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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think the Southern Rail strike is not National News?

179 replies

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/12/2016 13:16

Watching the BBC news at lunchtime. Tiny snippet of news about Aleppo and now massive in-depth coverage of the Southern Rail strike include homevideos of commuters journeys etc.

I understand this is an important issue for those who live within the small area covered by Southern Rail - but does it really merit coverage on the National News - surely should be a local news story?

OP posts:
MackerelOfFact · 13/12/2016 15:28

Uninformed viewers outside of the affected area were given little analysis on how this might impact them.

Unless I'm missing something, we don't get told what impact the atrocities in Aleppo could have on us either, do we? We just know that it's fucking awful.

I don't think news items have to be related back to how they will affect the viewer in order for them to be worthy of coverage or of potential interest.

StrawberryShortcake32 · 13/12/2016 15:28

I live in the south and I can honestly say it's been hell commuting to work. It's gotten to the stage where people have had to give up their jobs or relocate/work from home. I've heard situations where some people get home from work so late they barely just get dinner before having to go straight to bed and unable to spend time with their children before their bed time. It is drastically affecting people's lives on a massive scale and this has been going on for the best part of a year now. In the end I had to arrange alternate transportation to get to work (which wasn't easy). The other option was to face serious consequences for being constantly late for work despite getting to the station 2 hours before I needed to in order to be on time. Trust me it's not just a run of the mill strike. It's been an ongoing situation that has escalated. I'm glad it's making national news. Perhaps Southern will sort their lives out now. Sorry rant over lol! Blush

MuppetsChristmasCarol · 13/12/2016 15:43

Only if I am unreasonable to shout 'it's not news' every time they talk about sport.

ShotsFired · 13/12/2016 16:01

I had to travel out of London on a "normal" train operator at rush hour recently, standing room only. The only way I could deal with the amount of people was by putting on music and literally resting my head in my hands so I couldn't see or hear it. But being physically pushed and shoved was still grim.

And that was on a service which departs every 30 minutes and takes an hour to get me home. I can't begin to imagine how awful it would be for multiple hours at a time, twice a day, every day, with whole trains cancelled.

So damn right that sort of outrageous excuse for train travel is of national importance. (Hundreds of?) thousands of people are enduring this shambles when you factor in the families, partners, childcare providers etc of the commuters.

hotmail124 · 13/12/2016 16:28

Transport infrastructure and communications strikes(PO next week) are very worrying to governments, could be start of more serious general strike.
Especially as RMT and CWU are such solid unions.
Mussolini used to avoid striking train workers quite well, and I don't think Erdogan is having too many train strikes atmGrin

AuntJane · 13/12/2016 16:33

Tonight's Evening Standard reports that today's actions affected 300,000 people. Compare that to the total population of, say, Yorkshire. That's why it's news.

People are losing/leaving jobs because of the normal standard of Southern Rail's services. Parents are not seeing their children at all during the week. Marriages are ending because of it. And the strike is on top of this.

Original poster
ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/12/2016 16:43

Only if I am unreasonable to shout 'it's not news' every time they talk about sport

Absolutely not unreasonable to do that Grin

OP posts:
SpecialFlowSnake · 13/12/2016 16:44

DH heard it reported in the USA on the 11am news - National Public Radio! It was the third story after Trump & Aleppo. He used to do that commute in the 90's. He changed career and relocated because it was so grinding even back then. My cousin, SiL and BroiL are all caught up in the chaos and furious on Facebook about it.

Bejazzled · 13/12/2016 17:08

It isn't unreasonable to have it on national news as it is a big story affecting so many people - but the reporting of it isn't proportionate. I'm in Scotland and like to know what is going on in the whole country - although I tend to watch the channel 4 news instead of BBC now (especially instead of BBC Scotland news which is so dumbed down and abysmal, thank god we never had 'Scottish 6 ' imposed on us. An hour of their insular twee garbage would drive me up the wall.

Creampastry · 13/12/2016 18:01

Hundreds of thousands of people are affected .... yabu. It is causing people to lose their jobs. It is affecting house prices. Yabu.

AuntJane · 13/12/2016 18:30

Additionally, businesses are suffering. People aren't in London for work, or have atrocious journeys, so are not staying into the evening to go shopping, go to restaurants, cafes, theatres, etc. So the people who work for those businesses are losing shifts.

And medical staff cannot get into work, or are working when tired. So patients are suffering, many in specialist hospitals that take patients from the entire country.

ForalltheSaints · 13/12/2016 18:38

Because of the contract the DfT let it affects us all as we as taxpayers lose out. It should also be of interest to all as it will be used as a reason to restrict the ability to striker or take industrial action.

