SIGN THE PEOPLES PLEDGE

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2011 :: RMTnews 20 Sometimes it is difficult to believe that many of Britain’s politicians inhabit the same world as the rest of us. The party political conference season, for instance, was full of politicians who wanted to do anything but talk about the real issues that face working people in this country. This is partly because most of today’s politicians have little or no understanding of what it is to be a nurse, a teacher, a building worker or indeed what it is to work on the railways. Instead many of them will stop at nothing to leap on board the anti-trade union bandwagon. Union bashing for them is a way of life. They also seem to expect that ordinary people will carry the burden of a national deficit created by the grotesque greed of the bankers. There are other issues that many politicians would rather not talk about, or that are so serious they pretend that they don’t exist. Take the European Union and the single currency for instance. The British political class would rather pretend that there is no problem with the euro and that the majority of people are content with the onward march of ‘European integration.’ They conveniently forget that some people at least – including RMT general secretary Bob Crow – warned against joining the single currency in the first SIGN THE PEOPLE’S PLEDGE As the Eurozone tears itself apart, Mark Seddon argues that it is time for a referendum on Britain’s relationship with the European Union