With apologies to Private Eye and tongue firmly in cheek, I recently received a document entitled "The Militant Voice" that I thought I would share....
Author: Flt Lt Dave Spart (Co-chair, Lincolnshire Chapter of the Socialist Allied Mission Crew and Weapons Systems Officers' Union):
Once again the reactionary fascist forces of the so-called Personnel Administration Agency have proved their willingness to undermine the industrial rights of the brothers within the Union to conduct their legitimate interests on behalf of themselves. By accepting a so-called Air Traffic Officer with the skills and ability to control aircraft …er…undermines the fundamental requirement to carry pine poles around Cranwell and thereby demonstrate the ability to think clearly and have proper airmanship. The fact that this individual may have alarmingly accrued..er…3000 hours of experience in a previous role totally undermines the right of the fellow union members to claim flying pay whilst being criminally detained in a non-flying job. We have decided to take this reprehensible case to the court of arbitration where we expect to be represented by the solicitor who previously acted successfully for Mr D Robinson in the car workers' dispute and Mr A Scargill in his glorious defeat of Thatcherism in the 1980s. This is the thin end of the wedge and smacks of similar dangerous precedents such as the derrick versus crane operators dispute that involved our brothers in the dockworkers union and the various successful printworkers disputes. All these actions were glorious successes hailed as overwhelming defeats of capitalism by the international fraternal socialist brothers, led by Mr F Castro. Our rights to exclude other non-Chapter members were undermined firstly by bringing in qualified fighter controllers and now this, qualified air traffic controllers. We expect to call on flying pickets from across the country to voice our displeasure at this disgraceful initiative. At this time of budgetary pressure, it is our duty to complain and whinge and do everything we can to undermine progress, innovation or lateral thinking. If we don’t block this, the next thing we know, the Army will be doing without us by buying UAVs and using satellites that would not be operated by legitimate aircrew. What do you mean that they are planning it already?
{Flt Lt Spart continues in this vein whilst frothing at the mouth for some time….}