?45,000 a year not enough for truck drivers

[Huguenot]

That was a great piece by Charles Moore.

I now understand where Len was coming from when he asked for locations of the emergency supply centres and demanded that they should not be used - these supplies woz wot allowed the nation to undermine the miners' extortion racket, and Len doesn't want to lose the truckie strike on the same basis.

I find myself totally agreeing that senior government officials seem to have lost touch with the electorate, and that the line between perception and reality is almost meaningless when it comes to politics.

[malumbu]

I've been directed here as I was ranting about people behaving like sheep on the 'petrol' thread. I was involved in emergency planning for several years and know a fair amount. There were a couple of blips in 2005 to fuel supplies due the the media stirring up the risks of a blockade of depots/refineries, and loss of refineries and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. There was no credible threat, and no reduction in supply, but similar panic buying as we are seeing at the moment. At that time government, working through third parties, helped put out reassuring messages. Those reassuring messages are no doubt still ready at a touch of a button, but for some reason Maude decided to shoot the government in its foot.

As for wages, interesting that they sell about ten times more Guardians in East Dulwich than any other paper, yet some of the debate goes into Daily Mail territory (not all I hasten to add).

I am sure that many of you are well paid office workers and intellectuals facing daily dangers of getting trapped in the photocopy machine or crushed getting into Pret. So how many of you would say that you were too highly paid, and would give up any of your lucrative pay and conditions. Just asking.

[Loz]

malumbu Wrote:

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> As for wages, interesting that they sell about ten times more Guardians in East Dulwich than any

> other paper, yet some of the debate goes into Daily Mail territory (not all I hasten to add).

You do understand that the Guardian and the Daily Mail are often just two sides of the same coin? That Polly Toynbee and Richard Littlejohn are both just reactionary bigots?

[Huguenot]

Malumbu, I don't think that anyone's said that fuel truck drivers are too highly paid and they've got to give up advantageous terms and conditions.

Only you said that, in order to fabricate an attack against which you can righteously defend.

I do think that these apparently lethal risks that these martyrs run everyday are ludicrously overblown and sound a bit pathetic coming from the mouths of grown men. Sure it's dangerous, so are a lot of things.

Incidentally I'll bet over the last 5 years there have probably been around 5,000 workplace accidents involving photocopiers, and 0 involving fuel trucks ;-)

What I've said is that the proposed disadvantages they are claiming are insufficient to justify holding the nation to ransom.

Their motive isn't around health and safety, it's about perks and salaries.