THE GOOD FIGHT
Page 3
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• The British are generally seen as being poor complainers; in fact it's become a national characteristic. We don't like to make a fuss when we get an indifferent meal, poor service or substandard goods. We wait silently for trains that never come, repairmen who never call and buses that are inevitably late. We take pride in forming the most orderly queues in Europe.
And where has our forbearance got us? Absolutely nowhere. While French farmers and Spanish hauliers go on the rampage and force their governments to back down on unpleasant legislation, we seem content to take whatever comes in the way of unjust legislation, poor facilities and unpaid debts.
It seems that the Irish are not hampered by our middle-class inhibitions. A group of their hauliers finally got tough and what do you know — it seems to have paid off (see news story pages 4-5). Following a month-long blockade of a meat firm which collapsed owing them money, a group of Irish operators, backed by their national RHA, have won guarantees of work from the new owners. That should go some way towards compensating them for the money they're still owed by the old one.
We wonder if British hauliers would benefit from such a united, forceful campaign against common concerns such as speed limiters or lorry bans — or even in pursuit of unpaid debts.
Obviously there's a thin line between fighting fearlessly for your rights like the Irish, and acting as luddites and bullyboys, like the French formers and Spanish hauliers. In any case, what works for some of our EC counterparts probably wouldn't work here; not least because it is not in our nature. But we shouldn't be surprised if desperate hauliers take desperate measures.