No. 1468
RETIRED RAILWAY OFFICERS’ SOCIETY
www: rros.org.uk
Minutes of Meeting
held in the Union Jack Club, Sandell Street, London SE1.
on Monday 1st October 2007
Present:
President: David Maidment
Hon. Secretary: Richard Malins
David Ainsworth / Tom Eccles / Tom Jay / Malcolm RoweErnst Birchler / Chris Edwards / Mike Johns / David Sawyer
Bob Bishop / Ken Gardner / Alan Keitch / Dennis Simmonds
Bill Boddy / Les Giles / Clive Kessell / Eric Smith
Alf Boucher / Hugh Gould / Graham King / Malcolm Southgate
Colin Bracewell / Bob Goundry / Chris Leah / Alan Sprod
Reg Bray / Ken Green / Ray Loft / Peter Sturt
Bob Breakwell / Nigel Green / Don Love / Rodney Taylor
Vivian Brown / Bob Greening / John Meara / John Tidmarsh
John Burge / Brian Hamment Arnold / Geoff Mitchell / John Trathan
Chris Chivers / Don Heath / Peter Northfield / Terry Warburton
Neal Clarke / Tony Hines / Michael Page / Jim Ward
David Crathorn / Maurice Holmes / Gerry Papworth / Bob Walters
John Cressey / Alan C Hobson / Mark Papworth / Wally Walton
John Cronin / Peter Hornsby / Bob Parks / Derek Webb
James Crowe / Len Horwood / Don Pearce / Norman West
Ray Diver / George Houldsworth / Gordon Pettitt / Peter Whittaker
Derek Doling / Richard Huggins / Ron Puntis / Philip Wiltshire
Bob Wyatt
1. Confirmation of the Minutes of Meeting held on Monday 3rd September 2007.
The Minutes of this meeting were approved, subject to the inclusion of Don Heath as a member present. As Vice President he had entrusted the responsibility of signing himself in to the Secretary. The President also advised of a near late arrival due his train failing at Lichfield. Other places in the book of Liffe: Brough Sowerby, the person sitting in the same desk for 15 years and passed over for promotion or a Kibblesworth, the footling amount of change given out when items are not priced in round amounts, in the belief that the penny less makes it seem cheaper, and the Rochester, a man occupying both armrests on the Underground.
2. News of Members.
The President reported with regret three deaths:
G R (Bob) Newlyn, formerly Divisional Manager South Eastern SR, on 21st September aged 81, after a long illness. The funeral is in St Paul’s Church, Canterbury on 8th October.
A S (Stan) Lewis, formerly Personnel Officer Shipping and International Services Division, on 21st September aged 93, after a long illness.
Also Ralph Porter (non-member), former Assistant Secretary to the BR Board, on 14th September, following a heart attack, with the funeral at Langley, Slough on 26th September.
Members stood for a few moments in silent tribute to their memory.
Les Singleton and Mike Tyrrell are recovering from heart and hip operations respectively. Clive Kessell is covering Mike’s role as meeting photographer.
News has since been received of the death of Phil Gates, Services Manager at BR Business Systems, on 2nd October. His funeral is at St Michael’s Church, Ewyas Harold, Hereford on 13th October.
3. Welcome to Members Recently Elected.
Malcolm Rowe and Bill Boddy were attending a Society meeting for the first time and were accorded the customary warm welcome.
4. Proposed New Members.
The details of the following applicants’ careers were shown in the Agenda and their election was approved:
Name: Address and Telephone Number: Sponsors:
Lawrie Hall Goat Cottage, Green Court, Kings Stanley Don Love
Stonehouse, Glos GL10 3QH 01453 822150 Tony Cotgreave
Brian Sandham 22 Shanklin Avenue, Billericay, Essex Don Pearce
CM12 9JJ 01277 624436 Peter Williment
Peter Stanton 382 Duffield Road Darley Abbey Colin Boocock
Derby DE22 1ER 01332 557407 Donald Heath
Fraser Wilson 7 Farncombe Close, Wivelsfield Green Mike Tyrrell
Haywards Heath, Sussex RH17 7RA 01444 471791 Clive Kessell
5. Pension & Travel Facilities Matters.
On Pensions, John Mayfield had sent his apologies with nothing new to report. John Meara advised that on Travel Facilities, there is still no indication, either of Grand Central starting to operate services or of any staff travel facilities on them. No approach has been made to ATOC (Rail Staff Travel), whereas another future open access operator, the Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone, has made such enquiries.
