overbidding for routes, is understood to be conducting due the right to run the route. diligence on Northern, which has been hit by ‘Northern’s finances are widely thought to strikes, delays and last year’s timetable chaos. be unsustainable. The German giant Arriva City leaders from the north of England [have] won the franchise in 2016 with a pledge to called for the vast franchise – which stretches reduce its reliance on state subsidy. However, it from Liverpool to Hull and from has been beset by problems and bosses have Middlesbrough to Nottingham – to be taken tried to renegotiate the contract with the DfT.’ Greta thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish The cruel sea climate change activist, refuses to fly in a bid to save the planet Work began on 1 June on a new £30 million scheme designed to protect the stretch of railway line at The number of Swedes taking the train for Dawlish in Devon – one of the most picturesque in domestic journeys has soared as domestic Britain – which was washed into the sea five years plane travel has plummeted, reflecting ago. A new 25ft high sea wall is being built to protect growing concern in the country about the track which links Devon and Cornwall with the climate change. Flygskam, or flight shame, a rest of the country. Network Rail says the scheme will Network Rail’s projection of what feeling of being too embarrassed to take the ‘secure the future of the line for the next 100 years’. the new sea wall will soon look like plane because of the impact on the environment from aviation, has become a social media buzzword along with the Our new topical tee-shirt, designed by those QUOTE… hashtag #jagstannarpåmarken, which means hoxton hipsters at Philosophy Football, ‘Brexiteers fear stay on the ground. The number of passenger features Rik Mayall as the obnoxious they could not journeys on Statens Järnvägar, Swedish state anarchist Rick in The Young Ones , and this dupe voters a railways, rose 5% last year to 31.8 million, and classic exchange: ‘he threw us off the train second time.’ – by a further 8% in the first three months of because you said ASlEF was an anagram for Martin this year, while business trips soared 12%. In “total and complete bastard”.’ ‘And apart from everything Fletcher , New contrast, Swedavia, which runs Sweden’s else… it isn’t, even.’ £10 (inc p&p); email [email protected] Statesman busiest ten airports, says passenger numbers or visit our online shop at www.aslef.org.uk …UNQUOTE fell by 8% from January to April this year, after a 3% fall in 2018.

8 The ASLEF Journal l July 2019 TUC Congress 2019 The 151st annual trades Union congress is at the Brighton Centre from Sunday 8 to Wednesday 11 September

July 2019 l The ASLEF Journal 9 Platform (Q) What can you do in three minutes? (A) Help change your local community

DANIEL DAVIS , ex- Gloucester, now Reading, and pictured here at AAD in Liverpool last year, asks why ASLEF needs a political fund? What are the latest changes to Britain’s trade union laws (and how do they affect you?) And suggests ways that you can help us to help you

T WAS after attending the ASLEF branch secretaries’ course, and the I political course, and working closely with Fran Boait, Labour’s prospective labour Party leader Jeremy corbyn and Parliamentary candidate in the target seat of Shadow transport Minister Rachael Gloucester, that I better understood the Maskell both came to leeds to speak to important changes to the trade union laws in our annual assembly of delegates in May; Britain and the implications of these changes and Shadow transport Secretary Andy for all of us. Mcdonald meets us at Westminster By law, a trade union needs to set up a political fund to defend its members’ interests unions are legally constrained by the need to in Parliament. Without such a fund, unions are have a political fund. Employers and other prevented from lobbying MPs to try and Parliamentary lobby groups have no change policies or legislation that affects their equivalent restrictions on their political members’ working lives. spending. Our political fund, therefore, is Lobbying and campaigning costs a lot of necessary to allow us to counter potentially money from printing leaflets to organising damaging employer arguments with respect event days, trade union campaigning seeks to to workers’ rights to government and influence the decisions made in Parliament. Parliament. So what can spending three minutes of the FOUNDED BY TRADE UNIONS And it’s helped us to campaign in time of new and existing ASLEF members do Many ASLEF members share and promote the partnership with other unions – such as as far as trade union benefits is concerned? views of the Labour Party – many don’t just Unison, on the Health Service – and engage vote Labour, they are members of the party, with different communities, and different parts IT REALLY IS THAT SIMPLE too – which was founded by the trade unions of the electorate. Every trade union member has the option to to represent the interests of working people in ‘opt-in’ by contributing to the political fund. Parliament. Labour, in turn, supports the trade CHANGES TO THE ACT Previously, members would automatically be unions and, in the case of ASLEF, backs many The Tories made a number of changes to the opted-in, in a number of cases. At present your of the issues for which we are fighting. Trade Union Act in 2016 and the Labour trade union needs to inform you about the The political fund also supports, through Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, including existence of – and ask your permission for you local branches, other good campaigns, issues in relation to political funds. These to contribute to – its political fund. If you including: changes to our already repressive trade union choose to opt-in, please write to your local l We celebrated the 70th birthday of the laws – some of the most draconian and branch secretary, using email or a letter to National Health Service by giving tea and restrictive in Europe – were implemented to state your wish to opt-in to the political fund. It cake to NHS staff, listening to their tie the hands of trade union members in a really is that simple; there’s no need to do concerns, and promoting Labour’s plan to Gordian knot. anything more! If you’re unsure who your protect and improve our NHS. To make it more difficult to put branch secretary is, you can either ask around l Legislation on employment rights. improvements to our working and personal at your depot or contact ASLEF head office at l Health & safety at work. lives in place, using the established [email protected] l Equal opportunities. negotiating machinery. These new provisions It’s not just our futures we need to protect, l Minimum wage. only apply to new members and to new funds but also the generations going forth! So l Pensions. set up after the expiry of a transitions period. please, please, share this information around l Benefits. Existing members of a trade union and the mess room and on social media. I am It’s allowed us to campaign against the existing political funds continue to be subject happy to discuss the matter further, either at closure of local Post Offices, a big issue in rural to the current provisions in the 1992 Act. The your local branch or via email at areas. important thing, however, is that only trade [email protected]

10 The ASLEF Journal l July 2019 Underground Well let the boys all sing and the boys all shout for tomorrow

District 8 Organiser FINN BRENNAN lifts the lid on pay talks with London Underground and our determination to ensure that Tube drivers have t&cs as good as, or better than, at any other company

S Transport for London’s cash continues to pour down a large black A hole named Crossrail – or the Elizabeth line if there is ever any good news to report – talks about pay and conditions are continuing on London Underground. Our EC member Terry Wilkinson, who has probably more experience of pay negotiations than any other TU rep in the country, pointed out to me some years ago that there has never been a time we turned up to talks to be greeted by a friendly director saying, ‘Good news, lads, we have loads of money this year! How much do you want?’ So it was no surprise to be given lengthy While there are many differences in presentations on just how cash-strapped TfL is working agreements and, of course, pension as a result of the government’s removal of the arrangements, between LU and Overground general grant and Crossrail delays! But it was and Crossrail operations, drivers note that the interesting to see that LU is generating a 34 hour four day week is now becoming the healthy operational surplus of around £700 standard. million a year, money that is being used to I don’t believe that if we were simply to three linocuts by leading london painter and fund upgrades, but also to keep afloat the loss- replicate the drivers’ agreements on London printmaker Gail Brodholt, who works at her making parts of the TfL group. In fact, the Overground or Crossrail on LU our members studio in Woolwich and travels by tube: One ‘successful delivery’ of the TfL business plan would necessarily be very grateful! In fact, Man Band, Metroland, and Up With the larks depends on LU doubling its annual operational Underground management constantly tell our surplus. reps that they would love to have the PRORRATA FOUR DAY WEEK This means that LU is now the cash cow ‘flexibility’ they claim exists at other TOCs. But Thanks to the agreement made during the that subsidises other TfL modes and services we do want to see real progress on our aim of last pay round, and the hard work of EC8 like Dial-a-Ride. Seeking to double the LU a shorter working week and more Terry Wilkinson and our trains council reps to surplus will mean even more massive pressure opportunities for flexible working as well as make sure it was implemented, around 60 on costs and on staff who bear the burden. the other elements of our pay claim. drivers across the Underground have now And, while cross-subsidy of transport modes Of course, every negotiation involves moved to a pro-rata four day week. While we may make sense, our members on LU are, choices and our excellent team of trains keep pushing to reduce working hours for all, rightly, adamant that they should not have to council reps are determined to make sure that it’s good to see some real improvement in accept reductions in their living standards or Underground drivers have conditions that are the work/life balance for members who have working conditions or in our ambition for as good as, or better than, on any other opted for this choice. further improvements. company. TRANSPLANT As part of TfL’s Transformation programme, Meetings with the Mayor of london LU told us last October that they planned to make redundancies in Transplant who in stark contrast to the days when Boris Johnson was at city hall and trade unions operate engineering trains across the were ignored and insulted, regular meetings take place between the transport combine. These plans have now been unions and Sadiq Khan and his team. ASlEF uses these meetings to highlight withdrawn, along with proposals for variable issues that go beyond the remit of the machinery meetings with employers and to rostering. Any changes to rosters will have to encourage a more reasonable attitude on matters we have raised with the be negotiated and agreed at local level. company. Support from the Mayor’s office was key to progress on cab security. We are also discussing the real world operation of tfl’s commitment to diversity and CAB SECURITY inclusion, including facilities for our reps and issues such as the provision of Hard work and constant pressure from your electric car charging points. london’s tories have been very explicit that if they ASLEF h&s council reps means that progress ever hold power again, they intend to attack the tfl pension fund and our is continuing on making our driving cabs members’ travel facilities. Whatever disagreements we may have with the current secure. A prototype lock is being tested on a Mayor, having a labour administration isn’t just a matter of political preference; it Central line train and plans to roll out the makes a real material difference to ASlEF members on london Underground. new cab locks across the combine from November are on track.

