My former sparring buddy Ron Todd, who was the leader of the Transport and General Workers’ Union at the time, used to tell me stories about his struggles back when I was a young industrial journalist.
Speaking to a large gathering of striking employees at Ford’s Dagenham plant, he was pleased to announce that the works committee had successfully negotiated a massive 30% wage increase, three months of paid time off, and a future in which they would only be required to work on Wednesdays.
But instead of thunderous ovation and wild yells, there was a brief pause before someone in the back yelled, “What, every bloody Wednesday?”
Although Ron was making a joke, it demonstrated the scope of the irrational demands made in the late 1970s and early 1980s by some of the more militant union officials and their members.
Angry Ginge Rayner’s workers’ “rights” act, Labour’s high taxes, and Miliband’s suicidal obsession with Net Zero have all contributed to Britain’s manufacturing base being shrivelled and on the verge of collapse. As a result, the old industrial unions are no longer a powerful force in the country.
Far-left white-collar unions in the public sector, such as those representing doctors, teachers, government employees, council workers, etc., have taken their position. They have a considerably stronger sense of entitlement than the typical blue-collar “I’m All Right, Jack” group. Additionally, there is one essential distinction.
For a year, Barmy Arthur Scargill’s miners went on strike to demand the right to work. Civil personnel in particular are demanding the ability to take time off work these days.
Employees are still refusing to return to the office full-time, if at all, since the end of the protracted Covid lockdowns, during which they were told to work from home.
The Daily Telegraph’s investigation has revealed the WFH crisis plaguing the public sector. A variety of complex tricks are being used by civil servants to avoid performing the tasks for which they are compensated.
The most severely impacted departments are the Land Registry and HMRC, where some employees haven’t been in the office for six months to two years. Delays of up to eighteen months are being experienced by home purchasers and sellers who rely on the Land Registry for formal documentation.
People used to go on strike outside Ford’s Dagenham auto plant to demand the right to work, according to Richard Littlejohn. These days, civil personnel in particular want the freedom to skip work.
The center of the British government, Whitehall, is a ghost town on Fridays and only partially occupied on Mondays.
According to Littlejohn (seen by a model), WFH employees appear to be working diligently while lounging in their jim-jams, eating Hobnobs, and watching Bargain Hunt.
At HMRC, the situation is the same. It makes sense that 44,000 taxpayers were disconnected after being placed on wait for more than an hour, according to a study released at the conclusion of the previous year.
Even the employees who can be bothered to show up are short-lived. According to a whistleblower, it was typical for workers to clock in for a few hours before going missing for the remainder of the day.
A number of frauds, such as leaving computers open and fabricating “flexible working” logs, are used to fake attendance.
The revelation that some HMRC employees are driving to a nearby parking lot and using the office wifi remotely before returning home was my favourite.
They even have a term for it: “drive-by login.” You must respect their inventiveness.
Drive-by shootings are something I’ve heard about, but this is absurd.
Productivity would skyrocket and backlogs would disappear in no time if they truly put that much effort into their work.
I want to emphasise that all of this has astonished me. However, this is not surprising. Years ago, I forewarned you that the “temporary” WFH arrangements during COVID-19 would eventually turn into entrenched privileges.
I heard from a Mail reader who hired a contractor who had recently left a position where a council official was still “working from home,” shortly after lockdown ended and everyone was expected to resume regular work.
In order to give the impression that he was beavering away at the workface while lounging around in his jim-jams, eating Hobnobs, and watching Bargain Hunt, the council employee in question had connected his home computer mouse to a slow-turning fan.
Instead of returning to normal, things are becoming worse. An order to return to work only two days a week was recently rejected by employees of the Office for National Statistics in Edinburgh.
The center of the British government, Whitehall, is a ghost town on Fridays and only partially occupied on Mondays. Even when they are sitting at home fifty miles away, government workers are still claiming their £3,000 to £6,000 annual ‘London weighting’ allowance, which is meant to cover their transport expenses and the greater cost of things in London.
However, they are still unsatisfied. The largest public service union is requesting that its members be permitted to work from home full-time due to the increased gasoline costs brought on by the Iran conflict, as I reported a few weeks ago.
To be sure, one of the characteristics of the Great British Trades Unionist has always been skiving. We smuggled a photographer onto the night shift at British Leyland’s Longbridge facility when I worked for the Birmingham Evening Mail. He took pictures of the manufacturing line at a halt and scores of workers curled up in sleeping bags.
However, compared to the majority of today’s so-called civil servants, at least they had shown up for work in the first place. I’m afraid of what my late friend Ron Todd might have thought of it.
They won’t even work on Wednesdays these days.
Who knows what is happening in the peace negotiations between the United States and Iran? However, dolphins will benefit from the current “pause.”
According to reports, the IRGC was getting ready to attack American ships in the Straits of Hormuz with a special squadron of kamikaze dolphins equipped with explosives.
The animal rights movement may be outraged by this development, but our own Ministry of Defence may find it interesting. There is no funding for new frigates or destroyers, and the Royal Navy is severely depleted—another ship was taken out of duty this week.
However, we might be able to sprint to a dolphin squadron. One or two of them might be diverted to intercept migrant dinghies in the Channel.
We might be able to stop the boats with a fleet of flippers.
The name “Pork Pie Way” on a roadway in Melton Mowbray is being opposed by animal rights activists Peta. Since the 1700s, Melton has been the birthplace of the pork pie. However, Peta feels that the roadway should be called “Vegan Pie Way” and that the name is “pig-demeaning.”
How are they aware that it is demeaning? Did they ask the pigs? Peta ought to quit telling porkies.
The enormity of Labour’s slaughter will become clear to you by the time you finish reading this. It wasn’t ever in question. As I anticipated, the conversation now shifts to Starmer’s future.
But this isn’t just a rejection of Never Here Keir; it’s a rejection of the entire corrupt Labour government, which must be overthrown before it can cause any more harm.
However, tone-deaf and anti-democratic Surkeir somehow concludes that re-entering the EU in all but name—a move for which he lacks a democratic mandate—is the solution to being soundly defeated in local council elections.
Brexit received more than 17.4 million votes. A vicious dog and three men cast their votes for Labour yesterday. And where does anyone get the notion that everyone who voted for Plaid Cymru, Green, Reform, or SNP really meant to say, “What we want is Andy Burnham”?
I reiterate what I said earlier this week: an immediate general election is what we truly desire.
