Strikes

 The government is making much of rail workers holding the country hostage.

• According to government statistics, only 10% of the workforce uses trains to commute to work - that embraces all forms of rail transport, including those modes not striking.
• The rail workers held a democratic vote on striking - striking being the only means available to them if the rail companies are unwilling to negotiate in good faith.
• According to YouGov, more of the public supports the strikes than opposes them.
• If the rail workers are guilty of holding the country to ransome, then the rail companies are also guilty - it takes two parties to have an argument.
• I find it hard to believe that many nurses and firefighters use rail to get to work. Granted, a small number may, but not the vast majority as they work locally. Nurses were up in arms about car parking charges at hospitals, which suggests cars are the main transport, regardless of what the government says - you can't believe anything they say anyway. In any case, firefighters, nurses, lawyers, etc. will be the next ones to go on strike and then the government will turn on them - it's what this government does best.
• Lawyers are more likely to use the trains to get from leafy suburbs to their offices, but there's no love lost between lawyers and this criminal government.
• The number of school children travelling to school by train must be miniscule - mainly day pupils at public schools.
• The rail operators are unable to make any offers without government permission, as the government holds the purse strings. It's also written into their charters that they need government permission, so government HAS to be involved.
• Rail companies made £50m last year, when travel was depressed. Shareholder dividends are not under pressure.
• The government makes much of the need for updated practices in the rail industry, while simultaneously taking the country headlong into the 1950s with Brexit. Christ - even polio is making a comeback!
• As for a pay rise stoking inflation - anything less than the 11% rate of inflation is actually a drop in pay.

What's the solution? A negotiated settlement somewhere mid way between what's demanded and what's offered. Both will be at the extremes - that's the nature of negotiation. Starmer is quite right not to take sides - he should be in a position between the two, which is exactly where consensus will be found. The government, meanwhile, is desperate for Starmer to come down on the side of the rail workers, who have started their negotiations with an unrealistic demand, as anyone would do, including the rail companies.

On another issue - as for the UK overriding parts of the ECHR - No, No, No! The ECHR is there to protect me from the likes of Dominic Raab, for God's sake.