26/12/2012 BBC London News


26/12/2012

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it for now. There'll be more from the Newsroom at 10:00pm. Stay with

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us on BBC One, it's time for the Good evening from BBC London News.

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I'm Alice Bhandhukravi. Hundreds of tube workers have gone on strike in

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a long-running row over Bank Holiday pay. Transport for London

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says there's been significant disruption to services with parts

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of the network suspended. Sonja Jessup has this report. Not what

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shoppers at Bond Street wanted to hear. Some of the tube was running,

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but with a reduced service. Surprising. It's closed. Terrible

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trying to get home, because the bus will be so full of people. Still,

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never underestimate the determination of a West End sales

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shopper. Some braved the roads, with no congestion charge and free

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parking. Others made the most of extra buses. But some, like Matt,

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who had already had his Arsenal game postponed because of the

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strike, were fed up. It's selfish. We have to get up to a bus and wait

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for 40 minutes and then the tube. haven't had a pay rise for two

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years and I haven't gone on strike. This was the third Boxing Day

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strike in as many years. ASLEF wants extra pay and conditions for

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working the bank holiday. Transport bosses say their pay already takes

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that into account. Drivers earn �47,000 a year. They are well paid

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for a professional job. I can't pay for that twice. ASLEF says since

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the deal was done in the 1990s things have changed. More people

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use trains on Boxing Day and the ability for people who work those

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trains to have a proportion of them or reasonable proportional times

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off doesn't exist. Further action is planned for 18th January and

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25th. By then, many more Londoners will be back at work. For commuters,

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it could be a miserable start to 2013. 50 years ago the big freeze

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brought chaos to the capital's streets. Four inches of snow

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arrived on Boxing Day and Arctic winds from Siberia soon followed.

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The result was one of the harshest winters Londoners have ever faced.

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Karl Mercer looks back. Now it's Siberia. Britain is snowed to a

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standstill. Indeed it was, for two months. The country froze, battered

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by blizzards and snow drifts that had started as simple festive fun,

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but the fun soon dropped out. As the freeze went on, transport

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started hitting problems. Milk bottles were lost in the drifts.

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You just couldn't get a decent root vegetable at a fair price. Down

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here in the market prices for vegetables seem to be up by at

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least 30%. You can't get a Swede for love nor money. Can I interrupt

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you. Are the prices up? Yes, sir. Our prices are up according to the

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transport and difficulties in getting in and us pulling our guts

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out to get it to the public. There was a young man called Fish,

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Michael Fish. A new boy at the Met Office in Gatwick, starting his

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career in the freeze of the century. Started work on 5th November 1962

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and the severe weather started shortly after on Boxing Day and

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went through into 1963. I was lucky, because for the first and only time

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in my career, because I was only an office boy making tea, I didn't

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have to work over Christmas and the new year. In the middle it started

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snowing and in the early hours we started to try to get home and

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drove. We had to abandon the car after a short distance and walk the

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rest of the way on foot. When we came back the next morning to pick

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the car up, we couldn't find it. It was completely buried. The wind was

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so cold that the sea froze on the Essex coast. All of which made it

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very exciting for the weathermen. Nothing more boring than a dry,

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sunny day. Oh, yes, blizzards, chaos and confusion, gorgeous, yeah.

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But at least we have been through the big freeze. Here's a look at

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the weather now with Georgina the weather now with Georgina

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Burnett. More wet weather on the way. In the morning, we have a band

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of heavy rain moving in. Should be dry in the afternoon, but remaining

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cloudy, with a bit of a breeze to temper mild temperatures. Then the

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rest of the week is looking quite unsettled. Until we get to Sunday,

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where we have a day of sunshine and scattered showers, but the

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