July 2019 l The ASLEF Journal 11 Agenda Deep Blue

MARC TANNER , trains health & safety council, reveals plans for the new Deep Tube train on the Piccadilly – and then the Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo & City – Underground lines

HE first meeting was held recently to look at the new Deep Tube train, T focusing initially on the Piccadilly line, which will benefit most from the increased would seem like a ‘no brainer’ but it wouldn’t be enter service some time in 2024 and the last capacity delivered by the line upgrade. After the the first time the company has bought a train train will arrive in 2026 if it all goes to plan. new train is introduced, a new signalling system and stuck a different management system in The train will be made up of nine cars, making will be brought in to run the trains. This, place. The added twist is that the Pic trains will it a continuous train, like the S stock, made up of unfortunately, is not being done at the same have to run on the same track as the S stock with five longer and four shorter cars. This will time. The hope is the same train and system will a possibly different signalling system. hopefully allow the train to move though the be rolled out to the Bakerloo, Central and The larger new fleet of 94 trains (initially, South Kensington bends quicker than we can Waterloo & City lines once this has been increasing when the ATO system is operational) now. Most of the train equipment will be on the successfully completed. will enable a service uplift to 27 trains per hour shorter cars and the train will be fully air Options to purchase variants of the Piccadilly (from the existing 24). New communications conditioned. line train for these lines are included in the based signalling will follow fleet replacement by ASLEF asked for the train cab to be S stock rolling stock contract; however, the wider an estimated six years. This means that the old plus, taking the better points of the train and strategy for the upgrades to these lines is much and new trains will run with drivers driving for at improving where necessary. A better seat and earlier in development. least six years, possibly longer. Once signalling more control of the cab environment (full control The key issues for this meeting were to look replacement is complete, the aim is to increase of heat, air con and ventilation) and full control at what type of train the Piccadilly will get and the service to at least 33 trains per hour. of all the auxiliary functions (volume, radio, how it will be signalled. The signalling system The first new train will arrive in London in window wipers, lights in cab). PTI is a major has not yet been chosen; the train is being made 2023, and works including upgrades to power, factor to all lines so the finest quality monitors by Siemens. Siemens have their own signalling track and depot infrastructure will be for drivers is high on the list. ASLEF also asked for system, built specifically for their trains, and this undertaken prior to its arrival. The first train will a duplicate work station for the I/Os (like Victoria This is the modern world the victori KRIS DAVIS , local re GARY COMFORT , An e-payslip presentation was use our union’s ULRs, etc. The only Seven Sisters, expla trains council, given and it looks good. You can issue outstanding is if somebody the issues behind th reports on London use a personal email address to get doesn’t want to learn and doesn’t problems on the

Underground’s notified the payslip is available and have a computer how does the Victoria line move from paper it will be issued almost a week company give them a written pay to electronic payslips before payday. The list of pay statement. They have taken this one ictORiA line local reps, months comes up and, if you open away and we will have more assisted by Ec8 terry ATTENDED a special a particular month, a pdf is discussions going forward. They are V Wilkinson, and Maeve han meeting – the displayed, like our current payslips going to use paper for June and July and Graham dean from the trains I presentation and Q&A on headed paper, with logos, etc, alongside online via the TfL link. functional council, have been meeti lasted two hours – regarding LU’s which can be used for loans and Some unions have issued advice to with management in an attempt to introduction of e-payslips. At the mortgages. It has the P60 for this continue with paper payslips via a avoid a full blown dispute on the outset the RMT, who had no train year and previous years. The ASLEF memo with 80% requesting paper victoria line. reps there, decided they should not position is that we welcome payslips even though the pro forma this situation has come about continue as they wanted a manager e-payslips for those who can use it. was distributed via WhatsApp! I said through a number of actions by from each individual functional at Over previous months ASLEF it’s not our union’s position to be management; cancelling staff trains the meeting. Unions had an has pushed the issue on equality difficult or obstructive but we need give drivers additional passenger w adjournment and I said I wanted and, particularly, people with older assurances that help and support in leaving the depot under resourced, ASLEF’s position to be absolutely demographics who may not wish all areas are given to members who failing to deal with grievance hearin clear, regardless of what other or have the ability to get payslips need it. in good time being amongst a unions do, and would present our on a PC, so we requested legal Conclusion: if you can use a substantial list of grievances. case. Among the issues I raised was advice under section 8 of the smart phone and or have access to during our meetings we were ab around train crew PCs being old Employment Rights Act. We cited a PC this will clearly be better for to make progress on most of the ite and slow, and lack of facilities, and Anakaa v Firstsource Solutions most members but if, for any amongst them successfully stoppin the driving grade will be (2014) around written pay genuine reason, our members can’t the use of an artificial meal break to particularly hit due to us not sitting statements. Most of the questions access this then we need to fully force drivers past the 5 hour 15 min at a desk all day ticking boxes and have been dealt with; for example, support them to make sure that parameter (no more two meal break having unlimited access to if someone needs assistance to whatever is needed is, within as well as securing an immediate computers at work. help get payslips online we could reason, provided. addition of five extra drivers at Seve

12 The ASLEF Journal l July 2019 Underground Talking shop or real engagement? TREVOR ROBINSON , secretary railway workforces, that menopause policy that of the Black and Minority diversity does not quite deals with the effect it Ethnic Committee, reports on filter through the has on females with TfL the first TfL diversity forum company all the way to as a business. TfL has a the top. long way to go in SLEF was Matt Whyte. There is also a terms of being a true invited to After we were given a problem within TfL champion for diversity A TfL’s diversity breakdown of what the with the gender pay and inclusion. and inclusion forum, forum was about, the gap. (It’s not an issue Although the forum chaired by Staynton ASLEF delegation made for drivers but is for the is not part of any Brown, director of it clear that we would combine as a whole). negotiating machinery diversity, inclusion and not be taking part in a While TfL has a lot we were assured that talent, on Tuesday 28 forum designed as a PR of policy it doesn’t suggestions raised at May. The delegation tool or tick box exercise. particularly deal with the forum to make the included Trevor Staynton guaranteed specific issues for the company more Robinson (BAME that this is not the individuals in those inclusive and diverse committee member purpose of the forum. diversity groups. will be taken forward. for District 8), Deborah While, on the face of For example, We will be meeting Reay (WRC member things, TfL looks to have Debbie raised a point every quarter so watch for District 8) and one of the most diverse about the lack of a this space...

