Tories Lying About Strikes

It was put to Transport Secretary Grant “Spiv” Shapps by Sophie Raworth on the BBC’s Sunday Morning that alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his coterie of ineptitude were effectively provoking this week’s rail strikes. Shapps was shocked, I tell you. Shocked! No one in their right mind would do that sort of thing. Except for his opponents.

Three spivs walked in to a bar ...

So it was no surprise at all to hear him claiming “we discover today ... that behind the scenes Keir Starmer has been encouraging the unions to go on strike”. This was a flat-out lie, and sadly for a party that is supposed to be not only credible, but actually in Government, it isn’t the only one that has been circulated about the upcoming strike, such is the level of Tory desperation.

More generally, and all too predictably, after negotiations broke down and the RMT successfully balloted its members on strike action, the Tories, by complete coincidence you understand, because they hadn’t been trying to provoke the strikes for political purposes just to kick off another front in the culture war, oh no, had a Labour-bashing propaganda angle all ready to go.

The action called by the RMT, was immediately denounced as “Labour Strikes”, which would be an interesting circle to see squared, given that the RMT and Labour went their separate ways in 2004. Perhaps Shapps will be along soon to claim that Bob Crow planned the action before then.

That, though, was not an end to the lying: today’s edition of the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph has run an even bigger whopper as its lead story, claiming “Unions ‘bribing’ workers to strike”, readers then being told “Kwarteng rails at doubling of payments to those taking part in industrial action”. So how much truth is there in that “bribing” claim?

The answer is that there is no truth at all. The figure which the Tel is advertising is £70 a day strike pay. It is, though, claimed to be “tax free”. So let’s take this one nice and slowly, for the benefit of Bozo cultists and others invested in The Adoration Of The Boris. The average pay for an RMT member in those pay grades where they’re striking is £33,000 a year.

Which means somewhere north of £650 a week, more than £130 a day. Even with tax deducted, that means rather more than £70. So if £70 is what is on offer in lieu of actually being paid, that is not, repeat is not, repeat IS NOT a bribe. Which is why the quote marks were used. Because it’s another lie.

But the Tories get their talking points in the papers, the BBC, now frightened to say boo to them, then regales opposition politicians with puerile Gotcha questions like “do you support the strikers?” and “if you were an RMT member, would you be going on strike?” The culture war has another wedge issue added to it, the Tories slap one another on the back, the farce goes on.

Meanwhile, all those commuters, students, those travelling to hospital appointments, and all the businesses seeing the cancellations rack up, first of all get screwed over, and then get gaslit as the Tories tell them that, like everything else Bozo and Co mess up, it’s all someone else’s fault.

The Tories: so patriotic, they’re hell bent on screwing over their own country.

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