As God is my witness… – At Home

As God is my witness, I will never travel with P&O again.
On Thursday the ferry company’s so-called chief executive, Peter Hebblethwaite (trying saying that after a few shandies) admitted to a Commons select committee that bosses knowingly broke the law when they sacked 800 employees over the online video call service, Zoom, with no notice and without consultation.

Mr H (I can’t bring myself to even type that man’s name again) also revealed that new workers employed to fill the 800 empty posts are now earning between £5.15 and £6 an hour – well below the minimum wage of £8.91 an hour.

Whilst, ordinarily, I am not a frequent seafarer with P&O or anyone else, I have traversed the Irish Sea various times in the past to visit relatives in Scotland. Also, whilst, ordinarily, I will try to find a travel bargain whenever I can (I once flew with Ryanair – ‘once’ being the operative word), I believe that as working people, we have to show solidarity with other working people – even when those people have had their jobs ripped away from them so that the chief executives of this world with stupid names can retain their fat-cat salaries.

In anyone’s eyes, sacking 800 people without notice only to replace those 800 people with 800 more people on significantly diminished and illegal salaries, is deplorable.

It is also shameful, disgraceful and ultimately, a wile durty action.

However, in my eyes, we as consumers and potential seafaring passengers have to duty to remember this wile durty action for what it was and more than that, we must act accordingly, which is to say, sail with someone else – or, failing that, row our own boat.

If a company has such a destitute regard for its employees and will save money to maximise profits at all costs, what are they going to be like when it comes to customer service or, more pointedly, customer
safety?

I, for one, wouldn’t be comfortable travelling on a ship when the patching of rusty holes only
takes place if the company owning said ship deems it fiscally
acceptable.

Alas, with the way of the world at the moment and a corrupt Tory gaggle in power which holds the general public in utter destain, I wouldn’t be confident any justice will be brought to bear on the fat-cats with the stupid names.

That is why it is up to us to vote with our feet and travel with P&O’s competitors – be that Irish Ferries, Stena Line or even the grey-bearded man in the cap and donkey jacket beside the wooden raft named ‘Judy’.

As God is my witness, I will never travel with P&O again – the bunch of neanderthalic, money-grabbing H’s that they are.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch and to segue nicely into our first choice for this week, Neanderthals: Meet Your Ancestors shows Monday at 8pm on BBC4.

This is a two-part documentary in which archaeologist Ella Al-Shamahi brings the prehistoric humans back to life with the help of actor Andy Serkis, the man behind computer
generated characters in the Lord of the Rings and Planet of the Apes movies.

Examining the fossilised remains of a Neanderthal, they are able to create an animated reconstruction, revealing that they were far closer to modern humans than previously thought and perfectly adapted to their environment.

Alternatively, Extraordinary Heroes is now showing on iPlayer…

Thomas Croft, the artist behind Portraits For NHS Heroes, meets Mark, a former Royal Marine-turned-charity fundraiser who survived an explosion in Afghanistan, and lost both legs and his right arm.

Together, the artist and his subject explore perceptions of bravery, masculinity, and family.

And lastly, a week hardly goes by without this cretin making the news but Putin, Russia and the West shows Wednesday at 9pm on BBC4…

Another chance to see the 2012 documentary charting Vladimir Putin’s rise to the top in Russian politics and how he has maintained his hold on power despite growing unrest in the country, including allegations of electoral fraud and thousands of protesters taking to the streets of Moscow.

The programme features interviews with some of his senior colleagues and Western politicians he has clashed with, analysing how Putin became a key ally of the West after becoming president despite his earlier spell in the KGB.