BLUEMOMENT

With the current debate, I thought one or two may be interested in this comment from "Syren" in the Govan Press:

• I sometimes wonder if conditions of work and the class of men who follow it at the Graving Docks are the same to-day as say thirty-five years ago. Are the dockers still as thirsty, and do they still frequent the “Red Lamp” and the “Glue Pot” with the same regularity? I noticed, when passing on the top of a car recently, that the “Glue Pot” had changed hands, and one can only hope that the old hard-drinking customs of a hard-drinking period have gone for good. The
  
  GREATEST TEMPERENCE REFORMER
  
  of the age was Mr Lloyd George, who weakened the strength and increased the price of alcohol as a beverage, and certainly to-day our younger generation is not finding its source of pleasure and entertainment in the public house. This, I think we shall all admit, is good, and while we shed an odd tear for the poor publican, we also remember that “every dog has its day,” and in the days when there was as much whisky consumed on a Saturday night as would float a cruiser the day of the publican was at its height. If he did not make a fortune then he must have been slack indeed.
  
  The system of casual work at the Graving Docks was inevitable, and could only be followed by casual workers. Thus a carpenter or a red-leader might be employed a few hours each day by different firms, docking and painting vessels, which moved in and out with the tides. This of course meant that they were paid off each job each day, and in these days of State Insurance, if the same casual conditions prevail, it must mean greatly increased work for the wages staff. I am, however, out of that line now, and do not wish to return to it, but many a night I had to turn out to the docks in the old time with a bag of money to pay off the casual workers, or “sub” those who were retained. The dockers of these days lived a hard life, and the casual conditions were contributory to their ruin.
  
  Extract from the Govan Press, Friday 28th February, 1930