6. Any Other Business.
The President drew attention to the event to be held in aid of the Railway Children at the Royal Geographical Society on 1st November. The speaker will be Christian Wolmar, author and journalist, and the talk will be based on his new book about the railways, “Fire and Steam”. Tickets can be obtained from the Railway Children office. Christian has promised he will give a different talk for the Society on 5th November, with a more contemporary slant on the railway scene.
7. Talk by Kate Allen - General Secretary of Amnesty International UK.
The President welcomed Kate who has been with Amnesty since 2000, having been previously at the Refugee Council. He has been advising Amnesty on children’s rights. Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognised human rights. It was founded in London in 1961, as the by-product of a campaign for the rights of Portuguese students arrested by the former Salazar regime. It has now grown to be a worldwide organisation with 2m invidual members across 150 countries. There are 267k members in the UK, with a turnover here of £22m, which far exceeds any political party. Funding is mainly from subscriptions and donations, and no government money is accepted on principle. An example of a major donor was the late Anita Roddick, an extraordinary woman. NGOs are a way in which individuals can have influence, and at its core Amnesty is about these individuals standing up against injustice. Younger people are concerned about the state of the world and can be engaged in such issues. There are groups in schools and universities, and the age profile and gender mix of the membership follows the population at large with perhaps more participation by ethnic minorities. Members can participate in decision making for the movement through Amnesty’s global parliament which meets every 2 years
Amnesty as a worldwide organisation can mobilise its members around the globe, and has an Urgent Action network. Action can take the form of Embassy demonstrations, as recently against repression by the military regime in Burma, or by mass letter writing. It is an opportunity for members to express their views on particular cases of injustice. Some of these involve the false imprisonment of people for political opinions, while others concern prisoners on Death Row. The former are usually in countries without proper democratic processes, while the latter arise from mistrials in those countries that still have the death penalty. Abolition of which has been a long held Amnesty objective, and since 1990 over 50 countries have done that, though 64 still retain the death penalty. 90% of executions around the world arise in just a few of them, including the US, China, Sudan, Iraq or Iran. China is the worst of these, with such sentences passed very quickly for a wide range of offences. Contact with the Chinese Government on this is very difficult, as they consider what they, and indeed other countries, do with their own populations to be their own business. Since 1945 and the holocaust traumas across Europe and Asia around World War 2, few governments now take that line. The Beijing Olympics present a significant opportunity to challenge this in China. Amnesty has also campaigned in the USA for many years, with some successes.
There have been international advances in human rights legislation. The convention on torture is an Amnesty achievement, and establishing an international criminal court is important, making regimes responsible for crimes against their own people. The Burmese government has been reminded that they could be brought to justice, and the first referrals are in Sudan and Uganda. Another campaigning issue is the Arms Trade treaty. The UK has domestic legislation on this, but its effectiveness is undermined by other countries, such as China in Burma, and the old argument that if we don’t sell arms somewhere someone else will. The UN has given overwhelming support for this, with the curious exception of the US. Zimbabwe is a particular sore for Britain, the former colonial power, but there is little that can be done from London, although Amnesty supports the UK government. The South African government is on the front line and has been a real disappointment, in the face of the devastation of the economy, the clearance of homes and the abuse of supplies of food aid, all designed to destroy any opposition to the regime.
Violence against women is a worldwide issue, where perhaps one woman in three experiences violence, whether domestic or through wars. Rape is routinely used to destroy communities because of the effects of consequent pregnancies in these societies. Trafficking of women and children can involve as many as 2m people at any one time. Trafficked women are often deported back to the country where they were originally exploited. The current McCann case is not one in which Amnesty would become involved, but it does illustrate the widespread problem of children who disappear, and the value that needs to be placed on the lives of all children.
