The RMT boss is back, flustering his interrogators in the corporate media with his trademark plain-spoken and forthright responses.
With the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union announcing new rail strikes for December and January, the trade union boss has been back in the media spotlight.
And he’s certainly been on form. Here’s the best Mick Lynch moments of the week.
‘Is there anyone from a normal outlet?’
When asked a question by a GB News journalist at a press gathering, the RMT boss asked: “Is there anyone from a normal outlet?” as he smiled and turned to take another question.
Lynch has Madeley for breakfast
This week’s media round for the union chief included an appearance on GMB. Attempting to prize some fluster out of Lynch on the latest industrial action, Richard Madeley asked the union leader whether the government is lying about the situation involving talks with the union, to which he coolly replied: “Yes they are.”
Seemingly not content with Lynch calling the government liars the first time round, Madeley repeated the question.
“So, you’re accusing the government of a bare faced lie on this?”, said the GMB presenter, to which Lynch responded:
“I am, yes.”
Madeley’s co-presenter Susanna Reid then chimed in, saying: “And you’re aiming that at the transport secretary?” Lynch bluntly said: “Yes and I’ll be telling him that tomorrow morning when I meet him.”
Daily Mail take down
The announcement of a round of strikes over Christmas prompted the usual suspects in the corporate press to childishly rename the union boss ‘Mick Grinch.’
When grilled about the nickname at a press gathering this week by a Daily Mail reporter, Lynch’s response was described as ‘pure perfection.’ When asked if he’s proud of being known as ‘Mick Grinch,’ the RMT boss calmly replied: “I expect that from yourself. That’s the sort of quality journalism I’ve come to expect from your particular dark corner of Fleet Street.”
‘The Daily Mail supported Adolf Hitler’
The week went from bad to worse for the Daily Mail, when the trade unionist went on to brilliantly evaluate the history and motives of the right-wing paper and those like it in an interview with Politics Joe.
In response to a Daily Mail journalist referring to him as the ‘grinch of Christmas’ following the announcing of a series of winter strikes, Lynch calmly said:
“Anyone would think there’s some kind of consensus in the right-wing press that they’ve got to come up with the easiest hackneyed cliché. We’re not going on strike at Christmas and that’s the message. But I mean he was dying to say it.
“These are the same newspapers that will support the most reactionary elements in our society and indeed the Daily Mail, they supported Adolf Hitler, they supported the blackshirts. Hurrah! for the blackshirts, their famous headline, and they supported some of the most reactionary irresponsible people including Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng.
“They were lauding them from the rafters during that election campaign, they got those people in, and then they were exposed as the most right wing and hostile reactionaries, militant libertarians that we’ve ever seen. And that’s the way the press in this country is set up and we have to break through that and get our messages across direct to the public.”
Needless to say, the best Mick Lynch moments of the week went viral, earning the trade union boss even greater cult status among admirers.
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Twitter screen grab
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.