Different Sunday Musings In June

~ beetleypete

I have written about the small heatwave previously, and also outlined the progress on renewing my driving licence. So this week, my musings are taking on a different form.
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Starting on the 21st, we have a series of rail strikes commencing. The unions representing the train drivers have come under great criticism for balloting for this strike, which over 80% of those drivers who voted are in favour of. The attacks on them are based on what they currently earn. Including overtime, train drivers can earn between £40,000 and £55,000 a year in the UK. Different operating companies pay different rates, and also have different contracts. Depending on the shifts worked, and the duration of those shifts, it is true that train drivers can earn as much as qualified nurses and teachers.

But I see nothing wrong with that. Why shouldn’t they?

They do a highly-trained and sometimes difficult job, and are often responsible for the safety of hundreds of passengers, driving trains at high speed between British cities. One of the politicians who has been most critical of the strike action earns £88,000 a year by being a member of parliament. In the last calendar year, he also claimed £190,000 in ‘expenses’, enjoys long holiday breaks when parliament closes, and is able to do a second job by being on the board of a private company that pays him around £100,000 a year to turn up at meetings ‘occasionally’. Yet he thinks the person driving the train taking him to his two jobs is earning too much money. Disgraceful.

All workers should read this quote.

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With the cost of living crisis seriously affecting well over half the households in this country, we are hearing about qualified nurses having to get free food from Food Banks to survive the rising costs of power, petrol, and groceries in supermarkets. Some old people are afraid to turn on their heating when they are cold, and many children are having to eat cheap food that is nutritionally poor. Yet the government politicians see nothing wrong in that, simply blaming it on the Pandemic, or the war in Ukraine. As the rich get richer than ever before in history, we are told to wear extra clothes when we are cold, and that nothing is the fault of government policy.

I am not a religious man, but this quote from someone who is sums up the blatant hypocrisy of those uncaring politicians on their huge salaries and expenses.

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I hope you a have a peaceful and happy Sunday. And I send my best wishes to all the fathers out there who might be enjoying a celebration of Father’s Day. But let’s not forget those fathers who will be spending the day alone or unloved.

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29 thoughts on “Different Sunday Musings In June”

    1. Thanks very much, Jennie. A hundred years of struggle for ordinary people’s rights is being overturned everywhere. We need to say ‘enough is enough’.
      Best wishes, Pete.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. This strike is about so much more than pay increases. The railway companies want to cut safety inspections by 50%, and remove staff physically checking the rails, replacing them with drones. Almost 5,000 jobs would go, and the remaining staff would be forced to endure ‘Fire and rehire’ contracts with no union protection of terms and conditions. I actually think we need more strikes, not less, Carol. People have to stand up to this disgustingly corrupt government.
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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    1. Thanks, Carolyn. I hate them with a vengeance, I really do. I could actually kill them all, given the chance. As mad as that sounds, I honestly could. (Including that fake Tory, Starmer.)
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  5. Politicians need to earn as much as nurses and train drivers so that they can live in the real world. Perhaps the current Ruperts won’t want their jobs then and so give them to people who can make a better go of running the country.

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  7. (1) Train drivers do “a highly-trained” job. True, but plane flyers display their acquired skills on an even higher plane..
    (2) “I will never understand how politicians who call themselves Christian can read the Gospels and then treat the poor and the sick like dirt.” James Martin, I’m sure you’ve studied the situation. But to truly understand the reason why the poor and the sick are treated like dirt, you’ll need to dig a little deeper.

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  10. I heard that the bus drivers went on strike in Yorkshire after their 8% pay rise request was turned down, which may have seemed rather high at first glance, but then it turns out they haven’t had a pay rise in 4 years. No doubt as the shareholders took a dividend. I can feel a revolution on the way, ‘power to the people’ 🙂
    I’d like to add the fathers who are on the frontline in Ukraine and other conflicts around the world.

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    1. Cheers, Eddy. I hate the fact that rich people think that ‘ordinary people’ earn too much money. It has gone on for my entire life, and is getting worse. It’s all about keeping the workers in their place in the structure of an aristocratic-led society.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  12. I read a WHICH article earlier about a woman receiving final demand notices along with visits from arrears collectors concerning £85 she did not owe. Unsurprisingly she was being targeted by OVO, my energy supplier. Turns out once WHICH took up her cause, OVO climbed down after it was pointed out to them that they owed her, not the other way round!!! Bloody OVO got up my nose when they informed me that they were raising the amount they take from my bank account!!!

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    1. We are with EDF, and I read my own meter. If they try to increase the monthly payments by too much, I ring them up and threaten to change supplier. It has worked for 10 years so far, but I have no idea how long that will last.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  13. Hey Pete! This is a powerful post. I agree that politicians are the last people to be allowed to crib on other people’s salary raise strikes. There are politicians in India who think that a person earning 1000 Rupees a month (10 GBP) is above poverty line.

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