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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2017 :: RMTnews 12 You know when you are hitting home against the vested- interests who run our privatised rail companies when the usual suspects from the right-wing media reach deep into the very darkest of recesses of the old dirty tricks department. So with five separate groups of RMT members involved in disputes with their employers around the common theme of rail safety and the role of the guard it came as no surprise that in one newsroom in central London a political figure from the not too distant past was cooking up a scam that was to leave him with egg smeared right across his all-to familiar face. Step forward George Osborne – former failed Chancellor of the Exchequer that invented both austerity and the big lies of the doomed EU Remain campaign. When the electorate found him out George legged it for the big bucks of the City and the editors chair at the London Evening Standard, despite the fact that he drove the UK economy over a cliff and has never done a day’s work as a journalist in his life. It’s well known that George Osborne hates Theresa May but when push comes to shove old school class interests kick in and he hates the trade unions even more. Despite the fact that it’s Evening Standard core readers, the beleaguered commuters who have the most to lose from axing guards on their expensive, rammed-out trains, George couldn’t resist the temptation to try and stick the boot in on behalf of Grayling and the greedy train companies. The so-called sting was pathetic in the extreme. RMT general secretary Mick Cash and the assistant general secretary Mick Lynch were to be followed by a hack on their journey into work and then confronted en- route to account for their actions. The whole rackety concept failed to even get past first base with the GS who was dropping a family member off at the station before heading down to central London on the train. Not even the great brain of George Osborne could do much with the material which that exercise yielded so it was on to Mick Lynch. Mick commutes in from his West London home on the only available rail service – which happens to be one of the 30 per cent of routes running on DOO. As he told the press: “I don’t agree with the privatisation of our water, does that mean that as far as George Osborne and the Evening Standard are concerned that I’m not allowed to have a bath”. Cue a front page splash in Osborne’s rag with Mick Lynch sitting between two other passengers, reading a newspaper under the banner headline “Hypocrite” . But Osborne had misjudged his audience wholesale and when he tweeted news of his scoop his timeline filled up with hundreds of people pointing out that “Man Gets On Train” is hardly breaking news along with plenty of salacious stuff about the Tory Boy himself. Because let’s not forget George Osborne’s own form when it comes to using the railways. Like the time he got fingered trying to bunk First Class with a standard ticket, hypocrite indeed. As Mick Cash pointed out: “It is ludicrous to suggest that the union should boycott existing DOO services in the same way it would be to boycott the entire transport network because we oppose privatisation. “The union will not be deflected away from the fight to put public safety before private profit through attempts to trivialise the issue". OSBORNE’S SUB-STANDARD London Evening Standard campaign against RMT backfires spectacularly Osbourne travels without a ticket