Bob Crow dead

[jimharri]

one person alone was responsible for decimating communities and his name was arthur scargill, he took on a democratically elected government fed up of the previous government and LOST, thatcher wanted to close 70 odd uneconomical pits, 12 months later with little work done in the pits they had flooded and unworkable except at huge cost and double the original number of pits were closed, did scargill and his num cronies think of the miners and their families while they were drawing their salaries ? ( at the time it was reported as £80,000 per annum scargill was paid ) and how much did they donate to the strike fund ? scargill did spend some num money on a nice london residence for himself though, thankfully he lost that last year when it all came to light he invested in one of thatchers "right to buy policies" HYPOCRITE and champagne socialist/marxist

Good luck (you're going to need it!).

 

[mcmanus]

one person alone was responsible for decimating communities and his name was arthur scargill, he took on a democratically elected government fed up of the previous government and LOST, thatcher wanted to close 70 odd uneconomical pits, 12 months later with little work done in the pits they had flooded and unworkable except at huge cost and double the original number of pits were closed, did scargill and his num cronies think of the miners and their families while they were drawing their salaries ? ( at the time it was reported as £80,000 per annum scargill was paid ) and how much did they donate to the strike fund ? scargill did spend some num money on a nice london residence for himself though, thankfully he lost that last year when it all came to light he invested in one of thatchers "right to buy policies" HYPOCRITE and champagne socialist/marxist

Good luck (you're going to need it!).

Why did Cheltenham have to be this week?

 

[union city blue]

one person alone was responsible for decimating communities and his name was arthur scargill, he took on a democratically elected government fed up of the previous government and LOST, thatcher wanted to close 70 odd uneconomical pits, 12 months later with little work done in the pits they had flooded and unworkable except at huge cost and double the original number of pits were closed, did scargill and his num cronies think of the miners and their families while they were drawing their salaries ? ( at the time it was reported as £80,000 per annum scargill was paid ) and how much did they donate to the strike fund ? scargill did spend some num money on a nice london residence for himself though, thankfully he lost that last year when it all came to light he invested in one of thatchers "right to buy policies" HYPOCRITE and champagne socialist/marxist

I bet he's been sat at his keyboard increasingly working himself into a frenzy of rage and bile that most of the people on this thread are paying well-earned respects to somebody who is twice the man he is.

I really cannot be bothered to correct such a ridiculous post. I think the best thing I can say about it is that at least he spelt 'Arthur Scargill' correctly. A shame he's not mastered the correct use of capital letters for proper nouns yet.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

one person alone was responsible for decimating communities and his name was arthur scargill, he took on a democratically elected government fed up of the previous government and LOST, thatcher wanted to close 70 odd uneconomical pits, 12 months later with little work done in the pits they had flooded and unworkable except at huge cost and double the original number of pits were closed, did scargill and his num cronies think of the miners and their families while they were drawing their salaries ? ( at the time it was reported as £80,000 per annum scargill was paid ) and how much did they donate to the strike fund ? scargill did spend some num money on a nice london residence for himself though, thankfully he lost that last year when it all came to light he invested in one of thatchers "right to buy policies" HYPOCRITE and champagne socialist/marxist

I bet he's been sat at his keyboard increasingly working himself into a frenzy of rage and bile that most of the people on this thread are paying well-earned respects to somebody who is twice the man he is.

I really cannot be bothered to correct such a ridiculous post. I think the best thing I can say about it is that at least he spelt 'Arthur Scargill' correctly. A shame he's not mastered the correct use of capital letters for proper nouns yet.

One point that is worth making is that Crow cared a great deal more about the welfare of his members than Scargill and was a much more effective tactician. I suspect if he'd been in charge of the Miners in '84, the narrative of the mining industry may have been very different, as he was far too streetwise to get sucked into Thatcher's rope-a-dope, unlike Scargill, who she ate for breakfast.

Crow would have moved at a more more effective time than Scargill, that's for sure.

 

[johnnytapia]

Tricky one for me this but I will do my best.

I have to say that for me Bob Crow stood for everything I hated about the "old" trade unions, the sense of entitlement, the fuck the public attitude and the I will do what I want when I want attitude (was he a rag?) .

I thought his salary (and those of many other trade union leaders) was ludicrous and should have been restricted to the average wage of his members as should that of every trade union leader. Now I fully expect there to be major disagreement due to his responsibilities etc and I would perhaps modify this position to say it should have kept parity with whatever he was earning before he became a union officer. If he did his job for the benefit of his members he should have lived like them, not on several times their salary and in taxpayer funded housing to boot (that really is taking the piss whichever way you look at it, social housing for a man on a six figure salary? really?).

I, like many others I am sure, would happily take a job I really care about e.g. managing city for no more money than enough to keep my family with a roof over their heads, fed and clothed ( although with 2 teenage daughters this might work out to more than MP is on! ) presumably Bob Crow had his equivalent of that job so why did he need so much money?

"Old" trade unions. You mean those that fought to get the best deal for their members - best salaries, holidays, terms, pensions etc. Fuck me, what a shower of shite they must have been. So much better to have industry deregulated, at the whim of the "market". That turned out well didn't it?

What sort of salary should he have been on? That of a chief exec banker? A politican? A hedge-fund specialist? Come on, let's hear what other "top" person, "we must pay them enormous bonuses or they'll leave the country" you have in mind. "he made my blood boil" - oh dear, did he upset your cosy little cosetted view of how workers should cow-tow to the whim of all and fucking sundry? Do me a fucking favour. Share a pint and an argument with you? He'd have eaten you alive mate.

 

[mcmanus]

Tricky one for me this but I will do my best.

