‘Rayner calls in Army to tackle Birmingham bin crisis’, the Telegraph reports:
Angela Rayner has called in the Army to tackle the Birmingham bin crisis.
The Local Government Secretary has used formal powers known as Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (Maca) to summon Army experts after a strike by bin workers, which has lasted over a month, left more than 17,000 tons of waste rotting in the streets.
It is understood a small number of military personnel with operational planning expertise are offering logistical support to tackle the crisis. Sources said there were contingency plans in place to scale up the number of soldiers involved if necessary.
If such a scaling-up does prove necessary, Ms Rayner can cite the example of one of the most revered of Labour leaders:
The London dock strike of July 1949, led by Communists, was suppressed when the Attlee Government sent in 13,000 Army troops and passed special legislation to promptly end the strike. His response reveals Attlee’s growing concern that Soviet expansionism, supported by the British Communist Party, was a genuine threat to national security, and that the docks were highly vulnerable to sabotage ordered by Moscow. He noted that the strike was caused not by local grievances, but to help communist unions who were on strike in Canada. Attlee agreed with MI5 that he faced “a very present menace”.
OK, the parallel between Attlee’s summoning of the Army and Rayner’s is not close, and I made it mostly to poke fun at present day lefties, whose hymns of praise to Attlee usually leave out the verse about him using the army to break a strike, and always omit the one about him being the father of the UK’s independent nuclear deterrent.
A better historical parallel to explain Ms Rayner’s distinct lack of solidarity with the striking binmen would be the 1978-9 “Winter of Discontent”.
Lines Towards a ‘Fairytale of Birmingham’…
.
‘They’ve got rats big as cats
They’ve got rivers of mould
The smell goes right through ya
You’d best have a cold
When you first took the bins out
On a cold winter’s eve
You promised me dustcarts
were “waiting, you’ll see”….’
Wasn’t Attlee also one of the fathers of NATO?
Tough on fascism, tough on communism.
Were it not for economic policy, i might like the guy.
Why on earth is rubbish rotting in the streets? Who on earth is dumping it in the streets? In a bin collection strike, rubbish would be piling up in/on/around your bins round the back of your house.
Rubbish rots in the streets because the streets are in an area inhabited by scum who dump rubbish in the streets, not because there’s a bin strike on.
Zerren,
You have hidden talents. That’s bloody good 🤣
In the style of Slade by ChatGPT4o…
(Verse 1)
Oi, the bins are pilin’ up, they’re blockin’ every lane,
The streets of Birmingham, drivin’ us insane!
Rubbish in the gutters, it’s a proper dirty sight,
The council’s in a standoff, and there’s no end in sight.
(Pre-Chorus)
We’re knee-deep in chaos, can’t you smell the air?
The rats are havin’ parties, and they just don’t care!
(Chorus)
Where’s me trash? Where’s me trash?
Oi, Brum’s in a mess, and it’s startin’ to clash!
Where’s me trash? Where’s me trash?
The bins ain’t been emptied, and it’s smellin’ like ash!
(Verse 2)
The workers want their wages fair, they’re fightin’ for their due,
But the bosses keep on stallin’, what are they gonna do?
People shoutin’ on the telly, locals kickin’ off,
Someone sort it out, ’cause we’ve all had enough!
(Pre-Chorus)
Every bin’s overflowin’, every path’s a dump,
We’re dodgin’ black bags like we’re jumpin’ over lumps!
(Chorus)
Where’s me trash? Where’s me trash?
Oi, Brum’s in a mess, and it’s startin’ to clash!
Where’s me trash? Where’s me trash?
Even me dog don’t wanna sniff this mash!
(Bridge)
Ohhh, we love our city, but it’s lookin’ rough,
Sort it out, Brum, we’ve had enough!
Workers on strike, and they’ve got their say,
But the bins keep risin’ every day!
(Guitar Solo)
(Imagine a stompin’, foot-stompin’ glam rock solo here, full of fuzz and riffs!)
(Chorus)
Where’s me trash? Where’s me trash?
Oi, Brum’s in a mess, and it’s startin’ to clash!
Where’s me trash? Where’s me trash?
The bins ain’t been emptied, and it’s smellin’ like ash!
(Outro)
Ohhh, Birmingham, don’t let us down,
Get the bins gone, clean up the town!
Oi, oi, oi, let’s make it right,
Sort it out Brum, and end this fight!
It goes back further than Labour governments.
For example, a Liberal Party government gave unions almost unlimited power with the Act of 1906 (building on Disraeli’s Act of 1875 – which did NOT “legalize unions” unions had been legal for many decades, and had only been unlawful during the Napoleonic Wars period, what the 1875 Act did was to legalize paramilitary tactics such as “picket lines”) – yet when the unions used their 1906 powers, the Liberal Party government, in the person of Winston Churchill, responded by calling out the army.
One government intervention, giving the unions Collective Bargaining powers, leading to terrible problems (most recently in Birmingham) responded to NOT by removing the government intervention – but by another government intervention, calling out the army.
As Ludwig Von Mises (and before him Herbert Spencer) pointed out – governments never admit that their interventions are wrong, they respond to the crises that they-themselves-have-caused, by yet more government interventions.
1906 Act putting up UNEMPLOYMENT – do not repeal the 1906 Act (let alone repeal the 1875 Act which started the process of messing up the labour market and causing structual unemployment) – no set up “Labour Exchanges” to pretend to be helping.
Covid lockdowns destroying business enterprises – do not end the lockdowns, no pay out subsidies – that was the policy of Mr Sunak, the most extreme wild spending Chancellor of my lifetime (of any political party).
But the public do not say “Chancellor Rishi Sunak crashed the economy with his wild spending” they say “Rishi Sunak SUPPORTED the economy with his spending – Liz Truss crashed the economy” because that is what the establishment media teach people to say (and think).
And the final truth is that it was not even really the spending (the intervention) of Mr Sunak – as he was just doing what he was told to do by officials and “experts” such as the Bank of England.
The 70s are back!
Now, where’s my white polyester disco suit?
Maybe the dinner ladies might help clear the bins?
Well, that 1970s vibe does appear to be getting quite entrenched: nationalisation of infrastructure, a “brain-drain” exodus of young, entrepreneurial folk and those trying to just shield their wealth; a general air of angst.
The Starmer admin thought it was being strategically cute by giving certain public sector – and unionised – workers inflation-beating pay rises within weeks of reaching office. This added to the “black hole” in the public finances that Rachel Reeves then disingenuously used to justify her big hike in payroll taxes, and others. But it hasn’t done the trick: If you pay Dangeld to the Dane, as Rudyard Kipling once said, you never get rid of the Dane. They come back for more. And so it has proved.
There are specific issues in Birmingham, but by and large, when I look at how municipalities are run in major cities the world over, the Left tends to have a shoddy record, and an equally large share of oven-ready excuses for said shoddiness. Look at places as varied as Marseilles, Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, Birmingham, Liverpool, San Francisco, Naples, etc.