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Thank you Mr Atkins...
Page 66
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Brian Lee looks back on his glory days as a local councillor and forward to struggle to win friends and influence now.
On 3 May 1979 two vicepresidents and one season ticket holder of Blackburn Rovers were elected to the following positions: Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister; Jack Straw, MP: and Brian Lee (season ticket holder) independent member for the Brownhill ward of Blackburn. Incidentally.! was elected in spite of my wife Rena, who voted for the Conservative candidate because she said he looked sad standing outside the polling station.
Challenge accepted
I became a politician because I moaned about my rates and some bloke said: "Why don't you do something about it?" I accepted his challenge, got a proposal form and asked him to sign it. He said: "Push off, mate, I always vote Labour."
The legacy I left in Blackburn after three years was the retention of Belfast sinks in council houses (at the request of the occupants and to the fury of the council officers) and the postponement of the showing of The Life of Brian until after Easter to avoid offend practising Christians.
I share this period of my life with you because it brought me into contact with real live politicians for the first time and taught me something that has been reinforced in subsequent years: 95% of politicians are not in it for what they can do for their constituents but for what is in it for them. Unfortunately, it's difficult identifying which 95%.
"Spin" is a word much used in the world of politics today, hut when I was growing up we had another word for it:"lying".The other day on BBCWales.I heard a perfect example of spin.An assembly member was asked about the lax policing of illegal immigrants arriving on our shores and, without any hesitation,she said it was the fault of hauliers. Spin allows the lie to be halfway round the world before the truth can tie its boot laces,as Mark Twain once observed.
For this reason.] would urge the British Haulier's group and John Bridge to be very wary of taking what politicians tell them as truthful or sincere. Hauliers have already discovered that the word of a minister can change at the drop of a hat:witness the U-turn on the Working Time Directive owner-drivers' opt-out.
John Bridge and I served on the board of the RHA for four years and we got to know the lobbying process under two very different director-generals. John went on to work very hard on the fuel campaign (by the way, at my last board meeting, then chairman Bob McKinnon thanked me for my two years' service. I've yet to find out which two of my four years' service he liked). I would urge John and the British Hauliers to come back into the fold as he, more than anybody, knows our industry needs to be united and strong through the RHA and FTA to get a place in the sun in a climate where we are very unloved.
Nowhere to stop
With more and more truck bans coming into force overnight parking spaces are becoming very scarce.The status of lorry drivers and their management in the eyes of the great unwashed reminds me of Rudyard Kipling's poem Tommy which describes how people don't want to know the British soldier during peace time, but when there's a war in the offing it's -Tommy-thisand "Tommy-that".We'd be in the same position as Tommy if the supermarket shelves were emptying or the pubs were running dry On the Continent, hauliers get free parking places and have good rest and eating facilities, unlike here in the UK. Our time will come, so let's stick together.
By the way whatever happened to Margaret Thatcher and Jack Straw? •