The Tories' new mantra is: Protect the NHS. Credit: Stefan Rousseau - WPA Pool/Getty Images
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In April 1983, Ray Sentes, a Canadian insulation worker with a lethal dose of asbestos already burning and scratching in his lungs, was driving through Ontario to a union meeting with his friend and fellow activist, Colin Lambert. On the way, they stopped the car for a funeral procession honouring a fire fighter killed in the line of duty. Lambert, a miner and steelworker, wondered why deaths in his own profession were not marked with comparable dignity.
Then he recalled the recent history of the uranium mine in the nearby town of Elliot Lake. From the early 1970s, the Elliot Lake miners knew that their work was killing them prematurely. The authorities, however, showed little interest. In April 1974 the United Steelworkers union called a wildcat strike that resulted in a bitterly critical government inquiry into the mine’s management, and the establishment of an annual ceremony of mourning for those whose lives had been cut short by cancer and scoliosis.
From this conversation in the car, Lambert and Sentes grew a campaign. In February 1991, the Canadian government passed a private member’s bill naming April 28th as the Day of Mourning for Persons Killed or Injured in the Workplace. The idea spread. Over a hundred countries now recognise International Workers Memorial Day. The UK government gave it official recognition in 2010.
At 11 o’clock on Tuesday morning, Boris Johnson and his Chancellor stood mute in the Cabinet Office, heads bowed. As the seconds ticked by, news cameras relayed images of groups of nurses, ambulance crews, bus drivers and checkout operators, standing separate and observant. The moment was freighted with symbolism. The 11 o’clock silence recalled the Cenotaph, though the Great War’s familiar ceremonies did not stabilise until years after the Armistice. The concluding applause showed that this was the more formal relation of the now-customary Covid carnivalesque of a British Thursday evening, when pots and pans are banged as they are on a Glasgow hen-night.
None of the sonorous TV commentary, however, acknowledged the significance of the timing; that we were watching a Conservative Prime Minister, whose journalistic output could hardly be said to be a long paean to the virtues of Health and Safety, leading a mourning ritual for personnel who had lost their lives because their employers had failed to protect them from danger; a ritual inaugurated, promulgated and promoted by the international labour movement.
Work is a four-letter word. Worker has six, but it’s still one that sounds surprising when uttered, enthusiastically, by a figure whose political home is not on the Left. “We are going to stand by the workers of this country,” declared the Prime Minister, a fortnight before he fell sick. It’s an easy thing to say: you can stand by someone as you watch them tumble from Beachy Head. But his colleagues started to speak the same language. The figure of the worker is now a presence in British Conservative discourse — a place where it has, historically, often been very hard to detect.
The principal festival of the worker, May Day, was inaugurated in 1890 by the first Conference of the Second International, which named May 1st as the day on which the proletariat might eat, drink, be merry and agitate for a radical utopian idea called the eight-hour day. Spain adopted it in 1931: when General Franco came to power he replaced it with a festival in commemoration of himself. Hitler took it up in 1933: it survived him in both post-war Germanys. James Callaghan added it to the British calendar in 1978. (In 2011, David Cameron’s coalition wondered aloud about abolishing it in favour of the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.)
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SubscribeOf all the empty-headed nonsense written and uttered by pompous, opinionated but essentially ignorant media commentators, this just about takes the biscuit for utter pointlessness.
It does indeed – it echoes the drivel written by leftie trolls. No-one – no-one – in politics really wants to hurt voters in any way. A very foolish article.
True that. They seem to think the virus panic is a licence for drivel and that somehow we’ll all feel too guilty about being well to call out these pompous clowns. This website started with so much promise but after a year or two is now very much like the Times etc.
Yes, it’s appalling, but the writer is something to do with the BBC so what else do you expect?
Long before 1890, Benjamin Disraeli, the founder of the modern Conservative party, was concerned about the workers. Read Sybil first published in 1845. Then there was Randolph Churchill.
A depressing read!
I am not sure such cynicism will get us very far.
Boris does need watching, but I don’t think just bashing him is real journalism, rather it appears to be a political activist, posing as a journalist, serving up opinoion as if it has the same weight as fact.
I wonder if the author has ever thought about getting a job that requires some effort, mental or/and physical? Who does is called a worker. Those who sneer and pontificate from the safety of a keyboard are called w*****rs. Question! who if anyone pays for this mindless uninformed drivel?
Come on Unheard I’m all for variety and freedom to express all views, but we your readers would appreciate a modicum of quality
This really does not make a lot of sense. Politics in a national emergency is different to long term strategies. (War being the very obvious one.) That is why Conservatism is not just about freemarkets and the promotion of enterprise and low taxation and minimising the role of government, it also has a deeper concept of a state which is there to protect its citizens from external and internal threat. But when the threat has been seen off, then the fundamentals come back as to how best to set people free and provide what it is they need.
The Tory Party has never been against workers, it has always thought the long term interests of all people are best represented by what it promotes as its principles.
And I presume the author by “worker contract” means what is generally known as zero hours contracts? Not many NHS workers are on those, and people who take them on in the NHS generally do it because they want the flexibility, which does carry a risk of not going many or any hours of work. In the BBC they are known as freelancers and we know why they prefer that status!
Why not wait for the facts to emerge, Confirmation bias is a tricky thing.
This aspect of British politics cannot be explained by reference to “Tory vs. Labour” electoral results.
The so-called “1945 consensus”, traditionally attributed, especially in Labour Party circles, to the result of the 1945 General Election, continued to be maintained by the Conservative governments of 1951-64.
Under Churchill, Eden, Macmillan and Home, vast numbers of council houses were built, the NHS was not abolished, and full employment was maintained, even though this led to increased trade union militancy.
After 1979, the Conservative policy of council-house sales could also be seen as a concession to at least some workers, as it offered working-class families an alternative road to economic security which had not been available totgemachte as tenants.
And the New Labour governments of 1997-2010 continued this “1979 consensus”, with support for home-ownership and disregard for trade union rights.
Both major parties did what the workers seemed to want. They both tried to. capture the centre ground… but the centre ground itself shifted, now to the left, now to the right.
My guess is that the Johnson government will reposition the centre ground once again, towards the workers, if you like, and the newly re-Blairized Labour Party will find it very difficult to recapture it.
The Conservative Party has always relied on working class support. It really couldn’t be elected without it. I’ll be happy to see it return to a reasonable settlement with the general public after a period of deviation. In recent times it had become what it had previously been unjustly accused of. It used to be a patriotic party of common sense that workers could support. If it is returning to that, it is a welcome development.
Dont kid yourself with this article, just like after the first world war these current “hero’s” will be forgotten. Sure they wont be selling matches in the street like the solidiers hero’s after 1919, but politicians and business (and the general public) will revert to, at best apathy, or at worst the normal cost cutting exercises. However, if the Tories really mean it then they have a chance of keeping those northern seats they took from Labour at the next election, i doubt it though. Big business will revert to pre virus days, fact!
” lives had been cut short by cancer and scoliosis.” hmm… silicosis?
Since when did labour care about the workers?
BBC bias again, if websites like this are going to promote BBC bias what is your point of existing?
I turned my backs on the BBC to get away from these middle class social warriors and yet there they are always tutting and wagging a finger in our faces.
Great article.