previous proposal has been brought about by three linocuts: Gateway to the South, Red Moon Tramlink strike forces the strength and solidarity of our members on Rising, and West End Girl by Gail Brodholt FirstTram to up the ante Tramlink. They have had two rock solid days of line stock) so I/Os have full control of a train strike action with more than 50 members whilst training new drivers. taking part in picketing. FINN BRENNAN , ASLEF’s The new proposal is the biggest One thing I know for certain is that things organiser on Tramlink, explains often change in an upgrade over the years so a improvement in working conditions since the how strike action forced the lot of what is said may not be what we get in the tram system opened. The additional rest days, end. If drivers have any sensible suggestions (no company to improve its offer giving the equivalent of a 35 hour week that is cocktail bars or mirrored disco balls) please let now standard on the railway, means members me know. FTER two days of solid strikes, the first will have quality time off with much improved ever by ASLEF on Croydon Tramlink, a rosters. The driver’s salary will increase by a A breakthrough in talks at ACAS meant minimum of 9.9% over the three year period, the EC agreed to suspend the action and with a guaranteed link to the RPI rate of recommend a revised offer to our members. inflation. An additional 10 drivers will be ia line dispute This gives drivers an above inflation pay rise recruited to facilitate this and new rosters will p at Sisters. and an additional 13 rest days each year. be introduced before the end of the proposed This significant improvement on the pay settlement in November 2021. ins We have assurances on the key issue he on the line of 5 rounder turns which ensures they will not increase the or eight hours sleep before a number from Monday to Friday at Trams and trains are operated dead early turn, especially if you

either Brixton or Seven Sisters in the have family or caring next timetable. by human beings, not robots responsibilities. And the noisy One of the more detailed pieces of FINN BRENNAN that people are able to speak world outside doesn’t stop just ley work was the way they were abusing spoke to the openly and honestly about because you have come off a pool operators, having no regard for London mistakes. There has to be a just night shift and have to be back their welfare. Practices included in the next night! ing Assembly culture where people are constantly splitting rest days, regularly encouraged to report problems Good managers recognise transport giving mixed weeks of lates and earlies, and errors, without fear of that and support staff instead of and having no regard for the weekly committee about safety discipline or ridicule. responding, ‘Well, are you going total of hours worked. Most shocking of on our transport network I know it sounds obvious, but sick, then?’ when staff report that all was that in the 66 weeks of duties serious incidents and accidents they are feeling less than 100%. s to we looked at there was only one whole T WAS good to have happen when people feel they Although progress has been work, weekend off allocated. the opportunity to have to cover up, rather than made, there is still a long way to and We still have work to do to avoid a I speak to the London own up. Belatedly, LU has started go before there is a culture in ngs dispute, as it’s one thing management Assembly transport committee to recognise this but much our industry that puts people – saying they’ll do better, but quite as part of a panel on tram safety. remains to be done. not processes – at the forefront another them actually doing it. Many of the issues apply to the The same is true of fatigue of safety. ble We will assess if they are delivering Underground and the wider and tiredness at work. Trains and I’m grateful to the committee ems, on their assurances and, if we find they transport industry, too. trams are operated by human chair, Florence Eshalomi, for the g are not, then the branch will call on the The argument I tried to make beings, not robots. Of course, we invitation to take part. You can o executive committee to do what has to is that safety at work doesn’t all have a personal responsibility, watch the webcast of the nute be done and ballot. i would like to take come just from having the right but the reality of life means it is meeting here at www.london. ks) this opportunity to thank all the drivers policies and ticking the right impossible to always get the gov.uk/transport-committee- on the line for their encouragement boxes. The essential element in quality rest you want if you work 2019-05-15n (if you have run out en and support during these negotiations. any safety-critical environment is shifts. You can’t always get seven of Netflix box sets). July 2019 l The ASLEF Journal 13 Platform It’s a mighty long way down rock’n’roll from Top of the Pops to drawing the dole

GREGOR GALL , an affiliate research associate at the University of Glasgow, and editor of the Scottish Left Review , reflects on the Bard of Barking’s lyrics on Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards and the spectacular fallout from the campaign against blacklisting on construction Billy Bragg, the Waiting for the sites – including Crossrail Great Leap Forwards EP, and John Mcdonnell and the Blacklist Support Group OR his fourth album, Workers’ celebrate victory outside the Playtime , released in 1988, Billy Bragg high court F wrote a song called Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards . On it, the Bard of Barking very little direct employment; subcontracting kind of society in which we live. Although it is sang: ‘If you’ve got a blacklist, I want to be on is rife. Clients contracting out work appoint a not possible to openly victimise union it’. The album was recorded in the main contractor who, in turn, appoint sub- activists, as it was in the aftermath of the despondency and gloom following the Tories’ contractors to do different bits of the work. General Strike in 1926, it is possible for victory under Margaret Thatcher at the general Often there is sub-sub-contracting, too. employers to do so when they hide behind election of 1987. The socialist troubadour was Second, contracts are fixed for specific projects secrecy and the services of expensive a leading light in the Red Wedge collective of so when the school, hospital or power station corporate lawyers. musicians who opened a cultural, and popular, has been built, the work ends and workers are Because penalties for blacklisting are so low second front by publicly backing the Labour forced to look for other work on new projects. and the protection afforded workers so flimsy Party at concerts and rallies. It was an accident of history that proved there is no effective deterrent for rapaciously- what many of us had long suspected. When minded employers. Indeed, one piece of DEPRIVED OF THE RIGHT TO WORK the Information Commissioner raided a drab legislation that did provide some help was But the dark humour of wanting to be on a office in Droitwich in 2009 over unspectacular abolished under Tony Blair’s first Labour blacklist to prove one’s left-wing political data protection issues, it was revealed that government (1997-2001) when Fairness at credentials in a period when many citizens had 3,214 workers were on a blacklist. These Work legislation was brought in. New Labour spurned Neil Kinnock as possible Labour Prime included not just construction workers but shamefully refused to act despite the growing Minister could not disguise the awful fact that political activists, environmentalists, shop evidence of blacklisting and victimisation in blacklisting has ruined lives, families and stewards and health & safety reps. And, given the late 2000s. communities. Workers were deprived of the that the files on these workers were only 10% right to work, lost their homes and, of the records of the Consulting Association, DEREGULATION OF THE LABOUR sometimes, their marriages, as well as suffering it’s possible the original TCA blacklist ran to MARKET AFTER A BORIS BREXIT unbearable stress and anxiety. Depression and tens of thousands. That said, blacklisting in Britain is nowhere suicide were not uncommon. near as bad as it is in the United States. From Blacklisting of workers for trade union and BLACKLISTING STILL GOES ON AT the blacklisting of actors and musicians like left-wing activities was not a post-1979 MAJOR PROJECTS LIKE CROSSRAIL Leonard Bernstein, Paul Robeson and Orson phenomenon. In the period when Britain came The Consulting Association was funded by Welles in the McCarthyite period to the firing closest to a revolution, in the aftermath of the many of the major construction companies. of one union member for union activity every Great War, the Economic League victimised This revelation resulted in a sustained 14 minutes today, across the pond the workers from 1919 until its demise in 1990. Its campaign by the Blacklist Support Group and situation is truly terrible. If Brexit, under Boris activities were taken up with gusto by the the GMB, UCATT and Unite unions who argued Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nigel Farage, Consulting Association from 1993 with a not just for an apology, and compensation, but results in the further deregulation of the specific focus upon the construction industry. for the right to work for these companies that labour market as Britain strengthens its special ‘Troublemakers’ were not just socialists and had denied them work as well as prosecutions relationship with President Trump, it’s not communists but anyone who stood up for for the wrongdoing. impossible that we could see the situation their fellow workers, like health & safety reps. Ten years years later, blacklisting is still here become like it is over there. Applying for work, some were never offered taking place on major projects like Crossrail. No longer would be it a badge of honour to work despite being well-qualified and Companies have paid compensation but not be blacklisted, as Billy Bragg suggested, but a experienced. Others had their employment admitted liability, no company director has nightmare for anyone to have progressive or terminated shortly after it began for reasons been jailed, and many of the blacklisted left-leaning views in the workplace. This is that had nothing to do with their workers have died before any kind of justice another reason to support Labour Party performance. could be offered. More recently, police policies on union rights. Whether through Blacklisting was relatively easy for collusion in the blacklisting has also been legislation, or public procurement policy, employers in construction, compared to other unearthed. Labour is the only party committed to sectors, because of two factors. First, there is The blacklisting saga tells us a lot about the stopping blacklisting.

