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FredPuli43 | 07:39 Sat 01st Feb 2014 | News
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Bob Crow, the transport union leader, has been spotted living the high life on a cruise. The Daily Mail is, I think the word is, outraged. Now, had he been a QC he would be on as good or better money, but he wouldn't be condemned providing he did his best to get good results for those he represented. Is there a difference?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2549825/High-life-Bob-lobster-red-baron-With-members-set-bring-misery-commuters-week-rail-union-boss-Crow-escapes-sip-cocktails-Rio-sunshine.html
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// Now back home at to his tax-payer funded London council house // Does that mean he lives rent free? Or does it mean it is a council house built by, er, the Council? And he pays rent?
10:20 Sat 01st Feb 2014
make a little hole in the newspaper and get ink over your fingers -)
stood behind a mother with her son in the butchers

have you got some scragg ends for the dog please and her lad jumped up and down shouting

hooray , hooray , hooray me ma's buying a dog -)
Ludwig

I totally agree with you. Crow seems to have a weak justification for depriving a poor family from the affordable property he occupies...

// “Why is it just down to me to buy a house? Why should my family who have lived there for 30 years, with all the friends they’ve got, have to move because of the job I’ve got?”

He argued that if he did move he would be seen as having deserted his working class roots. “If I moved out of my house tomorrow the first thing you’d say is Comrade Crow leaves his roots,” he said.

"Where was it ever agreed that social housing was for people that are poor? [...] Council houses is [sic] not just for poor people." //

So his main justification is that the papers would call him a hypocrite if he bought his own home.
A man who has lived in a house with his family for thirty years is not just "living in a house", he's "living in a home"...his and their HOME! The fact that he could afford to uproot and go elsewhere is a total irrelevance.
If only David Cameron was doing as good a job for the British people as Bob Crow is doing for his union's members, we'd all be a sight better off. Hope you thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, Bob!
I do not want to comment specifically on Bob Crow having a holiday. He is entitled to do so.

But I do think his living in a council house IS an issue, and Bob Crowe is being disengenuous with his rationalisation as to why he continues to occupy one. In my opinion, given the relative scarcity of council housing stock, they should be reserved for those most in need- and someone on a salary like Bob Crows can not describe himself as that. He should move to free up a valuable resource.

As to his job, he is there to extract the best deal for his union members, and I see nothing wrong with that, although you might question the size of the salaries of these senior union officials - but that is an entirely different issue ;)
It's the house I have issue with, not where he chooses to take his holidays.

Firstly I am in no way a Union Man, however if he can afford the holiday, best of luck to him, nowhere does it say anyone else payed for it. As to the council house, if he's entitled to it and paying rent what's the problem?
Is there a limit on income if you live in social housing? I don't know, I assume he's being payed the going rate for the job.
This is nothing new, it is just a myth that the 'left' are representative of the working man.
"As to the council house, if he's entitled to it and paying rent what's the problem?
Is there a limit on income if you live in social housing? I don't know, I assume he's being payed the going rate for the job"

Well the problem is that council housing is a scarce resource, and should be reserved and used for those most in need, rather than housing them in expensive B&Bs or Hotels.

With that kind of salary, Mr. Crow could certainly afford his own home or even private rented accommodation if he so chose, freeing up the council house for a less well -off family - a far better use of public resources. And, regardless of whether it is his "home" or not - most adults will have moved more than a few times throughout their adult lives.
AOG
The Working Class and the workers are different things

Unions look after their members who are the workers. But the workers themselves are not necessarily leftwing, many are rightwing and Conservatives.
Gromit

/// The Working Class and the workers are different things ///

How can that be? by the very wording they are one of the same.

/// Unions look after their members who are the workers. But the workers themselves are not necessarily leftwing, many are rightwing and Conservatives. ///

Well that is blatantly obvious, but that does not alter the fact that the Unions are a left-wing organisation.

///Well the problem is that council housing is a scarce resource, and should be reserved and used for those most in need, rather than housing them in expensive B&Bs or Hotels///

Something to take up with the Council then!
[ The Working Class and the workers are different things ]
// How can that be? by the very wording they are one of the same. //

Bank Managers, Head Teachers, Lawyers all all workers, but they are not working class. The unemployed do not work but the are usually working class. Workers and working class have different meanings.

What's new ? Union bosses invariably feather their own nests. Arthur Scargill feathered his nest so well his own union took him to court on occasions to get back the misappropriation of union funds. He bought himself and his deputy a house each, using the miners pension fund and when found out , said it was a loan. He tried to buy his NUM paid for London council flat , under Mrs Ths , right to buy scheme, for which his union was paying £34k rent. plus all expences . He failed because he wasn't the primary tenant . This came to light last year when the union discovered they had been paying it for him , for almost 20 years.
Arthur was truly a great trade union socialist.

@modeller I am all for objective criticism - but this is just a sweeping generalisation. "Union bosses invariably feather their own nests"

You cite one example. So who are all these other "union bosses" who are "feathering their own nests" ?

@Baldric - Yes, it is something to take up with the council, and the government too, whose policy on social housing needs some re-examination. However,apart from that, Mr. Crow could just do the decent thing and move out, which would help, don't you think?
Another good reason why I have never wanted to do a cruise. I`m surpised he lives in a council house though - big union bosses usually live in union bought properties and pay a peppercorn rent.
Yes the difference here between a QC and this union leader surely is the QC doesn't strike so no one else is affected whereas the union leader is bringing his members out on strike which affects them. They won't get paid and it puts the general public out at the same time. Why would anyone "in charge" of causing so much disruption be thought well of for going on holiday anywhere whilst the aforementioned chaos(probably) is being caused by something he has a hand in!
modeller it has been explained before that arthur had an agreement to have the flat rather than get a payment that others did

arthur said after the court case
> "There can be no doubt that 30 years ago I was given an entitlement
to a property by the union and that entitlement continued during my
retirement, as it had done for all my predecessors including Lord
Gormley and, after he died, his widow Lady Gormley." <

> I think any independent observer will regard this as yet another
judgment with the anti-Scargill feeling about it."
//it has been explained before that arthur had an agreement to have the flat rather than get a payment that others did//

Oh yeah !
May I point out the court found in favour of the union and against Scargill
on both occasions.

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