SO Tom Bewick thinks that the Army should be brought in to drive Southern Rail trains during the strikes.

I would suggest that rather than putting forward gimmicks such as this, he would be better off getting on the phone to his comrades who run the RMT and Aslef and telling them about the dreadful effect that their ‘industrial action’ is having on residents, businesses, commuters, tourists, students, patients and countless other people.

Cllr Bewick says that this sorry saga can’t go on. I completely agree. Indeed, it should never have started in the first place. This clearly has nothing to do with passenger safety.

The independent Office of Rail and Road has declared driver only operation is safe and already works on Thameslink services.

The unions also know full well that no staff are being made redundant or having their pay reduced.

Put simply, this is a political campaign by the unions to try and prevent the introduction of new technologies and ways of working which will reduce their power and influence.

They should be forced to hold another ballot to see if members still support the totally intransigent stance being taken by their leaders. I strongly suspect that they, along with a growing majority of the public, don’t.

In the meantime, at the next council meeting I shall be asking Warren Morgan, why he, along with his national party leader, refuse to condemn this action. Could it be anything to do with the £100,000 that Labour receives from ASLEF? 

By continuing to bury their heads in the sand they are showing exactly where their loyalties lie, and how out of touch they are with the values of ordinary working people.

Conservative Geoffrey Theobald is leader of the opposition on Brighton and Hove City Council