The Transport Secretary should have intervened a long time ago.

hotmail124 · 13/12/2016 18:53

'DH heard it reported in the USA on the 11am news - National Public Radio!'
Some one's worried.
Mass trade unionism started here.

SnatchedPencil · 13/12/2016 19:01

I disagree. It's a huge story with hundreds of thousands of victims. The point of national news is surely to cover news from all over the nation, not just news that only affects the WHOLE nation.

Remember the floods a few years ago in the northwest, or the southwest? Or Raoul Moat or Derek Bird on the rampage in the north? The London riots? Jo Yeates being murdered in Bristol? The working conditions at Sports Direct's warehouse in Derbyshire? I don't live in any of those places, but I didn't see any issue with them being headline news. They are all important stories and should be covered nationwide.

The Southern Rail dispute is important because it will define how unions are dealt with for years to come. The unions understandably don't want to lose any more power (which is what the dispute is really about, the "safety" claim is utter b---shit) but the government will use this dispute as a reason why the powers of unions have to be curbed further.

The dispute has affected hundreds of thousands of people for many months. Jobs have been lost, lives have been ruined. It is important.

Even if you don't live down there.

EastMidsMummy · 13/12/2016 19:03

Important regional stories can become important national stories if they have wide implications, but I think this important regional story doesn't have enough important national implications to deserve the amount of national coverage it's getting.

EastMidsMummy · 13/12/2016 19:07

Liiinoo says "And BBC news is in Salford now - hardly the SE."

BBC News is now based at Broadcasting House in Central London.

Salford is home to sport, children's and 5Live.

user1471545174 · 13/12/2016 19:13

YABU OP, London and the SE are falling to pieces, and it will all affect you eventually.

(Hoping I'm not followed here from the London thread by people who think everything's dandy because museums and coffee).

StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes · 13/12/2016 19:19

I live in the SW it affects me as I have a son at uni in Brighton who is planning on coming home for xmas on the 19th, as will hundreds more uni students from all over so yes I am happy to hear about it on the news.

EastMidsMummy · 13/12/2016 19:19

YABU OP, London and the SE are falling to pieces, and it will all affect you eventually.

Ha! London gets something like TWENTY TIMES the funding PER HEAD for infrastructure projects than other U.K. regions. If London's falling apart, I hate to think what everywhere else is like!!!

www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/aug/07/london-gets-24-times-as-much-infrastructure-north-east-england

NuzzleandScratch · 13/12/2016 19:29

Totally agree with what roundaboutthetown said, you cannot underestimate the impact this fiasco is having on commuters, it has been horrendous, and has been going on for over a year now. Delays of an hour + every night after work, hours spent hanging around in stations, not seeing my children before that go to bed (I commute 3 days), walking in the door so late, no time to cook a decent dinner, straight to bed to start the whole thing again the following morning. Day after day after day. One night my journey that should take just over 2 hours took me 5 and a half! You will hear the same story over and over, 300000 people use the Southern railway each week, and there is such anger amongst us, this is a big issue and must be resolved. So yes, national news I would say!

YelloDraw · 13/12/2016 19:35

I think that is true of most news stories now that we seem to have made the decision that the person on the streets opinion is worth more than expert analysis. I despair everytime a news programme asks for viewer tweets and comments. Seriously who gives a shit about what Dave from Essex or Jane from Hull thinks, are they experts in the field? Does there opinion carry any weight whatsoever? No? So why are you showing it!!!

!00% agree!!!

specialsubject · 13/12/2016 19:35

I did my time as a London commuter 20 years ago and it was horrible then - even though the trains are newer I cannot imagine doing it now.

The human interest angle that clutters every story makes it indeed very difficult to work out what the actual issue is. And going on about inflation going up to 2% when we all know that train fares rocket by much more each year must be salt in the wound.

Original poster
ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/12/2016 19:36

300000 people use the Southern railway

So approximately 0.5% of the UK population then Hmm

OP posts:
Creampastry · 13/12/2016 19:45

Yeah.... so more than half of all rail users in the U.K. are affected...

EastMidsMummy · 13/12/2016 19:47

Totally agree with what roundaboutthetown said, you cannot underestimate the impact this fiasco is having on SOUTHERN ENGLISH commuters, it has been horrendous, and has been going on for over a year now. Delays of an hour + every night after work, hours spent hanging around in stations, not seeing my children before that go to bed (I commute 3 days), walking in the door so late, no time to cook a decent dinner, straight to bed to start the whole thing again the following morning. Day after day after day. One night my journey that should take just over 2 hours took me 5 and a half! You will hear the same story over and over, 300000 people use the Southern railway each week, and there is such anger amongst us, this is a big issue and must be resolved. So yes, national news I would say!