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The ITV strike of 1979 |
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#201 |
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Join Date: Nov 2006
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Quote:
The problem was the unions had too much power in the seventies and started to abuse it.
British Leyland was a case in point, they had shop stewards with an agenda about starting a revolution and class warfare while being bailed out by the government .... Do the reckless banks, bailed out at public expense, exercise too much power and abuse that power? Do you think that the UK is now in a more stable and prosperous condition because the conviction politicians of days gone by are almost universally replaced by career politicians who depend on theory rather than experience? |
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#202 |
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Join Date: Jul 2010
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Quote:
The problem was the unions had too much power in the seventies and started to abuse it. British Leyland was a case in point, they had shop stewards with an agenda about starting a revolution and class warfare, while being bailed out by the government, and when not on strike, were producing rubbish cars that buyers began to avoid. Also to be fair managements in those days were autocratic and remote and tended to be as bad as the unions.
As a young 'un I remember the announcements on Beacon / BRMB given during comercial breaks to striking workers. "Will shift A please return to work tomorrow morning" etc There's footage on youtube (or there was) of a young Chris Tarrant covering the Longbridge strikes on ATV Today. It was the gig no one wanted - stood in the freezing cold with a very hostile workforce giving you dogs abuse! |
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#203 |
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: West Midlands
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No wonder CT went onto Tiswas.
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#204 |
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Join Date: Jun 2010
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The closed shops were controlled by the shop stewards, some of whom used it line their own pockets.
A former colleague once told me that at age 18 he had to put borrow money from his parents to stuff in an envelope, in order to bribe a seaman's union steward, so he could get a Union card and start his job as a chef on a cruise ship. IIRC there was a piece on Nationwide about Southend Council binmen which was one of the first privatised Council services, (OK it was David Evans who took on the contract and he later became a Conservative MP so it was maybe a bit one-sided), but he went on camera stating that only a handful of the binmen were earning a decent wage. Somehow only the shop steward and his friends and relations were getting any of the overtime, as it was a closed shop it was the Union that allocated the overtime and shifts. There was even a suggestion that it was physically impossible for them to actually be doing the overtime, so they were just allocating themselves "worked hours" without doing any, and the rest of the binmen just got their basic wage. In the USA this is how the mobs take over the Unions. |
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#205 |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
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In Fleet Street it was impossible to get a printing job unless you had a relative who worked there.''Old Spanish customs'' as they were known were also endemic in ITV in the 60s and 70s. The number of people working on an ITV OB unit was double a BBC OB.There were extraordinary stories about people in ITV who appeared to be on double-time for everything they did in their normal working day.
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#206 |
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Join Date: Feb 2011
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I wish something like this would happen today. No one has any guts in TV. Full of liberals. Apart from reporters.
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#207 |
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Join Date: Dec 2007
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I remember switching to ITV during the strike to see that message on the blue background. I would sometimes just stare at it and think the words were "throbbing."
It was more interesting than watching BBC1. |
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#208 |
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: south west
Posts: 9,914
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Quote:
I remember switching to ITV during the strike to see that message on the blue background. I would sometimes just stare at it and think the words were "throbbing."
It was more interesting than watching BBC1. |
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#209 |
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 3,780
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I seem to recall Brian Moore during one Big Match Live telling us they were unable to show replays due to a technicians strike. I can't remember the year.
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#210 |
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 273
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Quote:
BBC Engineering Number 84, October 1970 ANCHOR - BBC Designs Department Character Generator
Well into the 80s, the BBC (like most broadcasters) was still using printed caption cards extensively and had its own Print Graphics unit for supplying them. Typically, Masseeley hot foil presses were used to print the cards. |
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#211 |
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Cumbria
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Quote:
Who measures this supposed excess of power?
Do the reckless banks, bailed out at public expense, exercise too much power and abuse that power? Do you think that the UK is now in a more stable and prosperous condition because the conviction politicians of days gone by are almost universally replaced by career politicians who depend on theory rather than experience? |
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#212 |
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Join Date: Jun 2010
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I completely agree with your last sentence. Most MPs now are from upper middle class backgrounds with little experience of the real world. I'd much rather have someone like Denis Healey over Ed Miliband,
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#213 |
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Planet grumpy
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deleted
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