14 The ASLEF Journal l July 2019 Station to Station And the banner man held the banner high

‘He was ten feet tall and he touched the sky and I wish that I could be a banner man.’ Former EC president DAVE TYSON , hailed by GS Mick Whelan as ‘a man with a backbone of steel’ and ‘one of the greatest presidents of this trade union’, reveals the history woven into the fabric of the new Norwich banner

ORWICH branch was formed in 1891, just 11 years after our trade union, for N locomotive engineers and firemen, was founded in 1880. One hundred years later, in 1991, we decided to celebrate our centenary with a new branch badge, designed by local reps Neville Weller and David Tyson. There has been a great tradition throughout ASLEF’s history of casting commemorative badges to celebrate landmark events. Twenty-five years later, members cast another badge, to commemorate 125 years of designs on the branch; Norwich branch, and to raise funds for a new and Mark Middleton, branch banner; 250 badges were cast, some Ec5 howard Kaye, dcc numbered and allocated to members, the secretary Steve Wright, number matching their seniority in the depot dave tyson, Ec president at the time. dave calfe, branch chair lee turner, GS Mick CANARIES HUNG IN CAGES Whelan, dO5 Nigel The branch then instructed me to seek a Gibson and Roger Bower suitable supplier and come up with a design with the new banner that reflected our local and national identity. unveiled in February We engaged the York Disabled Workers’ Co-op as many other ASLEF branches use this firm their shops in the city. were supported 100% by the ASLEF members and they have experience in making trade The ASLEF logo is supplemented in the of Norwich branch. The 1982 dispute was a union banners. The design of the centenary scrolling with ‘The Commotion Time 1549’ a two week all-out national strike called by the and 125 year badges was used as a template. reference to the Kett rebellion which flared ASLEF executive after the imposition at certain In the top left and right hand corners are after the enclosure by rich and powerful local depots of flexible rostering which broke the copies of the oval cast 32A plates displayed on landlords of the common land on which the guaranteed eight hour day. The strike ended in steam locos allocated to Norwich depot. From poor used to graze their animals. Robert Kett, a an unceremonious return to work and 1933-35 a coding system was devised as a yeoman farmer, sympathised with the imposition of the rosters. Many said it was a result of the reorganisation of loco operations peasants and raised an army of 15,000 who political strike, with the government hell bent and maintenance. Depots with an A code were camped on Mousehold Heath, just outside the on breaking the trade union. Fact is, we’re still the primary or main shed for a particular area city walls, in protest. The Duke of Somerset – here! Later, regional, strikes in 1995 and 2009, with subsidiary sheds having the same Lord Protector as Edward VI was not of age – after the industry was privatised, were over number followed by B, C or D, etc. Norwich dispatched the Earl of Warwick with an army to pay and led to significant gains as a result of was the primary shed with sub-sheds at put down the rebellion. More than 3,000 solid support from ASLEF members. Ipswich, Lowestoft, Yarmouth South Town, people were killed in the fighting that Yarmouth Vauxhall, Yarmouth Beach and followed, with a further 300 executed after the LIGHTED FLAME OF UNITY Melton Constable. There were further sub- rebellion was crushed. Kett was taken to the The rear of the banner is more straightforward, sheds, of which Norwich had six, where locos Tower of London, tried for treason, and with the four corners representing four were sent for heavy maintenance, at Cromer hanged from the walls of Norwich castle principles of trade unionism: solidarity (top High, Dereham, Swaffham, Wells, where his body was left to rot. left), peace (top right), justice (bottom left) and Wymondham and Yarmouth South Town. equality. The principle colours of the banner – green THE COMMOTION TIME 1549 The central design is taken from the ASLEF with yellow tassels – refer to Norwich City who A gruesome end but a powerful symbol, national banner which displays the lighted play in yellow and green and are known as the nonetheless, of collective strength in action. A flame of unity and the word ‘Progress’ to Canaries, a reference to the history of weaving plaque commemorating ‘Commotion Time symbolise the progressive nature of our union. in the city and the creation, in the 14th 1549’ in Wymondham refers to Kett ‘and his We can be proud of our heritage and the century, of the light worsted green cloth which struggle for a more just society’ and the branch legacy left by our founders. Let’s hope the brought prosperity to the city. It was revived in wanted to draw attention to the history of banner – which is mounted in the LDC office – Norwich in the 17th century by Flemish action and solidarity in our region. has plenty of airings over the coming years weavers who brought canaries from the The scrolling on the bottom refers to three and leaves its own legacy of which future Caribbean and hung them in cages outside strikes that took place in living memory and ASLEF members will be proud.

July 2019 l The ASLEF Journal 15 Branch News Very Good Friday Upcoming events UR Good Friday reunion was well attended with a good mix of n ASHFORD – THURSDAY 4 JULY active and retired members. We welcomed guests Mick From 11.00 at Ashford Railway Club, Beaver Lane, Ashford. O Whelan, Dave Calfe, Dicky Fisher, Hugh Dunlinson and Dave Barraclough, who have been long-time friends of this branch, and 420 n RIPPLE LANE – FRIDAY 6 SEPTEMBER years’ worth of service was recognised in 12 presentations (four The annual jolly boys’ outing to Clacton – everybody welcome – retirements and eight badges). meets at 12.00 in the Spoons opposite the pier and finishes in Over the last year we have said our goodbyes from the industry to the old BRSA club after the bingo has ceased at 3pm. Rob McMillan (29 years), Andy Green (44), Mick Boulanger (43) and Sir Bob Dunn (44) and wish them all a long and healthy retirement. Badges n RAINHAM – THURSDAY 3 OCTOBER were presented to Bob Perry and Wayne Peach (40), Ian Heath, Steve From 11.00 at Rainham Social Club, 86 Station Road, Rainham. Hudson, Dave Andrews and Nigel Harkness (35), Grahame Thorne (30), Dan Roberts (10). Well done to you all! n LONGSIGHT – THURSDAY 10 OCTOBER Mick gave his state of the nation speech before Roy Goodhead All grades welcome at our annual reunion from 13.00 at the toasted ASLEF and before long the evening was over for another year Navigation Road BRSA Club next to the BR & Metrolink station. with the merriment continuing in the Great Western public house. Always a great event with beer and buffet. For further Nigel Harkness , Wolverhampton branch secretary information contact Colin Allsobrook (07771 374559) or Ray Bullen (07952 686495)

n FRATTON – FRIDAY 11 OCTOBER Railway reunion open to all rail and retired workers – drivers, guards, shunters, signalmen, platform staff and ticket office – from 12.00 to 18.00 at the BRSA Club next to Fratton station. Free buffet and raffle. ‘Come along and make it a great event,’ says Gary White. ‘And bring any photos of railway interest.’

Pirates of Back row: R Perry, d Roberts, i heath, W Peach, d calfe, G thorne, Penzance M Whelan, R Fisher, d Andrews, N harkness, S hudson and S Goode; front row: A Green, R McMillan, Sir R dunn, M Boulanger Penzance welcomed DO7 Brian Corbett who gave a thorough Three milestones talk on current happenings in our district and wider issues in our industry. Brian also made presentations to two recently retired drivers, Bro Phil Jones and Bro Phil Stoddart, who both loyally them both a long and branch just over a Mick Poultney presents tony Fearn and tony Middleton with their served the union and happy retirement. year ago, with his 15 badges and Ec president dave calfe presents Steve Bird with his branch. Brian and Brian also presented year badge. We’ve been having national issues, presented with his 20 branch would like to Bro Rodrigo Freeman, Mike Butler , branch quite a busy time of notably pensions and year badge, Tony thank them and wish who came to our secretary things at Leicester, not Medigold. Several Fearn (DBC) with 40 least because of huge members have and Tony Middleton changes to our achieved milestones (GBRf) with 30. I’m not your CrossCountry in ASLEF membership. John Liddle , branch diagrams from 19 May, Steve Bird (XC) was secretary stepping the first significant stone changes since December 2008. Bro P Paffett, a EC7 Andy Hudd; We’ve had a couple of driver for 28 Carolyn Harris, branch meetings in years, receives Labour MP for the last six weeks and, his retirement Swansea East; Julie as Swansea City’s anniversary bash at on 30 April, had the certificate at the James, Labour AM for match day the Marriott Hotel in pleasure of branch AGM from Swansea West; DO7 announcer at the Swansea. The CrossCountry Bro d hazleton. Brian Corbett; Kev Liberty stadium; and Stepping Stones company council as Ricky McCairn , Johns, ‘broadcaster, retired driver Steve children’s centre well as our EC Hastings branch Christian, and Williams at the provides services to member Dave Calfe secretary passionate believer in Friends of Stepping pre-school children who reported on social justice’, as well Stones 1979-2019 with disabilities.

16 The ASLEF Journal l July 2019 100 Years of Union Redhill certs Jack cox, Andy Walker, Richard Baker, Graham Morris, Ray leaney and Mark Simmons; all the crew; and dO1 Graham Morris hands out the certificates. MICK HOLDER turns back time – David Heydon , Redhill in the Loco Journal – to July 1919 , and a fight to the finish with the government, and Churchill asking officers if troops will break strikes

BROMLEY: FIGHT TO THE FINISH John Bromley, general secretary, in a plea for industrial unity, said: ‘The government’s attitude towards trade unions, and the government’s system of espionage, which we know is going on inside the trade unions, and their avowed intention of smashing trade unionism, as witness their attempt against the Police Union, have compelled us to see that, within the very near future, there has got to be a fight to the finish between trade unionism and the government. Therefore we must put the possibilities of a united force to fight capitalism before a desire to fight each other on our own domestic difficulties.’

AUTHORITIES AND ESPIONAGE ‘Methods are being adopted which will enable the authorities to have the advantage, and one of those methods is KEITH STUBBINGS espionage. A Home Office circular has Ask Cliff, been sent out to the police. They are POPULAR GUY compiling data of ‘Who’s Who’ in every he’ll know Keith Stubbings labour movement and every town.’ It gives me great pleasure started his working to introduce retired life as an apprentice THE RICH RIOT WHILE CHURCHILL Bedford driver Cliff Watts, tailor but later ASKS TROOPS TO BREAK STRIKES 96 this year, who has been decided to join the ‘The starting price for making plain serge cliff Watts and Bill davies a member of ASLEF since railway at Stratford or gabardine coats and skirts devoid of at a Bedford old boys’ do 1940, when he joined the where he became a trimming is 25 guineas, according to one railway as a cleaner before Pancras. What an driver. He moved to Regent Street tailor, while evening gowns working his way up in the impression he made! Never Stonebridge Park run readily to 80 guineas each. At the traditional manner. mind all the stars of the Keith: 12 May which came under recent London fur sales, silver fox realised Cliff is a remarkable man films made there, Cliff was 1957 to 24 the umbrella of £350 a skin. So the rich riot whilst Mr who attends our unofficial an immediate hit. April 2019 RFD. In those days Churchill asks commanding officers coffee mornings in Bedford We all wonder if Cliff is he enjoyed the type of work but, as whether the soldiers can be trusted to act on Wednesdays when his the longest current serving time moved on, and privatisation as strike breakers.’ remarkable recollection of member of ASLEF, having was looming, word went out that all things loco is amazing. retained his membership Freightliner Intermodal were EIGHT HOURS FOR WORK, SLEEP, opening a depot at Tilbury docks He recently sent me his link into the RMS. He derives AND EIGHT FOR WHAT YOU WILL from 1948 to 1958 great pleasure from all that and were looking for drivers. Stubbo From the Millgate Monthly : ‘We mean to including 600 firing trips on is happening in the fitted the bill and the rest is history. make things over, / We’re tired of toil for the 48177 brick train to industry through his avid He was a popular guy, typical railway naught, / But scarce enough to live upon, London. Ten years in one reading of the Journal as old school. Sadly, Keith passed away / Never enough for thought. / We want to link with little chance of well as sharing with those in tragic circumstances. He received feel the sunshine, / We want to smell the promotion until the Great of us who have retired in a good send-off at Chelmsford flowers, / We’re sure that God has willed it, War intake and after retired more recent years. An crematorium; a standing room only / And we mean to have eight hours. / So resulting in a move up amazing man whose affair with people from all of Keith’s we’re rallying our forces / From all the despite local line closures. longevity is much past and present (Freightliner textile mills – / Eight hours for work, Always active, last year appreciated by us all at Ipswich) depots. A wake was held at / Eight hours for sleep, / Eight hours for he took part in Elstree Bedford in the hope we the Tulip afterwards. Condolences to what you will.’ Museum’s celebration of can achieve his seniority. all his family, friends and colleagues. 150 years of the Midland Bill Davies , RMS He will be sadly missed. Railway’s extension to St Bedford Cliff Blackwell , RMS

July 2019 l The ASLEF Journal 17 The 500 Club STANDIN G ORDE R M ANDA TE To ______Ban k The 500 Club is a fundraising venture for ASLEF’s Retired Members’ Section. Numbers in the draw cost £4 each and, to begin making Ad dress ______payments into club funds, all you have to do is complete the ______standing order form and return it to your bank. Alternatively, you ______60-83-01 can pay by cheque a year in advance; the cheque should be made BANK BRANCH TIT LE ( NOT AD DRESS) SORTING C ODE N O.

payable to ASLEF RMS 500 Club. Ple as e p ay Uni ty Trust Ba nk Bi rmingham 08 -60 -01

Payments need to reach the club account by 1st of every month ’ and the draw takes place on 12th of every month – with the winning BENEFI CIA RY S N AME ACCOUN T N UM BER For th e cred it of ASL EF RMS 5 00 CLU B ACCO UNT 2 0 2 0 1 1 9 3 number, name, and prize printed on page 5 of the ASLEF Journal . Once you have arranged your method of payment just complete the form and return it to the Admin Department at head office. AMOU NT IN F IGUR ES AMOU NT IN WO RDS

The su m o f £ The Retired Members’ Section committee would like to thank you for your support and wish you luck in the draw! DATE AN D AM OUNT OF F IRS T PA YM ENT DUE DA TE AND FR EQU ENCY Yours fraternally, Mick Whelan, general secretary ST Com mencing £ and th ere after e very 1 OF EVE RY MONT H

ASlEF RMS 500 club application form DATE AN D AM OUNT OF L AST PA YM ENT *Until £ *Until you r ece ive fu rth er notice fro m m e/us in writ in g Name...... Qu otin g t he and debit my/our acco unt acc ord in gly re ference Address...... Pleas e can cel any prev ious stan din g o rd er or dir ect d ebit in fav our of t he benefici ary named ab ove ...... Telephone No...... SPE CIA L INSTRU CTIO NS email...... Each number costs £4. You can purchase as many numbers as you like. ACCOUN T TO B E DEBITE D ACCOUN T N UM BER I confirm that I wish to purchase ____ numbers as part of the 500 Club.

A) I have set up my standing order (£48 per annum or £4 per month)

B) I enclose a cheque for advance payment (£48 per annum) Si gnatur e( s) ______Date ______

______Signed...... Date...... ’ Note: The Ban k will n ot underta ke t o: (i) mak e an y r eference t o Va lu e Ad ded Tax or oth er in determ inat e ele ment Please return this half of the form to: Andrea Weston in the Admin Dept, (ii) advis e pay er s a ddre’ ss t o b enefici ar y (iii) advis e beneficiary o f in ab ili ty t o p ay ASLEF, 77 St John Street, London, EC1M 4NN and hand the other half, the (iv ) request benefici ar y s b an ker t o a dvis e b enefic iary o f r eceip t

standing order mandate, to your bank (or via your internet bank) * De lete if n ot ap plic ab le If th e a mounts o f t he p eriod ic p ay ments v ar y, t hey sho uld b e in corp ora ted in a sc hedule overl eaf

The 135th Durham Miners’ Gala will be held on Saturday 13 July 2019

Please support the Big Meeting by joining the Friends of Durham Miners’ Gala www.friendsofdurhamminersgala.org

18 The ASLEF Journal l July 2019 Obituaries

FRED CLARKE GOOD TALES AND GREAT MEMORIES Brother Fred Clarke passed away on Thursday 18 April, two days after his 73rd birthday, sadly succumbing to the terrible cancer which, a decade earlier, he had fought bravely and successfully. Fred took early retirement after that battle and enjoyed a most fruitful, if short, Fred in the driver’s cab; and the district 3 banner leads his funeral cortège to the committal retirement. country, a great bunch of guys whose walks become history. Fred took up the mantle and Fred’s illustrious career began as an engine culminated in taking on water at a welcoming our branch thrives today. He also loyally served cleaner at Heaton Mersey in 1962. He was hostelry, and he will be sorely missed by the ASLEF as an LLC rep, AAD delegate and district promoted to fireman that December. When group. council delegate. Heaton Mersey closed in February 1972, he Fred also joined our Longsight drivers’ On 17 May our comrade was laid to rest. As moved under redundancy to Guide Bridge for historical tours to places like Prague, Krakow, a mark of respect, and after speaking to Fred’s a short stay before going to Peterborough. In Budapest, Berlin, Vienna, Munich, and Leipzig. family, the District 3 banner was unfurled and February 1979 he moved to Buxton for his We visited many former POW Camps and proudly held in front of all those who came to driving promotion before a final move in aviation museums and, after a day of pay their respects at the church, and after the December 1999 to Manchester to tread the education and sightseeing, enjoyed a good service two loyal comrades led the path with rails of the West Coast main line. He retired on meal followed by a rather heavy session in the the banner ahead of the funeral cortège to our 10 October 2009. cities’ watering holes. Every trip culminated in brother’s committal. Later, at the working Fred embraced retirement as one should good tales and great memories. men’s club, glasses were raised, stories regaled and was extremely active, enjoying quality Longsight owes a huge debt to Fred. In and our friend and comrade fondly time with his wife Sheila and family. He loved 2006 we found ourselves without a branch remembered. Rest in peace friend, mentor, spending time with the retired drivers’ walking secretary; with the position unfilled our comrade. group taking in miles of our wonderful branch, formed in June 1890, could have Alan Moss , Longsight

