UK Post Office Workers

The Post Office workers have never been very militant. In 1971 Thatcher pushed them into a national post strike and beat them after 47 days. Tom Jackson was then their leader and a moderate left with nowhere else to go. Thatcher's government was in training for what was to come later with far stronger unions.

Fast-forward 36 years and we have Gordon Brown, New Labour and the ex-Saatchi and Saatchi spin doctor, Adam Crozier, doing it all again. Suddenly after years of not hearing it we are now told what "Spanish Practices" are. Come on Brown, if the worse you can say is they start work too early and then finish early then, no matter what spin you put on it, it is you and Crozier who are the aggressors.

Of course if your economic policies are Thacherite like Brown's then the destruction of basic infrastructure like the postal service is OK... but what about the Minister of Health? Alan Johnson, it's no good making statements about NHS administrators when old work colleagues of yours are in so much trouble. Didn't you ever benefit from these Spanish Practices? Isn't it about time you resigned from this government or are you totally without principles?

Alan Johnson

Why Klong Walking 2

Bad day today so got away before lunch and drove past where I usually walk to on the main canal. Parked outside Prawet police station and started walking from there. I had seen on the map outside the temple yesterday that there was a smaller side canal going north off the main canal not far from the police station. This is called Klong Mae Chan (Mother Chan Canal maybe? I will find out.) There were paths on both sides of this klong and I picked the left side. This was the correct choice as there was a section missing on the right side. See the picture below.


These paths are less travelled; the side next to me was a long wall sealing off a large new housing estate. Past that were the back doors to a temple called Wat Khun Mae Chan. Looked interesting and I will have to find the road to the front entrance one day. They had a covered boat house so canal transport must have been important once. Past the temple I crossed over a small road and the main eastern railway lines, under the new under construction skytrain and under the Chonburi motorway.

Ended up being a long walk as I wanted to get to the next road access so I could pick up the walk from there another day. The local authority was pushing this route as a cycle tour so the distances are more than a walk. The pathways don't seem in good enough condition for bikes to be honest. I had thought about getting a bike but I'm think walking allows me to think rather than having to concentrate on the path. I have trouble doing too many things at once now-a-days. I think a bit like Rainman or Forrest Gump. Probably closer to the former but Tom Hanks had the better lines as Forrest. "Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you gonna get".

My brother was impressed by Gordon Brown at the news conference with George Bush the other day. I have too many doubts on him. I read a couple of years ago that there was no difference between him and Blair except he could talk Labour better. (Although Shirley Williams says Blair was very good at the "comrade" bit when he was searching for a constituency.) I don't consider there is much Labour in him at all. I'm reading a short book on John Smith and I think he still had some of the old labour principles.

Now I no longer think of the right of the Labour Party as my enemies but these guys now aren't really Labour. After the war Attlee, Morrison and Bevin led the world in a social experiment that is still something to be proud of. A little about me here. I left the UK in 1973 when Heath was the prime minister and Wilson still had anothet two years to serve after. Looking back I guess Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and the other guy (whose name nobody can remember without going to Wikipedia) must wished they had hung on a few more years.

And Alan Johnson, are you really going allow Crozier, who was responsible for hiring Sven for the England manager's job, to beat up on the post office workers, the people who elected you to the union job? Ernie Bevin you are not. Enough - I'm going to bed.