After a pretty tranquil 38 bus journey in from Clapton Pond and a brisk walk from Cambridge Circus I'm now beside the river awatiing the arrival of The Blond. Walking down Charing Cross Road I ipped into Leicester Square station to see what. if anything, was happening.
A few passengers were emerging through ticket barriers. I spoke to a couple of staff members, who showed me that the Northern Line is running well despite the strike and that there is a partial service on the District, Jubilee, Metropolitan and Victoria lines, plus a tiny bit of one at the top end of the Piccadilly. The feeling was that support for the srike among RMT drivers had weakened because of the reasons for the breakdown of talks: the two sacked drivers, rather than the main issues of pay and redundancies. The union, no doubt, will take a different view.
Yesterday evening's collapse of last-ditch talks at Acas was blamed by the union on the management's lawyers. But a senior Tfl source told me earlier this morning that "we were faced with a document about Metronet employment rights and told 'sign it, or else.'". I'm told th document related to an agreement made in 2002. My source says: "That's a pretty cynical manipulation of the pretty thin mandate they have."
Boris is about to arrive for his boat-oarding phot-op, so I'll be back in a bit.
07: 40 Boris has been, done interviews, and is now climbing aboard to clipper bound for Canary Wharf. I can see him from the Embankment roadside here, surrounded by cameras and hacks. He's riding the popular mood with his customary gusto. In an apparent reference to the Metronet employment rights document mentioned above he claimed that everything had degenerated into a discussion about the precise meaning of something John Prescott had said: difficult to divine at the best of time, remarked the Mayor.
He denied that City Hall had become involved in the Acas talks and restated his willingness, as declared outside Walthham Forest town hall last night, that he'd be happy to have a beer with Bob Crow if and when the RMT negotiates a settlement and calls off the strike. He again declined to become personally involved in talks and he stressed the fact that a significant number of RMT drivers seem "quite rightly" to be working normally.
TfL, by the way, say that LU management are prepared to return to Acas today. Don't yet know what the union's position is. Watch this space.
