26.3.12 Lotto Loser

On Friday I read the story of Hazel Loveday, who summed up her bad luck by saying "It's been a week from hell" after the success of her colleagues (who will now be ex-colleagues).  The trouble with syndicates is that you have to stay in or suffer the consequences if you leave.  There's nothing complicated about this; you either pay up and have a chance of winning, or you don't and you fucking don't.  Moaning months down the line that you've missed out is tough shit. 

Hazel could not afford the £2 per week, so six months ago decided to drop out and someone else took her place.  She was not forced out, and I contest that she could not afford it.  I suggest that she decided to reset her priorities and use the £2 for something else - she certainly wasn't destitute, she just made a choice.  It turned out to be a poor one, but that's only with hindsight.  It's easy to moan about missing out on a win, but not so common to see people wanting to contribute retrospectively for losses sustained by others when there's no return on the outlay!

So 12 bus drivers have £3million each, and apparently they haven't yet seen fit to contact her with offers to 'see her right', or send flowers.  For six months, she's been saving her £2 weekly outlay, but as soon as the syndicate wins, she wants some sort of benefit - you weren't in it dearie.  If they take pity on you, and/or genuinely feel they ought to give you something, lucky you.  But featuring in an article in the paper, saying that if she'd won, she'd help out the lads, is possibly going to annoy them a bit.

Perhaps instead of the dozen winners helping her, they might want to help another bus driver, Mr Michael Shephard, who has just been sacked for breaking health and safety rules.  What did he do that was so fucking awful?  While sat in the terminus, with no passengers on board, he was seen on CCTV eating a grape while waiting to start his shift.  Apparently he eats an occasional grape or sips water when he's at the terminus, mainly because his medication (after a heart bypass) leaves him thirsty.  I suggest that the people running National Express are cunts, if this is how they treat staff.  Their duty of care should mean the driver's needs are met, and a sip of water or a fucking grape is nothing.  He was sitting down, the bus was not moving, there were no passengers on board.  He's been driving your fucking bus for 5 years, and you decide now to behave like a fascist organisation.  The official statement was, "We cannot accept a driver not being in full control of the vehicle."  It would be nice if the 12 Lotto winners gave him some dosh and told National Express to fuck off.

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