I WAS somewhat spoilt as a child; my father was a Transport Manager with a major nationalised industry, so I had the run of my own full-sized train set, as I enjoyed Sunday's "helping" the guys who worked the internal railway system. Thanks to them, I learned how to drive a steam engine.
On the days when my head was fu o wee motors, the ones I got to ride around in were full-sized trucks: Albions, Bedfords, Commers, Dodges, ERFs, Fodens, Guys, Leylands and so forth. Again, I can still double declutch a Foden/Gardner combination, amazing how these talents live with you if you are properly trained.
The point here is, steam locomotion,which various UK governments hung-onto, long after continentals had switched to electric traction was one of the main components in the death of the once omnipotent British railway system.
To further labour the point, British truck manufacturers - AEC, Albion, Atkinson, Bedford, Commer/Dodge, ERF, Foden, Guy, Leyland, Morris Commercial, Scammell, Seddon, Thornycroft and so on are now footnotes to history. Today's truckers drive Swedish-built Scanias and Volvos, German-built MANs and Mercedes, Dutch-built Dafs, Italian-built Ivecos or French-built Renaults.
And the man who sparked off this revolution which did much to kill-off the once-mighty UK truck-building industry was a Scot - Jimmy McKelvie, who, in the 1960s, fed-up being told by the likes of Atkinson or Foden: "Now, you will not tell us what you want your trucks to do, we will tell you what we are willing to build a truck to do, and furthermore, you have to wait until we've built it before you can drive it".
Jimmy's response was to start importing Volvo trucks, ready off the shelf, but with a choice of equipment, which offered better fuel economy, pulling power and driver comfort, and which were easier for the mechanics to work on.
Where Volvo led, Scania and the rest followed and gradually the British truck-builders folded and the British truck industry died.
Jimmy McKelvie told them, they weren't providing him with what he needed for his haulage company. They wouldn't and didn't listen, so he went elsewhere.
Fast-forward 40 years. The Scottish football fans have told the clubs - via an online survey: "We don't want 12-12-18; we don't want top sixes and bottom six; or three mini-leagues of eight clubs.
"We want two divisions of 16 or 18 clubs each; playing each other home and away, two head-to-heads per season."
The British truck manufacturers told Jimmy McKelvie to take his business elsewhere, it was their way or no way.
The Scottish clubs are telling their customers: "It's our way or no way".
When will they listen or learn?
That's just it.... they will never listen or learn. I withdrew my advertising from three grounds, plus took back the loan vehicles used to ferry the trumpets around down Hampden way. They never asked the reasons why, they already knew that I am one of many who are taking the fight to them. I will put my business ads on the back of buses that carry working men, not the gobshites in blazers (including the green and white mob) They will hear me long before I am finished.
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