No union for mums - or hospital patients

THE FRIDAY THING: SO how was the strike for you? Were you on the picket lines or in a march trying to bring the country to its knees?

Were you Christmas shopping in Spindles or the Trafford Centre or were you forced to lose a day’s pay because the local school was closed and you had to look after the children and didn’t have enough money to go shopping for essentials, never mind presents?

The day of action (strike to you and me), voted for by fewer than half of the public-sector workers whose union leaders saw it as a chance to flex their muscle, achieved nothing except hitting private-sector workers, whose income tax contributions support those self-same public-sector pensions that will be, in the main, at a level they can only dream about.

A ballot of all the people, rather than the very few trade-union members who decided to vote for the chance to chant and wave banners in town and city centres, would have provided a result that would have kept everyone in work and cost no-one the enforced loss of a day’s pay and lost no child a full day’s education. There is no trade union for parents with children at school.

It also, of course, forced the postponement of operations that those who were due to have them had been fretting about and trying to build up their courage to face for weeks or even months.

There is no trade union for hospital patients either, more’s the pity.

No doubt Trades Union Congress leader Brendan Barber, who is the only public figure I know whose self-satisfied smugness achieves what I thought was impossible by actually exceeding that of well-fed Scottish leader Alex Salmond, will, along with the cabal of public-sector union leaders, see the day as a success. But how will they measure it?


ARE the days of TV-control wars coming to an end? Those clever people from Apple in America have come up with a TV set that responds to what you shout at it or what gestures you make (no sniggering at the back there).
Apparently this new super-intelligent TV (brighter than many of the folk who make the programmes and virtually all the folk who watch so-called reality programmes) have invented a telly that understands what you say to it and reacts when you wave your arms at it. This opens up endless possibilities for grounds for divorce.

A row over which programme to watch could see the poor telly almost jumping off the wall as the two of you argue over the merits of football over, say “Eastenders” or “Coronation Street”.

I don’t know whether it responds to certain words or specific gestures but in most households — unless a TV truce was signed — no programme, sport or soap would be safe. A frenzied waving and shouting battle could ensue as him and her tried to spoil the end of his or her programme with a timely shout are a dodgy gesture.

It strikes me that these sofa battles will be far more entertaining than most TV programmes and maybe Apple should consider fitting each set with a camera that broadcasts the best of the battles.

What fun, what grounds for divorce!


IT was disturbing to read that you are more likely to die if you are admitted to hospital during the weekend than through the week.
I mean, how do you put that heart attack on hold from Friday night to Monday morning? Apparently, all the best lifesavers are enjoying a weekend off while your appendix bursts (or whatever it does) or that rogue blood clot zips bullet-like through your system looking to land somewhere it can cause maximum damage.

If you’re feeling groggy on Thursday night, best go to bed and stay there until Monday when the top medics (unless they are dealing with their private patients) will be there to keep you in the land of the living.


FINAL WORD: People living in or visiting Royton or Saddleworth have shared problems over parking for some time. Solutions, however, are not shared.
While Royton has moved on rapidly, promising major changes by next April, Saddleworth will only start a consultation with residents in April that will not conclude until September, well over a year since residents asked for help. Saddleworth folk will be rightly angry but not in the least bit surprised.