I have to say that for me Bob Crow stood for everything I hated about the "old" trade unions, the sense of entitlement, the fuck the public attitude and the I will do what I want when I want attitude (was he a rag?) .

I thought his salary (and those of many other trade union leaders) was ludicrous and should have been restricted to the average wage of his members as should that of every trade union leader. Now I fully expect there to be major disagreement due to his responsibilities etc and I would perhaps modify this position to say it should have kept parity with whatever he was earning before he became a union officer. If he did his job for the benefit of his members he should have lived like them, not on several times their salary and in taxpayer funded housing to boot (that really is taking the piss whichever way you look at it, social housing for a man on a six figure salary? really?).

I, like many others I am sure, would happily take a job I really care about e.g. managing city for no more money than enough to keep my family with a roof over their heads, fed and clothed ( although with 2 teenage daughters this might work out to more than MP is on! ) presumably Bob Crow had his equivalent of that job so why did he need so much money?

"Old" trade unions. You mean those that fought to get the best deal for their members - best salaries, holidays, terms, pensions etc. Fuck me, what a shower of shite they must have been. So much better to have industry deregulated, at the whim of the "market". That turned out well didn't it?

What sort of salary should he have been on? That of a chief exec banker? A politican? A hedge-fund specialist? Come on, let's hear what other "top" person, "we must pay them enormous bonuses or they'll leave the country" you have in mind. "he made my blood boil" - oh dear, did he upset your cosy little cosetted view of how workers should cow-tow to the whim of all and fucking sundry? Do me a fucking favour. Share a pint and an argument with you? He'd have eaten you alive mate.

There are times I wish I had the brains and vocabulary to write a post like that.

 

[johnnytapia]

didn't like the man or agree with his marxist politics, however i wouldn't wish death on anyone even someone as obnoxious as i found him, nor would i dance on his grave unlike many who did so when mrs thatcher passed away.

Crow did everything he could to improve the conditions for the workers he represented. In a world where we're forever being told we've got to win the "global race" (funny that, whenever I've asked anyone, "how will we know when we've won it and what do we do next?" they tend to go off mumbling something along the lines of, "erm, well, we'd erm, well, erm......") whilst the other, Thatcher , was, and remains, nothing but a right-wing wank symbol. The Mother of the "me me me" "I want it all, want it now, at any cost" generation. Yeah, but she allowed us all to "buy" our public services and competition brings out the best in everything. Course it does - all those gas suppliers have seen gas bills plummet. Haven't they? She sold the public a lie - that we could all be part of some magical trip to the never never land of everyone owning a home, everyone having the chance to go to Oxford/Cambridge etc. And, because we're a nation of fucking halfwits who take the Daily Mail/Sun/Express as Gospel, she won. Was I glad when she died? No. I'll only be happy when her politics die.

 

[johnnytapia]

one person alone was responsible for decimating communities and his name was arthur scargill, he took on a democratically elected government fed up of the previous government and LOST, thatcher wanted to close 70 odd uneconomical pits, 12 months later with little work done in the pits they had flooded and unworkable except at huge cost and double the original number of pits were closed, did scargill and his num cronies think of the miners and their families while they were drawing their salaries ? ( at the time it was reported as £80,000 per annum scargill was paid ) and how much did they donate to the strike fund ? scargill did spend some num money on a nice london residence for himself though, thankfully he lost that last year when it all came to light he invested in one of thatchers "right to buy policies" HYPOCRITE and champagne socialist/marxist

I bet he's been sat at his keyboard increasingly working himself into a frenzy of rage and bile that most of the people on this thread are paying well-earned respects to somebody who is twice the man he is.

I really cannot be bothered to correct such a ridiculous post. I think the best thing I can say about it is that at least he spelt 'Arthur Scargill' correctly. A shame he's not mastered the correct use of capital letters for proper nouns yet.

One point that is worth making is that Crow cared a great deal more about the welfare of his members than Scargill and was a much more effective tactician. I suspect if he'd been in charge of the Miners in '84, the narrative of the mining industry may have been very different, as he was far too streetwise to get sucked into Thatcher's rope-a-dope, unlike Scargill, who she ate for breakfast.

Crow would have moved at a more more effective time than Scargill, that's for sure.

Hard to call, but you're probably right. Scargill, as we know, had had enormous success in the past against the government(s) and he often seemed a man hell-bent on pushing through a 1980s strike on 1970s terms, ie, the use and need of the ballot box was anathema to him; he simply thought calling out his members was sufficient. That worked in the '70s when he'd also expect, and get, support right across the industrial base. Secondary picketing had long gone by 1984 yet Scargill still seemed to think everyone would join his call to action. Crow, unlike Scargill, is/was leading an industry still used by millions - coal was just beginning to be seen as being on it's way out - the public knew we could get by without coal. It can't get by without the tube. Yet.

You also have to remember the role Thatcher/gobvernment played - almost wanting a strike - get hold of "Marching to the Fault Line" - the definitive narrative of all that the miners' strike entailed. neither Scargill, nor Thatcher come out of it well. Two rutting stags who wouldn't/couldn't concede ground for fear of losing face.

Anyway, back to Crow - a brilliant leader. Well paid? Took holidays? You fucking bet he was and did. And deservedly so.

 

[Plaything of the gods]

one person alone was responsible for decimating communities and his name was arthur scargill

Our Arthur has passed away as well? Sad,sad day.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Anyway, back to Crow - a brilliant leader. Well paid? Took holidays? You fucking bet he was and did. And deservedly so.

The whole "he takes luxury holidays in Brazil" thing really gets on my tits. Why shouldn't a guy like Bob Crow go on nice holidays?