GERRY JONES ONE OF THE LAST BRIAN TAGG Gerry Jones was beginning of 1948. He to diesel and finally WORKING HOBBY suddenly taken ill at began as a junior electric. His last move Easter before passing porter before moving was back to Our dear friend and colleague on 21 April, one day on to cleaning and Wolverhampton Brian Tagg passed away on short of his 87th coaling the engines. where he finished his 3 May. Following a fall on an birthday. Gerry was Gerry moved to career driving freight escalator last October, causing born in Llandinam, Wolverhampton to and passenger trains. a serious head injury, he Powys, Mid Wales and become a fireman, did Gerry retired in 1996 remained hospitalised. He was joined the railway at national service from after 49 years’ service. a staunch ASLEF man and Brian – a Moat Lane on 10 1950 to 1952, and The funeral at served on the RMS committee passionate November 1947 aged then moved from Bushbury was full with Gerry: a proud 49er. doing sterling work on behalf Gooner 15. He was one of the fireman to driver at 200 in attendance, Bescot and New of members, and will be greatly missed by all last to join GWR as Bescot, spending 18 including many retired Street. who had the pleasure of knowing him. British Railways was years there during the and active colleagues Nigel Harkness , Bill Dale , RMS formed at the transition from steam from Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton Dad was born on 31 May 1940 in London, living in Hackney and Stamford Hill as a boy. JOHN TOWNER STAUNCH AND LOYAL He started out as a mechanic at a local garage I regret to report the death of Brother John Towner, 83, who started at Tonbridge in 1956 after after leaving school, then joined the railway at serving with the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent regiment in Germany on national service. I knew the age of 17. He started at Stratford, then John since I started as a cleaner at Tonbridge in August 1965. He was eventually appointed driver moved to King’s Cross. Dad was a fireman on and remained at Tonbridge all his working life until retiring after a full and uninterrupted career the steam, then became a driver, working out as a professional railwayman. John was a staunch and loyal ASLEF man who never wavered in his of Cricklewood, Charing Cross, and support for our union and the struggles of others, particularly the NUM in their heroic struggle Marylebone before going back to King’s Cross. against the Thatcher government. We visited the Kent miners frequently during the strike to hand He worked out of every terminal in London. over funds that we raised from Tonbridge men, who donated on a monthly basis for the duration Dad met Brenda at a dance hall in London of the dispute. He was an ASLEF man until the day he died, being a member of the RMS. We also in 1957; they married in 1963, moved to Luton picketed together during our strike in 1982 and travelled to neighbouring depots to show in 1966, and had two children, Darren and support. He was a good, honest and humble man who will be sadly missed. Dawn. He had five grandchildren – Beau, 17, Edwin Renahan , RMS May, 16, Mason, 15, Brooke, 12 and Harry, 12. Dad was a hardworking man who always put his family first. He was lucky enough to really SIMON JENNER BUILT UP BRANCH enjoy his job – he always referred to his job as Bro Simon Jenner, who leaves a son, Jonathan, and a working hobby, especially when working on daughter, Rebecca, was a loyal ASlEF member from steam trains. Dad retired in 2001 after 46 years’ 28 September 2000. he became hastings branch service. His hobbies included watching his secretary when the branch wasn’t strong; Simon took grandsons playing football, watching Arsenal, this challenge on and built the branch up and made us and motorbike racing as he had motorbikes strong again. he attended AAd and district 1 council when he was younger. We all miss him – and and will be deeply missed. Goodbye, Bro… Simon Jenner: 27 February 1968 his great sense of humour – so much. Ricky McCairn , Hastings to 24 May 2019 Dawn Pender (Brian’s daughter)

July 2019 l The ASLEF Journal 19 letters

Silent night trains – despite the RSSB and NR giving Star of David, $$, hammer in, i still use the horn when i consider it necessary and sickle and Steven Hill i read with interest the One thing I can’t accuse Brexit cultists of never article ‘Mum: silent night doing is making me laugh. Latest having a trains killed my kid’ nurse stitch up my sides is Steven Hill from (Journal , May) the issue Manchester ( Journal , June), a man who talks also being critiqued on about votes, trade unionists and, somehow, several legal sites i manages to entwine liberalism and Marxism as follow, too. though the if they are remotely similar. Yep, that old debates regarding ‘duty chestnut, and one that reminds me of the first of care’ and ‘trespass’ are bits of graffiti I saw in Spain after the fall of relevant the general Franco. A Star of David, followed by a plus sign, secretary is right to ‘Whilst noise pollution is a concern, priority must always followed by a dollar sign, then an equals sign, highlight the concerns be given to saving lives,’ said GS Mick Whelan. ‘We have and, finally, the hammer and sickle. I still don’t regarding the prescribed real concerns about the lack of protection – including know what the blazes that one was about, and use (or lack) of the horn the use of horns – for pedestrians at level crossings.’ it makes as much sense as Marxist-liberalism. in the railway Brother Hill regurgitates the 17.4 million environment. language is the car horn, this typifies the figure, as if this encapsulates the nation. When the RSSB and amongst many other formulaic patronising one considers the referenda for independence Network Rail cowered to noise pollutants that attitude that governing and the results in favour in proportion to the pressure regarding the local authorities bodies (the RSSB et al ) electorate, not votes cast, by Slovenia (85%), audible warning device. welcomed regarding the dispense to the true Croatia (77.9%), Estonia (64%), Latvia (64.5%), this pressure had escalation of property welfare of the occupants Lithuania (90.23%), and even Bosnia (63.36%), worked its way up from prices. of our grade. Just the vote to Leave at 37.44% of the electorate local councillors it was claimed that because a driver didn’t looks rather limp. In any half-decent representing new build the amenity of the have to do something democracy this figure would never be seen as properties near railway populous would benefit, does not exempt that an endorsement to a question where you only land. Using the masked that lives would be driver from mental get one chance to decide. popularity tonic of noise saved. i thought it then a anguish in the future. Labour’s latest stance to back a People’s pollution they convinced false claim and i cannot Anything that Vote makes sense, whatever the alternative to the RSSB to radically find any data now to contributes to the May Deal on the paper is: Remain or No reduce the times a driver support it. What i do eradicating this ordeal Deal. Only those scared of losing the vote – was required to use the know is that incidents do should be mandatory. i Brexiteers – could object. This stance and other horn. they conveniently occur which would have still use the horn when i social, environmental and fiscal reform offered neglected to mention been prevented if the consider it necessary; not by Labour, has forced Brother Hill to cut links the persistent use of the horn was as when some desk-sitting with them, after being a lifelong voter and background noise of prescribed pre-2007. bureaucrat who values trade unionist. It seems he was happy to nod motorways, nearby flight level crossings as our GS votes over lives dictates his head in agreement to Tony Bliar’s war of paths, or the midnight states are the leading to me. terror, but objects to raising taxes on the super taxi driver whose concern in this matter. Wayne Larman , Watford rich? Apparently New Labour did more for ‘millions of working-class people’ than anything Jeremy Corbyn proposes. PPP on London’s Tube, zero council houses, a war to respect, Thunberg is likely to still be on the approach to transport by successive British keep lads from deprived areas of the country planet long after Brother Hill and I have governments, both Labour and Tory. But, then in work. The only positive thing you can say is departed, so what she and her fellow again, it’s actually the EU’s hatred of Britain that the Tories would have been worse, which millennials choose for their future is their that is at fault for this. My mistake. is a pretty damning view of British politics. But business. Finally, it is somewhat ironic that Brother any Brexit cultist will tell you it was all the fault But not everyone who supports her wants Hill has this sneering contempt for Thunberg, of Brussels. Silly me. to live in fields. People like me who voted someone we shouldn’t forget is still a Brother Hill is clearly an angry man. He Green in the EU elections don’t see the Stone schoolgirl, given his whole letter is about claims that right-wingers are merely good Age in the way Brother Hill and his ilk view the democracy, the point in voting, and people honest folk – like him – who just haven’t been Second World War. I want to see a cleaner being ignored by the (yawn) ‘liberal elite’. Let listened to. Shooting an MP is the result of planet. I want improvements in technology me explain to Brother Hill one solid fact: if it ‘liberal elites’ not listening to them and doing that will reduce our dependence on fossil weren’t for people like Greta Thunberg, there’d what they want. But he doesn’t list what hasn’t fuels, such as improved battery storage. I’d like be no vote for him to cast to make his country been listened to. Instead he introduces ‘the to see a return to electricity providers paying poorer, there’d be no legal trade unions that new age hippy brigade,’ headed by Greta solar panel owners for their unwanted have made his life financially comfortable and Thunberg, someone with clearly greater electricity, which was removed by the Tories. I his working hours bearable, and there’d be no intelligence and courage than Brother Hill, want to see proper investment in transport, weekends to spend writing angry letters. What that’s got his back up. Apparently Thunberg particularly railways. Brother Hill works in a shame that the one thing the previous ‘do- wants us back living in the Stone Age and Manchester. It is self-evident to me that for a gooding’ generation of Thunbergs have Brother Hill actually believes this twaddle. The city its size to have a metro system which goes woefully failed in, is giving a political only thing ‘stone age’ round here are the into street tram line in the city, when in most education to Brother Hill. repetitive and credulous claptrap about elites, comparable cities in Europe they would Patrick Redmond , Rickmansworth depot, liberals, and Marxists that he spouts. With continue underground, displays a half-arsed London Underground

