Broken Britain
Except it isn’t really is it? I just felt like stealing a headline that appears in nearly every Daily Mail issue ever.
What is pretty fucked though is the underground and the post office. I’m sure there are lots of other things wrong but these affect me. When either of these two groups of “people” go on strike, it affects millions. Over a job dispute between the workforce and their bosses. In other words, nothing to do with anyone who is actually affected. In most jobs, if you are offered a pay rise over inflation you are grateful and feel lucky. If you are still a whingeing bastard who doesn’t know how good you’ve got it compared to everyone else, you take it up with your employers. You don’t try and piss off as many other people as possible until your bosses cave in.
You don’t catch nurses or firemen going on strike do you? This is probably because people would die, I’ll admit. I work in TV however, and if we transmission controllers went on strike then no one would have anything to watch and would be forced to lead productive, active, purposeful lives and no one wants that. We work every day of the year. Even when there’s no transport like in the extreme cases of Christmas or a Sunday. If we have grief with our employers we don’t take it out on people outside the office. Well, not often.
I think we should strike sometimes though. Imagine the outcry if there was no TV and all you got at home was a screen that read: “Sorry – no Eastenders or Coronation today as we can’t make it in due to the tube strike.” Or: “There will be no TV today as we want more cash.” So the unions are having to work the weekends at the same rate as during the week. Join the club.
As for postal workers – I’m only slightly affected by this. I don’t post many letters. It is just annoying when I don’t get my Amazon deliveries. If I was a postal worker I’d be happy to have a job. Most people send emails these days and if it wasn’t for online shopping they’d be out of a job. Once Amazon and eBay find alternatives to posting things they’ll all be unemployed. I feel a bit more sorry for them though as the post office is probably still broke from when they changed the name to Consignia and back. That was a good idea. “No one is posting letters any more! What shall we do?” Then an order from on high (probably by email or text): “We should change our name.” Brilliant. I could be completely wrong about what happened but I can’t be bothered to look it up and am happy with my memory of the events.
Is this all as bad as some would have you believe? Well, maybe. If the unions start pissing everyone off bad things can happen. Especially in a recession. Just remember:
PLUS
Could equal bad things. When the people are down and the economy is screwed people often turn to strong, right wing types. Like:
No one really wants that. So grow up people, at least you have a job. In the old days people worried about crazed Europeans invading and burning down our villages. Now we should all be happy and nice to each other – or no ‘X-factor come dancing on ice’ for you!
Well, that’s the end of my night shift. It’s a Saturday, so the district line has delays, the overland is shut, and the jubilee line is shut every weekend until 2012. So I’ll be home any hour now. Then I can relax and read the ton of hand-delivered junk mail I get every day.
