A Day Out In Brixham

This afternoon, as it wasn't raining or blowing cold artic wind down from Siberia I decided to go to Brixham. As good as some places, better than others and only 40 minutes away. Also I wanted to get a photo of the award winning poster displayed in one of Stagecoach's bus shelters on Bank Lane. It's on the 24/25 bus stop outside Ladbrokes and a photo of it now adorns the top of this blog.

Brixham Harbour is protected by a long breakwater, over a 1000 ft or 305 metres and I have never been along it. Deciding I had need of a little exercise I walked all the way to the end. Some good views of Brixham, one of which is shown here. Others will be in my photo album including a few I took this evening in Torquay. One of the photos shows William of Orange who invaded England on November 5 1688 (OK Parliament invited him though King James the Second wasn't exactly happy about it). Every time I have been to Brixham I have noticed that in common with all statues every where there was a bird perched on his head. In this case a seagull. It's typical that you become famous for some deed of daring and bravery and you then stand in a town square some where with a bird crapping on you head for the rest of eternity.

Click here for some more photos.

On the buses I noticed that some of the buses on the 32 service are double deckers. These are for the duties that service schools as there had been a problem with children being left behind at bus stops. Having driven a double decker round the 32 route in the past I know how tight it can get in places and how close you get to one or two trees in the Chelston area. Good luck out there boys and girls. Remember there is no need to rush.

An other little story I heard was about a strike by bus drivers in Inverness. What happens when there is a situation like this is the company ship in drivers from other areas to try and break the strike. They don’t ask actual drivers to do this, they get people at management level or those on their way to achieving management level to do the dirty work. Now we had a strike in Devon a few years ago and people were bussed in from round the country to try and break the strike. I am not sure what this must cost putting all these scabs up in hotels for the duration but keep the service running at all cost seems to be the idea. Now here is a question. The Ted Heath government sometime in the last century was brought to it’s knees by a strike by coal miners. They picketed the largest coke store in the country so there was nothing for the power stations to burn and the country went on a three day week to save fuel. Power cuts happened at anytime of the day and night, candles went from a penny each to 6 pence each over night. In the end the Government fell and Labour got in. In the fullness of time Labour lost a general election and Maggie Thatcher came to POWER. Now it hadn’t just been coal miners picketing the coke store. Miners came from all over the country and other workers showed their solidarity by joining the pickets. Flying Pickets they were called. Maggie, when she came to POWER, outlawed this movement of workers from one area to another and from other industries thus reducing the power of the Unions.

So how come employers can still move workers around the country to break strikes but Unions can’t move pickets around the country to help fellow workers in their struggle to obtain a decent wage? Seems a bit one sided to me.