20 The ASLEF Journal l July 2019 classified Advertisements

and referred to the police. The way of the world 2019 THE KING’S CROSS STORY To quote George Orwell: ‘The further a by Peter Darley (The History society drifts from the truth, the more it will Press, £20) as featured on the hate those who speak it.’ This is the reality of centre pages of the January the world in which we are now living. Journal . Buy it direct from the Phil Stodart , RMS Penzance Camden Railway Heritage Trust at a discounted price of £15 inc p&p; email [email protected] or phone 020 7586 6632 for details. ‘All income from Sovereign nation again sales goes to the trust,’ says Peter. If I remember correctly ASLEF backed a vote for Brexit in 2016, which I wholeheartedly GLOUCESTER HORTON ROAD agreed with. I never wanted to join the depot 1854-1994: 25 years RIP. £10 Stars but no stripes on this union flag Common Market in 1973 and voted to leave in inc p&p. Contact Andy Gregg at I am responding to the letter from Tom Burns, 1975! I have absolutely no faith in the Labour [email protected] Perth, titled ‘Founding fathers wanted a United Party delivering on a real and meaningful States of Europe’ ( Journal , May). And I have withdrawal from the EU, where the ECJ has no GROVE PARK branch 50th sought advice, and researched this issue, and say in British law, where we are free to trade anniversary badge. £6.50 inc p&p. not taken things at face value, or at someone’s with the rest of the world, and we become a Contact branch secretary Ray Garland word. It is right that Jean Monnet dedicated sovereign nation once again! Don’t forget, we 07931 612615 or [email protected] himself to the cause of European integration. had to turn our back on the British He was the inspiration behind the Schuman Commonwealth of Nations when we joined HANDMADE miniature Plan, which foresaw the merger of West this undemocratic German/French club. driver’s keys to wear as a charm European heavy industry. Despite finishing You say vote Labour but, as you know, the or round the neck. Solid silver and solid 9ct gold weighing formal education at the age of 16, and against vast majority of Labour MPs would quite approximately 7 grams. Just over 2cm in length all odds, Monnet became a man of many roles: happily support a second referendum or, even and just under 2cm width. Gold £300, silver £100 + international businessman, financier, diplomat more self-indulgently, revoke Article 50 £7 p&p recorded delivery. Contact Brad McCarthy and statesman. However, he was never elected altogether! The Labour Party are not on 07929 350146. to any public office and, therefore, never had consistent on Europe as they were dead the formal political power to enforce his views. against joining in 1957. Therefore, as I place YORK 243 branch 130th anniversary Last time I checked, he’s not God, or secretly British freedom and our self-respect in the badge. Last few remaining £6 inc controlling the minds of every European world ahead of party politics, there is no way I p&p. Contact branch sec Adrian Cook politician and legislator since the 1950s. can vote for them. Obviously Brexit doesn’t at [email protected] In the real world, we tend not to rely on the really mean much to ASLEF after all. supposed personal thoughts of a single long- Peter Ward by email PROFESSIONAL ENGRAVING at dead individual as proof of very much at all – sensible prices. I can engrave anything certainly not anything even vaguely relevant you wish, such as the ASLEF logo on to the actual development of a complex and Bring on the Brexit Party the pint tankard. Contact Paul Potts by multifaceted organisation whose There’s no point in voting anymore! email at [email protected] constitutional and legal texts have evolved Democracy in this country was lost on 29 AIRDRIE enormously over the past 70 years under the March 2019! I don’t trust any of the current has produced a badge to commemorate its reopening as a direct, but highly diffuse, leadership of politicians. Bring on the Brexit Party. Shaun Beck by email separate branch. £6.50 inc p&p. Please countless national politicians and legislators. contact branch chair Ivan Wilson The EU is what the leaders of its (now 28) (07949 862393) for details. member states have decided to make it; no Lords – irony without peer constitutional reforms have been undertaken A new report from the House of Lords has BESPOKE CUSHIONS Hand other than by the unanimous agreement of proposed scrapping the triple lock on state made 40cm square cushions of those states; and the UK has fully participated pensions; removing the bus pass, winter fuel railway engines and carriages. £50. in its development to date. allowance and free TV licence for the over 75s; Call Abi on 07954 659849 or email me at [email protected] To take Monnet’s ancient musings ‘at his and making universal benefits subject to tax, word’ are ‘proof’ of nothing! Anyone who relies scathingly referring to these concessions as CLASS 308 NSERS on them as proof of some sinister plot to rob ‘outdated’. I think it’s ironic all this comes from badge to the states and peoples of Europe of their raise funds for the preservation a bunch of peers paid £300 a day just for of the last complete Phase One sovereignty and identity is misguided. As for turning up and enjoying a subsidised meal at predicting the future of the EU in five years’ 4 CIG train 1753. £6 inc p&p public expense. from NSERS, 41 Highfield Road, Ipswich, time, who knows? Why is the UK in such a P Begley , Bedford Suffolk, IP1 6DD. Cheques payable to Network mess? Misinformation goes unchallenged by South East Railway Society. many in the media, and becomes accepted even though it can be factually inaccurate, or Good to see the ‘n’ word PERTH branch badge to downright lies. Maybe it’s because a large part British Steel should be nationalised, urges commemorate 110 years (1908- of the population are happy to accept the Labour, it says on the BBC website, about the 2018). £6 plus £1 p&p. Cheques results of a referendum in which the Vote threat to jobs in Scunthorpe. Isn’t it wonderful payable to Perth branch ASLEF No Leave campaign was found guilty by the to see the ‘n’ word in print? I have been using it 134 General. Please contact branch Electoral Commission of breaking electoral since I learned how to talk. secretary Grant Murchie for details on 07412 453454 or [email protected] law, for which they were subsequently fined Mel Thorley , Longsight to place an advertisement in the Come and join the conversation! Send letters by email to ASlEF Journal please phone [email protected] or by Royal Mail to the ASLEF Journal 020 7324 2400 or send an email to at 77 St John Street, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 4NN [email protected]

July 2019 l The ASLEF Journal 21 last Word

theresa May at the tory conference as the stage falls apart (a metaphor for her premiership) and two rivals for the title of worst PM: lord North, often described by historians as Britain’s worst Prime Minister, and Sir Alec douglas-home

