Bob's crowing just fuels Cameron's lies on Labour.

Byline: Paul Routledge

BATTLING Bob Crow, the railwaymen's leader, deserves some kind of medal for raising the profile of unions and fighting for his members. The Distinguished Stroppy Cross, perhaps.

But he is wrong, wrong, wrong, to claim that "Labour have not done anything for us," as he did in an interview.

It simply isn't true. What about the National Minimum Wage, greater rights at work, statutory recognition for unions, the curbs on gangmaster employers and the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs in public services? I could go on. In fact, I think I will. What about the untold billions that have been invested in the NHS and schools, the working family tax credits, the pensioners' credits and winter fuel allowance and the over-60s free national bus pass? The list is not endless, but it is long. None of these improvements in our way of life would have happened if the Tories were still in power, with Michael Portillo in No.10.

The health service would be a privatised nightmare, the schools run down, leaking and decrepit. Nothing like half our young people would be going to university.

So, although the present condition is not marvellous (the understatement of the week), it isn't all doom and gloom.

If you lift a phrase out of the Pythons' Life Of Brian, and ask, "What did Labour ever do for us?" you can make a strong defence of the last 11 years.

I did my best to do that at a fundraising dinner in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, last week, where former dockworker Ivan Henderson is fighting to win back a seat lost to the loathsome Tory Douglas Carswell in 2005.

The event was a success, with hundreds of pounds raised and just as important, a real lift in morale. Blimey, one of my books, The Bumper Book Of British Lefties, was auctioned for pounds 50! I didn't get much more than that for writing the damn thing.

The 50 or so loyal folk who attended that night don't want to hear stuff like 'Labour haven't done anything for us'. They know it's either a Tory lie, or Bob crowing again.

If he doesn't realise that he is to David Cameron what Arthur Scargill was to Maggie Thatcher - top target in the labour movement - he's not as clever as he thinks he is.

The Tories will go for him big time from day one if they ever get back into power. Boris Johnson is already making noises about a strike ban on the London Underground. The next step would be to make key rail routes 'essential services' and outlaw industrial action, on pain of fines, sequestration and conceivably prison.

Trashing Labour may be good sport for Battling Bob, but it gives aid and comfort to the Conservative enemy. It won't seem like much fun for his members if they have to deal with the vengeful reality of Cameron & Co in control.