What's happening with P&O ferries

[Malcolm Lawrence]

As the Dover Ships are registered in Cyprus they don't have to follow UK Employment Law, however they do have to comply with UK Health & Safety, I wonder what a H&S Audit would find, skills, certification, handover procedures, language competence, statutory documentation compliance, training records etc etc etc

[Timothy Bayley]

As my father used to say, there is a special place in Hell reserved for shipowners and customs officers!

[John Blackwood]

I worked on the sister ship to the Herald of free enterprise when P&O took over, (and we were still going out with bow doors open), and they wanted to put new refrigeration units in and told us to put these on the upper deck, C/Eng who protested was moved to another ship, and they moved in the units even though they knew the reports from the Herald said she was too top-heavy, I left soon after, P&O are run by number crunchers

[Timothy Bayley]

Cappy, the pigeons are finally coming home to roost. We used to have a Merchant Navy - now owned by foreign companies. We used to have an engineering and manufacturing industry second to none - now outsourced abroad to foreign operators using cheap labour. We used to be self-sufficient with our food provided by our farmers - not any more. We used to have enough power generation and gas to provide for ourselves - now sold abroad or decommissioned. All in the name of the Great Gods of Greed and Profit as extolled by Thatcherism. Suddenly, it doesn't seem like such a good idea..........

[Timothy Bayley]

Has anyone mentioned Lord Jeffrey Stirling yet?

[cappy]

Dont know how old you are ......but we had no coal ......insuficient food compared to today ......no food banks .....borrowed sugar from next door ...no fathers most of the time no dole to speak of .....no universities .....benefits was what you tried to save for.....no cars .....no foriegn holidays .....never ate out...no telephones ...and now working people got there own properties .......started there own businnes....now get there kids into uni .....have cars .....dont know what you have done with your life but from where i come from you sure sound like one big whinge adios ...CAPPY FROM SHIELDS R683532

[Timothy Bayley]

Apologies Cappy. Didn't mean to offend. I suppose that what I was trying to say was that we were never quite so reliant on foreign interests who could then hold us to ransome. I've swallowed the anchor now but my experiences in the 80s of Thatcherite policies and shipowner greed putting me out of a job, together with the response I got from the PM when I took the trouble to write to her, have coloured my thinking ever since. Please accept my sincere apologies if I have caused anger or insult.

[cappy]

I live by this proviso ......nobody owed me a job .......only myself was responsible for me and mine .....i couldnt give a toss about politics ....but can see the difference between .....winners and losers....i want nowt for nothing .....i am a happy man ....i have been truly without ......i have overrode that.....with all respect go and peddle your politics elsewhere......r683532

[cappy]

has anyone mentioned lord jeffrey stirling yet?

was he an engineer from a little village in northern ireland with family in france lol......

[Robin Craythorn]

The P & O Ferries situation is a copy of the Sea Containers/Sealink Channel Island service of 1986
I wonder if P & O used the same idiot to organise the shut down. With regard to the Sealink incident,
I was Master of the m.v. 'Earl Harold' en route from Guernsey to Weymouth with 650 passengers on board
Shortly after departure from Guernsey, four men came to my cabin, identified themselves as the company auditors,and gvae me an envelope
which contained my insturctions, which were - continue to Weymouth, discharge passengers and cargo then take
the vessel to Falmouth to lay up and we would all then be redundant. However when we arrived off Weymouth
I was told that the berth was blocked by m.v.Earl Godwin which having completed her sumer service to Cherbourg
and had moved back to the rmp to de-store. their crew were immediately redundant. After about two hours steaming around
Weymouth Bay and all south coast ports blocked to me, Portsmouth eventually agreed that I could go there.
On arrival there, the crew downed tools and staged a sit in but the next day Ihad to be re-instated because
Portsmouth Council would not alow the ship to be left unatended. The saga continued for several weeks
before a satisfactory agreement was reahed. I later sailed with P & O Ferries as 2/O on Pride of York until forced
to retire due age at 65.
Regds Robin Craythorn