A Sad Story From Lymington – Update 2

The campaign by supporters of sacked South West Trains (SWT) ticket clerk Ian Faletto to get him reinstated continues, with a delegation set to travel hopefully next week to London, carrying a 6,000 strong petition. However, SWT have now come out fighting – well, inasmuch as employee confidentiality allows – and the national press remains silent on the matter.

The delegation visiting SWT headquarters at Friars Bridge Court, on Blackfriars Road south of the river, will be headed by MP Desmond Swayne, and the ever optimistic Rev. Alex Russell. And they might as well not bother: Swayne has already met with SWT boss Andrew Pitt and been told the matter had been dealt with “fairly and properly”.

Moreover, the idea that information about the meetings where Faletto was initially dismissed, and then lost his appeal against dismissal, had been withheld has also been quashed: as I’ve been informed, Faletto would have had an RMT representative with him at both meetings, and it’s normal procedure for minutes of those meetings to go to all concerned.

Why the Mail and Telegraph, which were so ready to castigate SWT only a week ago, have gone quiet is something I looked at the other day. It may also be due to a sober and practical reading of SWT’s statements now in the public domain, which contain an easy to decipher coded message aimed rather obviously at the press.

SWT have said that “the facts are fundamentally different from the seriously inaccurate picture painted to date”, which in plain English is telling the Fourth Estate that it has been printing a pile of total crap. Moreover, the impression is given that when the full story is revealed, anyone persisting with last week’s line is going to end up looking very foolish.

The company then says “we are ready to ensure the full facts are made public at an employment tribunal”, which is aimed at Ian Faletto himself, reminding him that at such a hearing, they would have no compunction in putting everything that is at present covered by employee confidentiality agreements into the public domain.

And in case the Mail and Telegraph are looking to kick SWT again, they also say “It would be entirely wrong to be influenced by external parties or other factors”, which means that the obedient hackery of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre can rant as much as they want, but will be wasting their time.

The Fourth Estate has been given a simple choice: lose your credibility, or throw your hero under the bus.