We are actually going through a tough time for human rights, with the challenges brought about by the War on Terror. It should not be a choice between security and human rights, but there can only be condemnation of the outrages in New York, London, Bali etc, all of which affected Amnesty members directly. Those responsible for these outrages must of course be brought to account, but in a sense they win if civil liberties are lost in pursuit of them. Terrorism does have to be defeated, but that does not mean colluding with others, such as the US on Guantanamo Bay. And people should not be deported to countries with a poor record on the use of torture. We now live in a time when modern communications technology such as the internet and mobile phones make it more difficult for governments to conceal their actions. However they can close these networks down, as the Burmese have, and exact punishments for using them, while Google and Yahoo have submitted to state censorship by the Chinese government. Yahoo has even shopped people. Sometimes only satellite phones are immune from government action, and are made illegal in consequence. Kate had experience of this herself in Nepal, while Amnesty’s support for democracy in Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi is long standing. But in the end news gets out in the modern world. The President concluded by saying that although Kate’s talk was neither humorous nor about railways, it was on serious topics that should concern us all.
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No. 1469 Agenda for Meeting
To be held in the Gascoigne Room at the Union Jack Club, Sandell Street, London SE1 at 13.45
on Monday 5th November 2007.
1. Confirmation of Minutes of Meeting held on on Monday 1st October 2007.
2. News of Members.
3. Welcome to Members Recently Elected.
4. Proposed New Members.
Theo Steel will propose and Carol Bustard will second that JOHN FREDERICK WILSON be elected an ordinary member of the Society. John was born in Southsea on the first of September 1947 and joined BR as a Management Trainee on the ER in 1970. He was Assistant Area Manager Broxbourne from 1972 and Passenger Marketing Assistant in the Liverpool St Division from 1974. He was then with the Shipping Division 1976-82, returning to Liverpool St as Service Group Manager and then Planning & Marketing Manager for Network SouthEast Anglia. He was with Railtrack from 1995 as Commercial Manager Anglia Zone, and Account Executive from 2001, finally retiring from Network Rail in 2007 as Route Enhancement Manager.
Mike Johns will propose and Chris Austin will second that MARK LEONARD SMITH be elected an ordinary member of the Society. Mark was born in Stafford on the fourteenth of June 1948. Teaching was his professional career and he became a Head Teacher in Taunton. He assumed managerial roles with the West Somerset Railway plc in 1984, was appointed a non-executive director in 1986 and Managing Director in 1988. He retired from that (a full time post) in 2006 and is currently the Director (a voluntary role) of the Heritage Railway Association.
Donald Heath will propose and Bob Breakwell will second that ALAN WILLIAM WALTERS be elected an ordinary member of the Society. Alan was born in Weaverham, Cheshire on the twenty sixth of March 1942 and joined BR as an Apprentice at Crewe Locomotive Works in 1957, with a spell studying at Leicester University 1962-5. After PTO posts in Scotland 1966-70 he became Depot Manager at Polmadie, later moving to Eastfield and then Ashford Chart Leacon. He became Divisional Maintenance Engineer at Sheffield in 1980, and Traction & Traincrew Manager at York in 1983. He was T&RS Engineer for the ER from 1988, and then Head of Health & Safety at the BRB in 1994. He retired from that post at privatisation in 1997, and has worked since then in a number of professional, technical and consultancy roles across the rail industry.
Peter Howarth will propose and Peter Guildford will second that NIGEL ANDREW THOMAS be elected an ordinary member of the Society. Nigel was born in Canterbury on the ninth of December 1951 and joined BR as a clerk at Salisbury in 1974. He held clerical and station management posts across the SW Division of the SR until 1985, when he became Retail Manager first at Waterloo and then for InterCity West Coast. After a spell as PA to the MD Operations and Engineering at the BRB he became Retail Strategy Manager for Regional Railways in 1990 and Stations General Manager for Railtrack in 1993. He moved to OPRAF in 1996 as a Franchise Executive and later Assistant Director, retiring from the post of Director, London at the Strategic Rail Authority in 2006.