Stop these Tube militants

„I address myself directly this morning to the three million people – including many readers – who use the London Underground network; and I have no inhibitions whatever in focusing on these passengers, because the irritation they are experiencing as a result of industrial action is not only disgraceful, but an omen for the entire country as we struggle to come out of recession.

If you have been kept waiting, or if your day has been wrecked, or if your colleagues and staff have been unable to make it to the office, then the first and most important thing I should say is how deeply I regret this strike and the inconvenience you are suffering. And if you are wondering why it is happening today, when the Tory party conference is taking place in Birmingham, then I hope the answer is obvious.

This is a nakedly political strike. It has nothing whatever to do with health and safety – nor have the union leaderships raised any such fears in the course of the negotiations. We need to make some sensible and moderate changes to the ticket office arrangements on the Tube, to reflect the greatly increased use of the automatic Oyster system. We need to take account of the fact that some ticket offices are now selling fewer than 10 tickets an hour. We need to liberate staff to get out on to the platforms and concourses where they can be of most use to the travelling public. We have come up with a way of doing this that keeps a ticket office at every station that currently possesses one – and, remarkably, given the colossal budgetary pressures we face – we are able to do this with no compulsory redundancies. There will be no loss of earnings, and I cannot stress enough that all stations will remain staffed at all times.”