There have been moments this year when both sides in the interminable rail dispute have made positive sounds, suggesting a resolution could be close. But as Mick Whelan, leader of Aslef, holds forth from his desk at the train drivers’ union HQ, it becomes clear this is not one of them.
Pay talks have foundered and Whelan is fuming at the rail firms and the government, whose “dead hand” he sees as sabotaging progress: “I’ve never dealt with such dissembling, deceitful, disingenuous, dishonourable people in my 38 years of operating on all levels of this industry.”
