The Birmingham refuse dispute has its complexities but the bottom line is that refuse workers are being asked to take a pay cut for reasons which are nothing to do with anything they have or have not done. It’s a microcosm of how modern Britain works, or does not. If there is a problem its those at the bottom who must pay not those at the top.
Step forward Wapping union buster Rupert Murdoch. He owns the Times which was once (before he owned it) regarded as the paper of record. On 16th April it published an Editorial on the dispute and some of the lines may seem familiar to those who have watched the right-wing media over the decades.
Unite the Union is attacked as is the Labour Government, all quite routine. Next stop another Times favourite, criticism of Labour plans to extend employment laws.
Finally however there is a new twist- right-wing populism. The Times has generally been critical of Reform, until now. On 15th April Farage wrote a column in the Sun, which Murdoch also owns (and whose journalistic operations and obsessions mostly coincide with the Times). It also ran a poll suggesting that most people think Britain is Broken. Hardly surprising after the 2010-24 Governments (which the Times supported). The Times quotes the poll and goes on to suggest that Reform may do well in the May 1st local elections.
The tectonic plates are shifting it seems and the Times is moving away from its long held support for the Tories and moving even further right. As a reflection of ‘ruling class’ opinion its worth keeping a close watch on (and opposing of course)
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