As a regular traveller on the London Underground, I’m no fan of Bob Crow, whose outdated tactic of calling his RMT union members out on strike at the drop of a hat disrupts life for millions of people. I’ve no time for the Daily Mail either, with its spiteful news agenda and its persistence in believing that every substance known to man can either cause cancer or cure it, and in some cases is capable of both.
But it’s a bit rich when the Mail takes Crow to task for flying to a Caribbean cruise in January, just a day after confirming two more strikes.
Beneath a headline which reads: “Champagne, £650 lunches and sickening hypocrisy: The truth about Union baron Bob Crow”, the Mail castigates Crow for a “lifestyle of Caribbean cruises, champagne lunches and fancy restaurants.”
OK, he’s eaten at Scott’s of Mayfair, where he recently celebrated his 50th birthday with a £650 lunch, and he’s apparently a regular at Rules in Covent Garden which claims to be London’s oldest restaurant. His favourite meal is said to be Dorset crab salad (£14.95), followed by fillet of halibut (£26.95).
So surely the Caribbean cruises must be on board one of the world’s most luxurious ships. Crystal, perhaps. Silversea or Seabourn?
Well, actually, it was on Thomson Dream, and he paid about £800 each for himself and partner Nicola Hoarau for a seven-night cruise from Barbados to Grenada, Curacao and Jamaica.
According to the Mail, Crow and his partner “enjoyed the service of five bars and a dozen restaurants between exotic ports of call.” They might also have been suffering from an air-conditioning fault on board the ship, which was widely reported at the time and which became the subject of complaints to BBC’s Watchdog.
There appear to have been no complaints from Crow, and I’m not surprised. Although the Mail’s snobbish reporter Paul Bracchi thinks Barbados is not a “traditional holiday destination for the British working class” I’m prepared to wager there are more than a few workers among those booking holidays in Barbados in January next year.
A seven-night stay at the all-inclusive Barbados Beach Club on Maxwell Beach, booked with Thomson, would set them back £1,134 including return flights from Gatwick. Crow’s £800 Dream cruise looks a canny bargain against that. Just so long as the Tube trains were running when he flew home.
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