A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
IWAS glad to see that Mr. Philpot, a young radiator welder, won the action /in which he sought reinstatement . in the Birmingham and Midland Sheet Metal Workers' Society. Sir Hartley Shawcross, who appeared for the society, criticised as inaccurate newspaper reports alleging that Philpot had been expelled for working too hard, and said that the £2 of which he had been mulcted was not a fine but a contribution (of 40 per cent.) towards an enquiry into his case. The plaintiff contended that he had been told it was a fine, imposed because he was earning too much money. He tried to raise the matter first at the works meeting and then, as the rules prescribed, with the executive council of the union. Neither granted him a hearing, and he was sacked by his employer as a result of union intervention. Thereafter he made two attempts to state his case to the general council of the union; he was not allowed to speak on either occasion. His counsel said that Philpot believed himself to be as good a trades unionist as those who refused to hear him. I don't know what the definition of a good trades unionist is, but it sounds to me as if the Birmingham and Midland Sheet Metal Workers' Society is a somewhat illiberal body of men.
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