T is not often that one can read in
the Beaverbrook press suggestions that trade unionists should follow. However, the following appeared in John Gordon’s regular column: “Current Events” in the Sunday Express edition of February 21st: “The doctors are being told that they musn’t hold a pistol at the Government. They must take what the politicians give them — whether it satisfies them or not. Nonsense. “What I am delighted to see they seem to be learning is that in this age unless you have a strong union to back you and are determined to strike if driven to it, the Government — whether Socialist or Tory—will just laugh at you. “But have power behind you, and mean what you say, then you can have what you want. That’s the lesson the dockers, dustmen, bus crews, railwaymen, etc., have taught us.”
Jean Holman
THE WEEK — Feb. 25, 1965