Aslef of Arabia
Aslef is one of my least favourite trade unions, a highly unrepresentative body if you ask me, but one that is always on hand to dish out helpful advice to others including, for example, its recent call for the Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy to resign.
Now I'm pretty relaxed about whether Jim Murphy stays or goes, but what this has to do with the train drivers union is completely beyond me, as well as most ordinary Aslef members, I suspect.
Maybe they should just leave things up to Labour Party members to decide instead of 'gobby' union bosses sticking their oar in where it doesn't belong.
'Aslef of Arabia' (29/12/13)
A number of readers have been in touch to ask where the 'We the Women' picture came from - to accompany the post about women drivers - dated 26 December 2011.
Well it comes from people campaigning in Saudi Arabia against the ban on women driving cars and other motor vehicles - public or private.
According to the Saudi authorities it's against Islamic teaching that women should drive cars - never mind trains - it's against the law of the land.
Any women caught doing so by the religious police are liable to be punished severely.
But all hope is not lost - because people are fighting back with courage, wit and humour.
By arguing that it's ridiculous and even anti-Islamic to suggest that God somehow proclaimed that women can't drive.
'We the Women' is their campaign slogan.
And the campaigners think of all kinds of ways to illustrate how crazy it is - to ordain that women can use washing machines or mobile phone or computers - but not cars (or trains for that matter).
Some women have taken to dressing up in male clothes and wearing false moustaches to ridicule the authorities, but as the law stand women still need a man to drive them around.
Apparently a father, brother, son or just about any old male relative will do which seems quite bizarre.
Now to look at the statistics on the number of women train drivers in this country - or the number of women members in Aslef - you'd be forgiven for thinking that God had made a similar proclamation in the UK.
But thankfully no one believes that kind of nonsense in this country.
So maybe 'We the Women' will catch on in the UK - maybe even deep in the bowels of the still male dominated parts of the UK trade union movement.
I for one hope so, anyway.
Well it comes from people campaigning in Saudi Arabia against the ban on women driving cars and other motor vehicles - public or private.
According to the Saudi authorities it's against Islamic teaching that women should drive cars - never mind trains - it's against the law of the land.
Any women caught doing so by the religious police are liable to be punished severely.
But all hope is not lost - because people are fighting back with courage, wit and humour.
By arguing that it's ridiculous and even anti-Islamic to suggest that God somehow proclaimed that women can't drive.
'We the Women' is their campaign slogan.
And the campaigners think of all kinds of ways to illustrate how crazy it is - to ordain that women can use washing machines or mobile phone or computers - but not cars (or trains for that matter).
Some women have taken to dressing up in male clothes and wearing false moustaches to ridicule the authorities, but as the law stand women still need a man to drive them around.
Apparently a father, brother, son or just about any old male relative will do which seems quite bizarre.
Now to look at the statistics on the number of women train drivers in this country - or the number of women members in Aslef - you'd be forgiven for thinking that God had made a similar proclamation in the UK.
But thankfully no one believes that kind of nonsense in this country.
So maybe 'We the Women' will catch on in the UK - maybe even deep in the bowels of the still male dominated parts of the UK trade union movement.
I for one hope so, anyway.