Bevan said that if he was sincere in what he was saying, ‘Then he is too stupid to be a Prime Minister’. Not all that stupid, however: when The Observer accused him of lying to Parliament, and his own party was baying for his blood in 1956, he had the good sense to head off on holiday to Jamaica. Visits to the West Indies are invariably a bad move for a Prime Minister. In the 1970s, James Callaghan jollied back nicely bronzed from that region to a frosty and strike-ridden UK to tell waiting journalists he’d been swimming and there wasn’t a crisis at all. No one believed him. Theresa May’s inability to spot a good time to call a general election is rivalled only by Arthur Balfour, who in 1905 became the only Who are the Darling Prime Minister to lose his own seat at the same time as steering his party to electoral disaster. A nice double whammy, there. Until Theresa, the Most Disastrous PM Buddies of May? award had been popularly assigned to Lord North who single-handedly lost the UK its American colonies. He picked a fight with CHRIS PROCTOR reflects on Freshly elected as Tory Party leader, she them in such an appalling way that the French, the woeful premiership of declared, ‘As we leave the European Union, we Spanish, Dutch (and more or less everyone Theresa May and wonders will forge a bold, new, positive role for else) sided with the fledging Yanks. where it places her in the ourselves in the world’. That didn’t entirely turn But, in retrospect, Frederick North, the out as predicted. second Earl of Guildford, was an amateur. He pantheon of the all-time But it was more accurate than her messed up, lost support and popped off. Not worst Prime Ministers of perception in January 2017 that, ‘After all the Mrs May. Britain. There are, as he wryly notes, division and discord, the country is coming Oh no. In January she presented a Brexit Bill rather a lot of contenders for the title... together.’ to Parliament despite being told that no one Theresa May epitomised the ‘never say die, liked it. She lost. So she presented the same N YEARS to come, when drivers have even when you’re dead’ spirit. Early in Bill, but in nicer wrapping paper, in March. She I a SPAD, miss a station or run a train December 2017 she announced, ‘We will leave lost again. And so she presented the same into the buffers, someone will say, the EU on 29 March 2019.’ The rest of the Bill... ‘Well, well, you’ve made a right Theresa of that!’ country fell about cackling. The odds were the Our former Prime Minister has earned her same as ASLEF giving Chris Grayling honorary THE COUNTRY’S BEEN THERESA’D place in history. In the past we’ve had leaders life membership. Was she downhearted? Not a bit! Her who have been incompetent (Alec Douglas- Faced with the fact that it wasn’t going to spokesperson revealed that there was room Home). We’ve had PMs who have been happen, did Mrs May waver? Not a bit of it! She for optimism. How so? Well, she lost by 149 arrogant (Ted Heath). We’ve had premiers who got more precise: ‘We will be leaving the EU on votes in January but only by 58 in March. have been failures (Anthony Eden). But never 29 March 2019 at 11pm.’ Not 10 pm or 11:55. Presumably the logic was that if she kept before in the history of this scepter’d isle have Oh, no, 11pm on the dot! going she could have a majority by the time we seen all these traits embodied in a single Prince William takes over the throne. person. WELLRDESERVED OBSCURITY But, by the same token, her popularity Congratulations, Mrs M! You have earned I don’t want to be unfair to other candidates rating slipped from 37% at the end of 2017 to the right to be formally recognised as a for the title Most Awful Prime Minister of the 21% by April this year. So, by this logic, even disaster of monumental scale. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern she would have to accept that, by the summer, Ireland. Alec Douglas-Home, for example, did she’d have no pals at all, in or out of EPITOMISED THE NEVER SAY DIE, look ludicrous as he gave up his hereditary Parliament. There would, ahem, be no darling EVEN WHEN YOU’RE DEAD SPIRIT seat in the House of Lords in 1963, wriggled buddies of May. Yes, I admit there are other candidates for the onto the benches in the Commons so he could So, cheerio, Mrs May, and well done for accolade of ‘Most Awful PM’, but I am be Prime Minister, got kicked out after less being the worst Prime Minister to date. The unflinching in my support for Mrs May. Praise than a year and then scuttled back to the Lords good news is that you’ve gone. The bad news where it’s due. Few people before her showed and well-deserved obscurity. is that some other gawk will be taking over: such a capacity for being so impressively and And Anthony Eden proved a bit of a hoot and, meanwhile, the whole country’s been regularly wrong. during the Suez Crisis, to the extent that Nye Theresa’d.

22 The ASLEF Journal l July 2019 Across down On track Prize crossword 1 Spanish capital 1 Tiny person 4 Finger or toe 2 Steak undercooked crossword 159 by tom Williams 7 Advantaged 3 End of a marriage Weird mix of wishful 8 Unsightly blood 4 Dr Who enemy 9 Pet name for a cat 5 Pop group’s thinking and lies 11 Dense grassy tuft one-night stand 13 School language 6 Hot drink laced ICHARD Holbrooke, the 15 Judy’s puppet with whisky American Democrat, diplomat, show sidekick 7 Gaol R and beltway insider who served 17 Arrange in 10 Threefold as US ambassador to Germany (1993- advance 12 Bighead (4-3) 1994) and the United Nations (1999-2001), 18 Can be altered like 14 Desiring food Assistant Secretary of State under Jimmy seat belts 15 Tartan Carter (1977-1981) and Bill Clinton (1994- 20 Covered in grime 16 Sledge dog 1996), and Special Envoy to Afghanistan 21 A bequest of 17 A stopper under Barack Obama (2009-2010) joined personal property 19 Make a the US Foreign Service as a young man discordant sound straight out of Brown, the Ivy League college on Rhode Island. His first posting, in 1963, at the age of 21, was to Vietnam and, as Our Man by Solution to crossword 158 George Packer (Jonathan Cape, £25) Across: 3 Franc 6 Dredger 7 Appear 8 Laden Name...... makes clear, there was, at that time, no 9 Cockerel 12 Leery 14 Ruler 15 Hornpipe debate about the right – some even said 18 Algae 19 Citric 20 Ecology 21 Guess Address...... moral duty – of America to be there. But it down: 1 Headgear 2 Agency 3 France 4 Apple wasn’t long before Holbrooke had serious 5 Crane 6 Delilah 10 Religion 11 Larceny ...... misgivings about US strategy in south-east 13 Pieces 14 Reason 16 Owing 17 Nerve Asia. He knew the gung-ho reports of American success being wired back to Congratulations to d Woodhams , ...... Washington by the CIA were a ‘weird and of hersham , Surrey , who was wonderful’ mix of wishful thinking and last month’s winner. The ...... outright lies. winner of this month’s Prize Crossword will receive Marks & Spencer vouchers to the value of £25 ......

l You can see more of Tom Williams’s Postcode...... crosswords, word games and puzzles at wordgames.co.uk

Thanks for all your responses to the 158th prize crossword in the June edition of the ASLEF American Gis – known as grunts – were Journal . If you successfully complete this month’s crossword please send the solution to the the boots on the ground in vietnam Editor, ASLEF Journal , 77 St John Street, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 4NN by 14 July He also realized, long before anyone else, that the traditional military solution of dispatching more troops would not work, either. Holbrooke admitted, though ASLEF’s legal services his superiors didn’t want to listen, that the have you been sacked, or are in trouble at work, and cannot get hold of ‘simple, horrible truth [is] we didn’t belong there, we had no business doing what we your branch secretary, local representative or district Organiser in an were doing.’ emergency? call our industrial relations department on 020 7324 2400 As Packer observes, and this was (9am to 5pm Monday to thursday or 9am to 4pm on Friday) or leave a something it would take American message on the answer service, or email [email protected] with a subject politicians a long time to learn, Vietnam – heading of ‘For the attention of the the first war the United States had lost – was also the first sign in the 20th century industrial relations dept’. that America, victorious in 1918 and 1945, could not always bend the world to its will. A lesson the US, and Holbrooke, had yet to learn before its ill-starred invasions of Iraq in 1990 and 2001 and the NOTICE TO MEMBERS: TRADE UNION AND LABOUR RELATIONS neoliberal NATO intervention in Bosnia in SCONSOLIDATIONT ACT 1992 SAS AMENDEDT 1995. This book, notionally a biography of one quintessentially establishment man, is A resolution approving the furtherance of political objects within the meaning of the actually a fascinating examination of the above Act as an object of the union has been adopted by ballot under the Act. Any (few) successes and (many) failures of US payments in furtherance of those objects will be made out of a separate fund, the political foreign policy over the last fifty years. ‘Our fund of the union. feeling that we could do anything gave us Any member, who joined the Union on or after 1 March 2018, who has given notice of the Marshall Plan and Vietnam, peace at their willingness to contribute to the union’s political fund (an ‘opt-in’ notice), has a right to Dayton and the endless Afghan war.’ withdraw that notice by giving notice to the union (a ‘withdrawal notice’). Keith Richmond

July 2019 l The ASLEF Journal 23