We've all watched the annual Remembrance Ceremonies today. Many people have attended in person, as they do every year, to pay their respects to fallen comrades and family members.

But this year, not everyone has been able to make it. Veterans, serving soldiers and military families hoping to travel by rail to London were thwarted today.

First Capital Connect, which runs trains down the East Coast, had to cancel virtually all of its trains to London this morning.

Why?

Because drivers on the Great Northern route were refusing to report for work on Sunday in a "dispute over pay".

Refusing to report to work? Train drivers, refusing to drive the train? Can we sack the bastards?

Of course we fucking can't. Like all trade unionists, these gits know their rights. Apparently, one of the many concessions the drivers' union Aslef negotiated during railway privatisation was that Sunday working was 'voluntary'. So technically - and that's the way these selfish bastards always work - technically, they're 'allowed' to not turn up.

They always have done in the past, of course, because they get paid more to do so. They take home a basic salary of £38,000 a year for a four-day week, but if they're kind enough to 'volunteer' to do more, they top-up to a tasty £50,000 with overtime.

Until they needed to 'make a point'. So, regardless of what this Sunday is and means, this sneaky, deceitful backdoor strike was called.

Oh well done, train drivers. Well done, Aslef. Very well done indeed. You've really made your point, and made it well.

We now understand where your priorities lie. With yourselves. And your fucking pay packets. And your 'above inflation pay increases' that you somehow feel you have some sort of fucking right to, even though all of us - your would-be passengers - are going through the worst recession for years.

And if you can't have the pay rise you're 'demanding'? If you're not immediately given exactly what you want? A tantrum. We'll take the ball home. 600 drivers take the whole day off.

You've prevented a large number of people, some of whom are so old that they may not have many more chances, from attending Remembrance services. It'd be nice to think that some of you felt a twinge of guilt about that, but you fucking don't, do you? Most of you probably don't even realise what today is, do you?

For you, its just a day off; a free day you've got free to toddle to your nearest squalid pub, and swill a few pints of cheap lager while watching Sky Sports, isn't it? Nice to have a day off, eh? Shame about the overtime, but at 50 grand a year - rather more than a veterans pension, eh? - there's plenty left in the pay packet for a couple more beers. Cheers, Aslef. Cheers, all!!

Meanwhile, some old soldiers, any one of whom is worth ten of any of you feeble cunts, will be watching the Remembrance service on television, rather than being there, with their comrades and families.

Do you care? Of course you fucking don't, you worthless, amoral shits.

The soldiers we're honouring fought, and watched their friends fall, so that you could have the freedom to have your poxy fucking unions, and your pedantic little 'work-to-rules', and your cozy days spent in some grubby pub instead of doing your fucking jobs.

Choosing its words carefully, First Capital Connect said it was "..extremely disappointed by the drivers' refusal to work" this Sunday.

Extremely disappointed? That's putting it pretty fucking mildly. The rest of us are fucking outraged at this selfish, ignorant slap in the face to the public and to our armed forces, past and present. And we won't forget.

Oh no, we'll remember you, you bastards.



++UPDATE++ : shame the bastards: Send your Poppy to ASLEF

++UPDATE II ++ : this post is getting a lot of traffic from here, where a man calling himself 'TRAIN DRIVER' has posted a link, together with a hilarious little wanker symbol. Nothing else.

So, TRAIN DRIVER, why don't you come over here and, in the comments, explain to us why you and your sorry colleagues thought it would be OK to deny veterans access to the Remembrance ceremonies to 'prove' you needed more money?

We're waiting...
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