The likelihood of me voting Labour was 0% so these strikes aren't going to make any difference to me personally.

The people affected by the rail strikes in the South East are just the kind of middle income people that Labour need to attract. So while there may be some electoral advantage in them promising a better and/or cheaper rail service, they also need to show that they can form a credible government and not be held hostage by small militant unions

1. I don't believe people owed thousands in holiday pay or working in dangerous conditions are trying to bring down the government. Frankly its a ridiculous theory.

2. Who i vote for will depend on the situation at the time.
I'm not making that decision before i even know who the leaders will be and what the policies are on the issues of the day.

I would like to point out that your living standards would no be like they are today if trade unionists in the past had not put themselves and their families through hardship to make a better life for us all.
There are people in government would like to take away your rights and bring back the times of the Jarrow marches or the tolpuddle martyrs all these gave a lot for us to have the freedoms we have today in the workplace
No matter what you may think of unions your life would be worse without them..

Totally agree. Unions served a great deal of purpose in the past.

Not sure what that has to do with what I said.

One trade union official (allegedly) shouts his mouth off and the unions members vote to go on strike, and that's all there is to it. Really?

Well if people wanna bring down the Tory Government, they'll have to go through the millions of Tory voters first.

Even if you could they'd be replaced by a Tory government with an increased majority.
At best you could replace the current PM with Boris but he's more right wing than her so i'd consider that more nuts than the present situation.

The problem is that we are drifting slowly back to the situation which created the unions in the first place, which has a certain irony to it.

Quite right. Sock it to them , worzil, they need educating in the facts of life!

Although to be precise, Shaun Hoyle is President of the RMT not an official and I understand his role to be a non-executive and this dispute began well before Hoyle made his comments so I doubt they had much, if any effect on the calling of strikes.

I agree with that but I don't think unions help themselves by pretending that their actions are only about customer safety issues (e.g. the current rail strikes) or customer service levels when they obviously are at least as much and probably more about protecting the interests of their members. It is transparently obvious and not admitting it just makes the unions look disingenuous.

Well, I would agree that leaving the EU could well take us backwards.

The dispute began a while ago. The strike vote and date were not planned until very recently.

I was watching the press preview on Sky News last night and Tessa Jowell was on.

Talking in particular about the railway she said that the Unions should not inconvenience the public

This got me wondering as to how they might conduct the 'strike'

Should they threaten to work normally and run all the trains as usual ?

That would learn Southern Rail .............they'd soon be begging the Union to call off the action

How about they worked normally but refused to sell or check tickets. Just let people ride for free. That way their employer loses money but customers aren't inconvenienced.

Why strike at xmas when not only do you effect families but also damage your own members earnings?

The problem for the Unions is that outside of Transport and a few other critical services, they really don't have the power to hold the government hostage any longer - and if they do then they soon lose public sympathy.

The entire workforce of Sports Direct could go on strike but it wouldn't affect the government one little bit and customers could easily buy their tracksuits elsewhere.

Was the strike their idea ?


The blame goes to the party supporting them.


The point is to bring down the lawfully elected government

that's a good idea !

I suppose the effect might be negated though as on those commuter lines almost everyone would have a season ticket so the effect on Revenue might not be so great for months

But it would cripple Sports Direct even if for only one day.

But it would be a dispute between workers and employers. The rest of the country would carry on regardless.

I suspect that would be classed as stealing and result in the sack, just as a cashier not scanning things before giving them to someone is.

I fully support the strikes though not striking myself, however, made arrangements prior so not to be caught up in the effects, anyone who is slightly interested in others and their country knew this was coming, I have little sympathy apart from the emergencies dashes people have to make.

Strikes are off
Woo hoo

I am all right Jack attitude. Someone in the family has scrimped and saved to fly to Australia.