Got lost in the game

Another day of showers and sunshine, courtesy of the baggage handlers at British Airways. Their union didn't call for them to down bags so their action should be deemed "unofficial". The word 'strike' has a technical meaning that doesn't apply to these circumstances. There's something fishy about it all too, but I can't get anyone to buy the idea that it's because of the 'Crazy Frog' single.

Here are three photographs of the same girl yesterday. I took two of them and Toby Melville is credited by the Observer as taking the other one. Can you spot the difference?


From the front page of the Observer:

"British Airways was embroiled in fresh controversy last night after it refused to give priority to passengers who have been stranded for days because of a dispute over airline food."

Where to start? This is only the first paragraph too. "Fresh controversy" - well, maybe back at the paper's office, where the controversy could have been that no one who was an experienced air traveller was upset and the paper needed a story.

British Airways has been saying for days that they will reimburse their customers for any one way ticket bought on another airline. Problem is, there are very few tickets to be had. When I checked, it was over £3,000 one way for a four city, eighteen hour flight. I couldn't do it. I would have felt guilty AND tortured by the travelling.

The girl in the photographs above (hi Djina!) sat with me and a handful of others for over four hours. She gently reprimanded me at one point - "some people can't afford that". So for those travellers, British Airways staff were working all day yesterday to arrange flights out on other airlines.



This is Linda, a BA staff member, working on her day off. "The media keep saying it's a strike and it's not! I'm here because Anwar got all his mates in today to help get it sorted. We're not being paid, we're not getting breaks but we want to help the passengers as much as we can." Linda managed to get flights for everyone who queued up to speak to her. At Selfridges last night, Julia at the BA counter said she too had come in to help. "I've done more reissues today than in my entire time working for the company."

I spoke to countless British Airways staff yesterday. Every single one was calm, intelligent and courteous. There's something remarkably positive about a company that has such helpful, loyal staff. I don't think the mainstream media (or "old media" as I like to call it) has any idea how harmful it is to cast aspersions on a great company when it's been hit by an illegal action of this type.

Another disingenuous sentence in the Observer's front page article:

"With no agreement yet reached, union insiders have warned that further unofficial strike action by BA ground staff remains a possibility."

The way this is written, you'd think it was a strike. "Agreement" - since it's unofficial and technically illegal, who is there to reach an - unspecified - agreement with? Quoting union insiders, rather than, say, the Big Issue seller outside my local tube station, gives it a strikey kind of hue, rather than communicating that it's an action being taken for reasons that have nothing to do with BA employment.

Didn't John Lennon say one of the reasons he returned his MBE was because his record hadn't done well in the charts? So shall we say that the 'Crazy Frog' ring tone has just become too much to bear and the unofficial action will continue until the tune drops out of the charts! That's just as valid a reason.

It was interesting to watch all the camera and presenter teams working their way through the tent.









This last camera guy is James of Motion Records. "We're looking for compensation stories but everyone's very chilled." He took a break and answered a few of my questions.

Me: "Been anywhere scary?"

James: "Baghdad. I filmed Trevor MacDonald interviewing Sodhim Hussein just before the first Gulf War. There's a photo of me shaking his hand."

We chatted for ages and he told lots of funny stories. I won't post them until I hear back it's ok. The story about bantering with Tariq Aziz, who'd cut himself shaving, is one I hope he lets me pass on. Fingers crossed for my flight tomorrow!