We've also seen a great deal of tripe from 'Poachers turned Game Keepers', the 'Napoleons' and 'Squealers' who find that walking on two legs along the corridors of power make them far superior to those of us still at the coal face. The individuals who in less than five years will be enjoying their lump sums, while those of us with two decades or more left to go will be wondering what will become of us post retirement, and who'll still be trying to get their heads around the wonderful new pensions deal, which even now has yet to be thrashed out.
I don't have much time for the pissing contests between Management and TU's, both on these pages and at work - a plague on both your houses.
What I want are the tools to do the job and a salary commensurate with the skills I have been taught and which I continue to bring to the job. With terms and conditions comparable to others in the industry, for which I include any professional whose training leads them to possess the skills and resulting responsibilities on a par with those of my own, in any part of the world.
What I'm not interested in are the likes of TU reps comparing my terms and conditions with Civil Service paper shufflers and pen pushers in Portcullis House, or New NATS Management types who have never controlled anything other than their children, or if they indeed at one time pushed tin it wasn't this side of the millenium, telling me how lucky I am, after all, any Joe on the street could do the job I do, couldn't they.
But what do I know about anything, being the ungrateful whinging ATCO that I am...