Protestors have blocked the gates to BAE Systems shipyard in Govan in an effort to “shut down sites which produce components for the F-35 fighter jet”.

The shipyard doesn’t produce parts for fighter jets, though.

Drone imagery recently showed the progress of a massive new ‘frigate factory’ in Glasgow. The massive facility at Govan represents a huge boost in capability for UK naval shipbuilding.

New frigate factory build progress captured by drone

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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100 COMMENTS

  2. Unbelievable really.

    Shows how detached from reality these people are.

    Blockading a shipyard that produces steel hulls with engines – not even the fitout site that adds the bits that go bang
..

      • Four years to build a patrol ship? How in earth are they getting frigates? Don’t even think about the type (3 tendering

      • Andy the people protesting are nothing to do with the BAe Shipbuilding Unions. Use your eyes, do any of them look like Welders or Metal Workers ? And besides which they actually know that they are building T26 Frigates for the RN and nothing to do with Israel.
        Today these Muppets got their 15 minutes of fame by “blocking the front gate”. The actual workers drive to work and park onsite via different gates, they were quite happily working.

        • Unfortunately my MK1 human eyeball isn’t as good as it was but one of them looks like a forklift driver I used to know

  3. Workers for Palestine blocking fellow workers from working. Know doubt the same unionists that called for more investment in the industry.

    • No trust me they are usually unemployable in any manufacturing industry. Not Trades Unionists just semi professional “activists”.
      Next week they will glued to a Bridge or something.

          • Right the headline about a 1000 Trades Unionists was a quote from “Workers for a free Palestine” who along with Pro Palestinians carried out the protest. No TU members from BAe or the workforce were involved as they entered by alternative entrances. The Glasgow Times interviewed 3 of the “workers”, consisting of A Carer, Youth Worker and a Visual Artist !
            Naff all to do with people building the ships nor their TU’s.

            Daft as it may sound to you but today BAe announced they were recruiting 300 new Apprentices for BAe in Glasgow, which pretty well sums reality up.
            I am a born and bred Scot, a retired engineer who worked in the Defence Industry in Derby since doing my apprenticeship.
            Never met anyone in our TU’s who supported this sort of dross.
            Then again we did all have to be positively vetted before even getting an interview.

            So quite why you want to shut down the British ship building industry is a mystery to me.
            Unless of course you are 


comrade X

  4. Doctor’s ,Nurses ,Bus driver’s Trains drives Teachers .Honestly what’s going on with this country of ours 🙄 🇬🇧

      • The train drivers are better off that almost everyone else already.

        There was a train driver, in the Telegraph, asking how to invest his ÂŁ90k per year. Oddly comments were not switched on – I wonder why – I think he might have had some choice advice!

        • yes i saw that – unbelievable isn’t it Purely money grabbing tw@ts.
          I knew a Rail Union Steward a few years ago ..nice guy until he started on politics and his ‘brothers’ – it was like a time warp back to the 70′- pathetic

        • As a railwayman myself, I agree with you.
          There are things that the rail companies want to do that are worth striking for. Drivers pay is not one of them.

        • ” draw your money out of the bank in ÂŁ50 notes, roll them tightly together, put a elastic band round it and shove it where the sun don’t shine”

          That would have been my comment, if I was alloy to add it SB…

        • I think that that may be lies (The supposed ‘train driver’ not you).

          I work for an agency that provides cover for posts in the rail industry. I work in the south east where wages are highest. The train drivers I know are on a basic wage of just under 40k. It is definitely possible to get to 60k with a lot of overtime; 90k I am dubious about as even possible.

          There are several overlapping issues involved in the strikes. For ASLEF, the drivers union, the main one is that they do not want overtime to be compulsory. At the moment the work contracts allow the companies to roster you in for overtime. Only extra work agreed at the last minute is voluntary.

          For several years now lots of the TOCs (Train Operating Companies) have been skimping on training new drivers to boost profits (it is expensive). Average hours and driver ages have risen as a result. That is not a combination you want in a job where you can be held criminally liable for a mistake.

          ASLEF are striking for voluntary overtime only. This would only get enough support for anyone to notice if many drivers are doing more then they want too. They are effectively striking for more training posts and lower pay.

          • An interesting perspective.

            The news is dominated by a Mr Crow who does little other than raise voters’ blood pressure – raising voters’ blood pressure = MPs post bags fill up – hardens opposition
..

      • This is not virtue signalling. This is much worse. it is me me me. It is totalitarian thinking people that do not respect others. Anti civilization.

        If this continues t will end in civil war.

    • Please don’t put nurses into your anger management list.
      A few facts for you. Yes nurses strikes but that was after 16 years of well below inflation pay rises. They settled on a 6% pay rise which was yet again very much below inflation and well below the average 8.9% private sector pay rises this year.
      So some sense of proportionality and a comparison to the wider jobs market and employment sectors please.
      The facts as outlined speak for themselves. Despite the pay rise this year most NHS staff are about 17-22% worse off now then they were in 2010

    • When people grow up with 30 years of the news telling them they are all going to die from global warming this is the result.

      The effect is compounded when the average over 50 year old Tory voter tells them they don’t give a ****, they don’t believe in science and they insist they have to cook everything on gas and drive an SUV.

