On 11/03/2014 10:22, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Tue, 11 Mar 2014 05:12:08 -0500, Recliner
wrote:

http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-...bob-crow-dies/

Interesting to listen to a decent set of comments from the BBC's
Norman Smith about Bob Crow. He recognised that Mr Crow was a shrewd
political operator and good in dealing with the media. I can't recall
when I heard anyone give a decent overview of the man rather than just
portray him as a villain.

See my other post re the recent R4 'interview lunch' with him. Two
points I remember from listening to it yesterday - the first is that he
was brought up in a pretty poor East End home, which inevitably guided
his politics. The second is that he said he won pay rises for his
members throughout his leadership of the union, including the "austerity
years" (the term he used).


Mr Crow's appearance on the Sunday Politics a few weeks ago was great
fun with him offering to take over from Andrew Neil - provided he got
Mr Neil's money for doing so.

I dread to think what the "rent a gobs" in the comments section in the
Daily Mail and Evening Standard will make of the news.

Comments sections of newspaper websites are best avoided - for all the
egalitarian notions of new technologies giving readers a voice, the
shrill and vile nonsense that seems to all too easily flow doesn't
really do much for one's view of human nature.