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Anorak News | Summer Holiday

Summer Holiday

by | 21st, May 2004

‘IS it spring?

‘It’s the wrong kind of sun. It’s beach sun, not work sun’

Stuck in this disused coal shaft, we at Anorak Towers have no idea when one season moves into the next, and rely on a calendar of convenience.

For instance, we know when winter arrives because our hands freeze to the keyboard and good Mr Youngman gives us all a satsuma (to share).

And we know when summer arrives because the railway workers go out on strike.

And, according to the Telegraph, summer could arrive as early as the first week of June – although, what with this being a railway issue, summer might not arrive at all or reach here around October time.

Summer could even be cancelled, unless members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union thrash out a deal with their employers at Network Rail.

The first nationwide rail strike for 10 years (the Tube’s strike is an annual event, like the first swallow of spring), will be averted if Network Rail raises wages, offers earnings-linked pensions to new recruits and – get this – extends free and cheap travel to all employees, says the Guardian.

Yes folks, summer may yet be saved as long as the railway workers are allowed to stand for nothing alongside the commuters waiting for the 6:40 service from Berwick, East Sussex, to London.

We say let them have it. Making the staff drink their medicine should teach them.

Indeed, it proved too much for Simon Taylor, a disgruntled commuter, profiled in the Telegraph.

While waiting for the aforesaid service, Taylor was told over the PA system that the train would not be stopping at the station today.

So Taylor decided he’d make it stop, as it had been scheduled to do, and walked back to his car, got in and drove it onto a nearby level crossing.

Which self-confessed “staggeringly stupid“ act caused him to make a stop at the High Court and, after an admission of guilt, suffer a possible two-year delay in prison.

As for the train, well, it was delayed for six minutes, which as Health and Safety ruling 4 sub-section 42a clearly states is “horribly early and puts the lives of unsuspecting railway workers in peril”.

A strike has been called for. And just as soon as the weather heats up a bit, there’ll be one…’



Posted: 21st, May 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink