Fare strike

[whole diary]

[NickB]

How do I find out more about this fare strike?  (Not that I’ve had my ticket checked in 2018, and generally travel to/from platform 1, 8 or 9 👍

[grahame]

How do I find out more about this fare strike?

The forum team cannot condone any action that breaks the law, nor that would help promote it.  Mind you, from what little we know we don't know where what's been suggested would break any laws, or even if it's fake news.

A Google search for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Fare Strike just lead me to ... this thread 

[phile]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) could bring out the Green Gestapo in numbers if it does go ahead

[JayMac]

The forum team cannot condone any action that breaks the law, nor that would help promote it. 

Are individual contributors permitted to condone and/or promote such an action if it were to be organised?

Civil disobedience and casual law breaking are often drivers of change with positive outcomes.

[broadgage]

I doubt that DIRECTLY praising or condoning anything illegal would be allowed, though one could perhaps imply such feelings in a slightly indirect way.
Example "I can understand how people might be driven to such actions" is probably allowed, in reference to any organised non payment of fares.

[JayMac]

I've nothing but praise for the actions of More Train Less Strain, and their fare strikes of 2007 and 2008.

I'll very likely condone and praise similar if it happens again on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

The greater good.

[TaplowGreen]

It's worth remembering that this action (should it take place), is driven largely by despair, not malice, or criminal tendencies.

The combination of a service singularly failing to deliver all the grandiose promises made last year (and for many years), the farcical situation at the weekends, and the total failure from those at the top of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to communicate effectively as to the whys, whens and wherefores seem to be the main reasons why many have reached the end of their tethers.

This is not some premeditated left wing conspiracy with "anarchist" clowns wearing Guy Fawkes masks running wild through the streets, it's simply a group of completely respectable people who in the normal state of things would not entertain anything more radical than signing a petition, feeling that they have no other option than to take direct, but measured action.

I'm with BNM, I wish them all the best within the law. Not sure what my own stance will be (yet), Hopwood is riding his luck with the situation elsewhere with Northern/GTR keeping attention off GWR's dismal performance, however a (metaphorical) kick to the well upholstered rump won't do any harm.

[broadgage]

This is not some premeditated left wing conspiracy with "anarchist" clowns wearing Guy Fawkes masks running wild through the streets, it's simply a group of completely respectable people who in the normal state of things would not entertain anything more radical than signing a petition, feeling that they have no other option than to take direct, but measured action.

I agree, but am slightly concerned that any protest could end up being hijacked by left wing anarchist groups, wearing Guy Fawkes masks.

[JayMac]

Do you have any particular 'left wing anarchist' group or groups you are worried about?

[Visoflex]

Offer to pay half, whilst claiming that the fare was short formed. 

[grahame]

Are individual contributors permitted to condone and/or promote such an action if it were  be organised?

Individual contributors are responsible for their own posts.  However, should a post which incites law breaking be posted, then when it comes to the attention of the board operator and providers, it also becomes their secondary responsibility to keep it legal and decent, though you were all good enough to agree to indemnify the owners of the forum when you signed up should any of your posts end up in deep water.

I have huge sympathy for people hit by the current awful service and saying "what can we do / how can we organise ourselves so that we're widely heard and taken not of".   But I could not let this forum turn into the place where actions beyond the law are organised.

[martyjon]

Might it be that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s performance of late is as a result of the top men / women, The First Group Board, authorising massive cuts in expenditure over the past year and the p***poor financial state of the group as a whole. In a post on the finances of FGP there was a reply to my post which stated that after deducting the Goodwill figure on the Balance Sheet from the Total Assets the Balance of Assets was exceeded by the Total Liabilities and therefore were FGP "technically insolvent" ?

In the case of Capita, a reply to a post of mine suggested that "Insolvency" is when you are unable to pay debts when they fall due.

In the case of Carillion, the company extended payment terms from 30 to 90 days so the directors must have known the company was going down the tubes to do that and was this a breach of the law.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=19496.msg233711#msg233711

Is a related post.

[broadgage]

Do you have any particular 'left wing anarchist' group or groups you are worried about?

I was thinking about the socialist workers party, among others.
Their placards can be seen at a wide range of protests, with the same slogans at any event.

[a-driver]

A damp squib that got wide media coverage. The first strike in January 2007 had the MD of FGW^▸ (First Great Western), Alison Forster, making a public apology and addressing the issues of rolling stock shortages. The issues that led to that first fares strike were reported as instrumental in her removal from the top job later that year. In the following years there was a vast improvement in the service offered by FGW.

I hear Charles Horton of GTR is seeking new employment!

If there can be similar results with another strike then I say more power to the elbows of protesters. Even just getting Mark Hopwood to make a public appearance would be a result.

Mark Hopwood and the senior management team were at Cardiff recently helping with crowd control following some Ed Sheeran concert

[JayMac]

Do you have any particular 'left wing anarchist' group or groups you are worried about?

I was thinking about the socialist workers party, among others.
Their placards can be seen at a wide range of protests, with the same slogans at any event.

And the SWP are anarchists are they?