Bob Crow has died...

[max_tranmere]

The leader of the RMT union Bob Crow has suddenly died aged 52. This was all very sudden, passing away in the early hours of this morning from a heart condition. The former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, was a staunch leftie like Bob Crow, said today that railway and tube workers in London are amongst the only well paid working class people in London now, and that is largely because of Bob Crow.

He was a man of his principles and a man of integrity, mostly so anyway. Like most left-wingers, whether they be at the RMT union or Unite or any of them, they go on about the unfairness of the centre-right hierarchical system of earnings and possessions, but never seem to complain if they become one of the people who moves further up the totem pole. He liked his ?140,000 salary, pension and perks - just like the leaders of Unite do.

Anyway, a prominent London figure has prematurely died, he was regularly sparring with Boris Johnson and he called a number of, in my opinion, unnecessary strikes on London underground which caused problems for lots of people. RIP Bob, you went before your time. Our thoughts are with your family.

[Gentleman]

Shame his passed on and if we had more of his ilk in place maybe the average working man wouldn't find himself in the current situation.

The salary thing is always bandied about but when considering how a exec in the private sector (very private as you wouldn't be able to find out how he gets) of a organisation of comparable size you'd find bob was very good value. Also members choose to belong and are paying for a service.

Today I'm having a John smith moment as I still remember how sad it was when I heard the news and later discovering the likes of Blair were the acceptable face of politics.

[Milk Tray Man]

The last of the "old school" trade union leaders. The rest of them these days seem to be just bland suits.

[Cuntybollocks]

"The last of the "old school" trade union leaders"

Good!!.

[max_tranmere]

I guess people on the centre-right don't deny they believe in a pyramid system where you have the 'haves', the 'have some mores', the 'extreme haves' and the 'super haves'. People on the far-left, like Bob Crow was and other Union leaders from over the years like Derek 'Red Robbo' Robinson, Arthur Scargill and others, had their views informed by very far-left ideology and thinking. That sort of viewpoint is defined as an equilibrium, total economic and financial equality and therefore once implemented there is no such things as 'haves' and 'have nots'. But the people calling for this always seem to want vast amounts more for themselves and just expect everyone else to have the equality - which would mean those further up the tree coming down to meet those lower down kind of halfway - while the supposed hard left-wingers calling for the implementation of all this stuff live in their nice pad with a lot more cash. Communist leaders in Russia lived in mansions, had butlers and had chuffer-driven Rolls Royce's. The NUM leader Arthur Scargill was I recall defined by the leader of the electricians union as someone who "started off with a big union and a small house and ended up with a small union and a big house". Bob Crow had his council pad, but had his three grand a WEEK salary. The leaders of the Unite union are on comparable salaries. Lefties: don't you just love the hypocrisy?

Next. You mention John Smith. I can remember exactly what I was doing and where I was when I heard he died. It was 20 years ago, almost to the month. I liked him but he was a bit more old-labour than Blair was subsequently, but a lot more new-labour than Kinnock was. You can trace the origins of new-labour back to the disaster of 1979 when the Labour government were not only kicked out of office but after the Winter of Discontent 'socialism', which had brought this country to its knees, was a dead duck. An ideaology which was meant to be about creating fairness and a safety net for the most needy in society had morphed into something involving hospitals having to cancel operations as there was no heating, bodies not being buried because grave diggers were on strike and bodies had to be piled up in warehouses, people shopping without light as the power was off, and the country being 6 weeks away for food shortages. It was said that 1979 changed the face of British politics forever, and I guess it did. One thing I admire Thatcher for was smashing the trade union movement to pieces in the 1980's. I recall seeing a documentary about the Winter of Discontent and one of Jim Callaghan's advisors was saying, this was over 20 years later, that the trade union movement 'deserved' Margaret Thatcher and that she brought in disiplinary legislation so that they could 'never do again what they did to this country in the Winter of Discontent'.

I suspect John Smith would have won the general election of 1997, had be not have passed away three years before. He would not have won it with a huge landslide like Tony Blair did though. His agenda was still quite left wing, he was also a Scot and someone once said to me that the nation would never vote for a Scot as leader. He would have won, in part, because of how disliked the Tories were. He was a good bloke though and he should always be remembered as such.

[max_tranmere]

Most trade union bosses today live like top city executives, they claim that society shouldn't be so unequal but confirm by how they live, and the salary and perks they take, that they ARE actually in favour of it (if they can have more) just claim others shouldn't. This makes them hypocrites. The city lot are at least consistent and admit they are in favour of such things. The left being hypocrites on this I have detailed in my comment just now to Gentleman.

[max_tranmere]

Hopefully powerful trade union leaders are a thing of the past, like steam engines and vinyl records.

[max_tranmere]

According to the Evening Standard today here in London, which has its whole front page devoted to Bob Crow's death, his pooch was called "Castro". Oh well, at least with that he never hid his far-left allegiances. lol.

[number 6]

RIP Bob. A great man with true socialist beliefs.

[spider]