  5. It is not much better at the top, ask Rishi.
    Unionists know Govan does not contribute much to the F35. More about publicity.
    If every one goes home today it will not delay the first T26!

    • They don’t deserve the T26 Work that they have. Pause building on the slipways with the threat of not restarting it again.its been done before.

  6. As usual, the enemy within. My cynical take.

    Is Palestine really their beef, or just a convenient one to protest against the West?

    • 99% conspiract theorists, rent-a-protester and gullible simpletons. 1% insidious actors. At least in the pre internet days the leaders would have to put their heads above the parapet and actually be charasmatic to whip up support. Nowadays they stay in the shadows…… probably weren’t even onsite (the weather looks pretty bad).

    • They support free Palestine under Hamas an Iranian Proxy, I’ve said before its a contradiction. None of them would last 5 minutes under Hamas rule.

      I always look at want these people don’t do, there was no where near the same level of support for Ukraine amongst the same bunch, so you do have to ask is this really about freedom. They don’t chase down Turkeys occupation of Cyprus or campaign for a free Kurdish lands.

      • The two-state solution has been on offer for a long time and could have been settled a long time ago, but this conflict is really about religious supremacy which is why Hamas gets so much support over there.

        Many people flee from religious-based persecution in the Middle East and Asia and come to the West only to start setting up their communities/enclaves that promote the very religious practices that oppressed them in the first place.

        I recently read some blogs by Israeli-Arabs (The few that accept Israel and choose it as their homeland)
        Their quality of life is so much better than the population of Gaza or those who live in West Bank camps.

        This is what life could be like if the Islamists would give up on the idea of ‘driving out all the Jews’ and accepting the two-state solution and peaceful co-existence.

    • There are fads for these things. When I was a student my Uni put on buses ship students to “support the miners”. Since I was one of the very few students from a working class background, I had strong reason to think that I was the only one with any real connections (my dad was on strike). It just didn’t feel right to see all these priviliged ones whose parents were (in some cases) minor aristocracy. Few wanted to help by giving money to such as my family (which would have been most useful) most just wanted to be seen with the proles.
      I think that it is the same today.

    • Just leave it at protest. As that’s all they do, there are actually people who do this for a living it doesn’t matter the cause it’s against “the system’ so it can be “CND”, “Just stop” etc etc etc.
      If you know anyone who deals with them (Met, MPD or SB) they will happily tell you that the same faces are there agitating all the time.

    • Just a reflection of the folly of giving orders to them they’re pathetic in the production table and a national disgrace the UK MUST GET WARSHIPS BUILT ABROAD, and sod the Clyde l.

      • Andy, this is tiny fringe, that doesn’t warrant building vessels elsewhere. Warships in the UK are built in Scotland.

  8. These people should go to Gaza and do their protest where they will be readily kidnapped by Hamas. Maybe a stint of living under Sharia law might bring them to their senses.

  10. Oh please don’t make me laugh ! When ever I see a sign with “Workers for
” or “Trade Unionists for” I just laugh at them.
    I guarantee that not one of them is a Worker nor a Member of an Industrial Trades Union as most of them are unemployable đŸ€Ł
    It’s a bit like the folks you see selling “Socialist Worker” ask one what they do for a living and it’s Student, post grad or media consultant, in fact anything other than actually being a hands on Worker.
    I am willing to bet that at knocking off time, they will have vanished because they really couldn’t cope with the reaction of the actual workforce.
    Seen it here in Derby on Raynesway when CND turned up to protest. It’s really the most entertaining thing to watch.
    They arrive at 9am with the press already waiting for them, vanish over lunch time (go to pub for a Solidarity / strategy meeting or 2), then go home on the mini bus about 3pm.
    Which is probably a good thing because the workforce are the ones wearing safety shoes. I shouldn’t say this but knocking off time is the fastest some of them ever move, and God help anyone who gets in the way, And if you annoy them they don’t use long words đŸ„Ž

    I was a proud member of the AUEW (pre Unite) for decades and then Prospect both were good practical Trades Unions who spent most of their time sorting issues out and not talking political B@LL@(K$.

  11. If you ever meet someone who is either going on about Palestine or is ranting on about Israel. Don’t try arguing with them, just gently ask them a simple question “what do you think about the Hamas Charter ?”then listen to the sound of silence.
    Though I will say Israel needs to do something about its loony fringe in the West Bank and Netanyahu.

  12. Stupid thing is their is a factory in Edinburgh (Leanardo) that actually does produce components for F35.

    The stupidity of shutting down a Glasgow ship yard is beyond me.

  13. I suspect that most of those in attendance are also in receipt of government handouts, and don’t realise that the UK defence industry, along with financial institutions is a major tax contributor to fund them.
    i would temporarily detain all of them. Check validity to be in the UK, check of in receipt of benefits due to illness, care issues etc, and then act accordingly.

  14. I’m confused. I thought unions were for workers to have a way of lots of employees one voice for work related issues and to help employees during work related matters.
    What’s a Union doing talking about this stuff?
    Have I got what a Union is completely wrong?

  15. Madness, it’s a pity the protestors aren’t in Ukraine or Gaza. If they were they might realize what keeps them safe. It is not the aircraft or manufacturer that kill people it is the person who orders the use. I recommend they get wet outside the Israeli embassy or better still be productive and go to work and stop claiming benefits or living off parents.

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