Pissed Off by P&O...

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The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Once and originally, a British shipping company founded in 1837: I used to have a silk flag that came as a cigarette packet giveaway in the 1950s, and as a kid always loved that rather exotic-looking  emblem and all it seemed to represent to my childish perception.

All of that now seems so remote and naive, given what has just transpired: the eight hundred 'redundancies' forced by the company on a large slice of its staff at the whim of the company's owners, the UAE-based, union-hating DP World. Two things: a redundancy can only occur when a person's role no longer exists within their company: these poor sods are being instantly replaced by lower-paid alternatives: it's a sacking, pure and simple - they've got good grounds for a class action for unfair dismissal.

Secondly, it appears that the UK government knew this was about to happen the day before. Was Doris tipped off about all of this whilst he was in the Middle East, touting cap-in-hand for an oil deal to get us out of the squeeze of a Russia-centric energy situation which we were allowed to sleepwalk into? As above, so below: there seems to be no nadir low enough that Pooh and his cretinous bunch of yes-persons won't stoop to. Where does this descent into the mire end? 

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