Is BA 'Strike' An Election Bluff?

BA Brown has been forced out of hiding as a 'strike' threatens to wreck his cosy crony funding world and hand Tories a gift, so the story goes. But something doesn't stack up on the tarmac.

Why all the fuss about an industrial dispute? BA will do its damnest to keep flights out of City airport and long haul flights from Gatwick going, to do the big business and keep the rich kids sweet.

Buried deep is a long running industrial dispute struggling to get out but the Orange Party can't see it. On the surface is a simmering row and an election to fight and spin.

Threatened BA strikes come up with monotonous regularity. Fat cat airline bosses squaring up to fat cat union bosses. Fears of a cunning plan to hive off the lucrative business class best bits and turn the rest into Easyjet with the Union Flag on the tail-fin.

But put the union Unite and political director Brown spinner, Whelan, into the melting pot and some in the New Labour ranks can settle a few old scores while Tories can have a field day, leaving Brown and Mandy to clean up as winners.

Still smarting from Ashcorft jibes and going for New Labour's achillies heel of a Party in hock to powerful unions, it's now open season on Brown bruiser and attack dog, Whelan, dishing out the dirt with his feet well under the Broon election campaign table.

Some in the New Labour ranks are not happy bunnies over the return of Whelan who stepped down as a chancellor Brown's spad amid claims he played dirty tricks on Mandy, leading to one of his downfalls.

Former Labour Party chief press officer, Byrne, with strong links to Mandy, today lashed out with a lovely line: "What the hell is a strike mongering politically discredited nutter like Charlie Whelan doing at the heart of Labour's election campaign?"

With nothing to lose, Brown's unelected transport secretary, Adonis, stuck the knife in over the weekend. Out of a job after the election and already singing the 'blues', condemning the planned strike which he "absolutely deplored" as "totally unjustified".

Now Brown is being spun as being forced out of his comfort zone with his attack dog at the centre of the storm, forced to take on a union that bankrolls New Labour saying the strike is "unjustified and deplorable", but notably not the strikers.

Tories have called on "Two-faced" Brown to stop taking Unite cash until the BA dispute was over, accepting Unite cash with one hand whilst condemning the strike with the other.

But cash-strapped New Labour needs Unite which has bankrolled the Party to the tune of £11 million over the last three years with joint general secretaries crony Simpson and leftie Woodley at the helm and at loggerheads with each other. Brown has already sneakily put in a leaked call to Woodley, to show he's on top of it all.

The Orange Party would not be at all surprised if the struggling Supreme Leader took time out from saving the world to come over all statesman-like and save the world's (once) favourite airline and show a touch of a tough side with unions paymasters. Elections eh, Dontcha just love 'em.

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Psst Brown, Wanna Buy An Airport?

Without so much as a by-your-leave, Gatwick's Spanish owners put a For Sale sign up at the airport. It's now going to the highest bidder. 

The crafty move by Ferrovial will side-step competition fears from the competition commission. 

A major part of the country's infrastructure has just been put up for sale, with no one even bothering to look at what this means for passengers or the UK airport industry and no comment from government.

Businesses are sold off to foreign firms who raise billions on the global money market to finance the deal, to make a fast profit and then the government can wash their hands of them.

Airports should not be something that can be sold and resold like a used car. No one cares about passengers or the airport workers - it's all driven by profit with a supermarket pack 'em in and pile 'em high philosophy. 

But airports are not like supermarkets - the more you pack 'em in and run to very tight schedules, the more the Heathrow effect kicks in, where even the slightest disruption can have a chaotic knock-on effect down the line. 

The competition commission was right to call for the break up of BAA's monopoly. But how was this one company allowed to own so many airports in the first place? 

Gatwick is one of seven owned by the Spanish company, going by the cosy sounding name of the British Airports Authority (BAA). But the money-spinning Heathrow, with its huge retail revenue and lucrative transatlantic business traffic, apparently is not up for grabs.

Gatwick is clearly one of the easiest ones to off-load, without a thought for "putting the needs of customers first".

Now, the hope is another foreign firm will take it over, borrowing the cash from global investment banks and it will be sold on again. Only these days, no one wants to lend the money.

Airports and railways, are an integral and strategic part of the country's infrastructure and, as such, there's a case for public ownership without an eye on profits or shareholders. 

Maybe the government should 'listen to those customers' and create a not-for-profit airport model. If they can spend billions on wars and waste billions on useless IT systems, why not a few bob on an airport?  Or is that too much Labour and not enough New Labour? 

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