The past weighs like a nightmare. The Times on ‘Spanish practices’
Marx noted that the past weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living and that certainly seems to be the case with Times leader writers.
It is a sign of how long the Tories pursued an ideological dispute with the train drivers union ASLEF that the Editorial above dates from 14th September 2022. While the term Spanish Practices was not further explained it went on to moan that rail workers won’t accept ‘modernisation’. By this it meant driverless trains- which it refers to- no ticket offices and no staff on stations to help passengers. These are some of the ‘Spanish practices’ the rail employers (and actually the then Government) wanted rail unions to agree to in return for a 4.5% pay rise.
In an Editorial (16th August 2024) marking the welcome decision of the new Government to actually settle the dispute the Times refers to ‘Spanish practices from the steam age’
The term ‘Spanish practices’ was used in the 1970s and 1980s and refers to industrial practices which were agreed between employers and unions because it suited both. If that changes then the way to deal with it is not by diktat but negotiation.
‘Spanish practices’ have nothing whatsoever to do with Spain although Wikipedia suggests that the origin may lie in C16th anti-Catholicism which makes the term even more reactionary than I suspect its meant to be.
Suffice to say that you’d probably need to be over 50 to grasp what the Times is on about here, which may suggest that its not strongly in touch with the modern world despite its love of modernisation
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