When TV stars can't do retake

I read with interest the two items in the Shropshire Star regarding Ricky Tomlinson and the quest to clear his name.

I worked in Telford in the early 1970s on several building sites and remember well the mayhem and intimidation that was brought by people thinking they were above the law.

Most of the employees on the sites were not well paid but we were glad to have a job. I at that time travelled a total of 66 miles to work and back each day and supported a wife, two young children and a mortgage.

During this period we building workers would go home and watch television or listen to the radio, and hear of the disruption and mayhem caused by the pickets that day, knowing that our turn for the terror would soon be upon us.

Before the dispute, noise from the canteen would be a heated discussion on the the Wolves, Baggies or Blues.

However, when the troubles were on, any raised voices could mean the arrival of the pickets, which meant possible injury, damage to our sheds or wrecking our transport.

I witnessed a dumper driver bombarded with bricks, which caused him a head injury.

Ricky Tomlinson assumes because he is now so well known that the slate can be wiped clean.

I am now a pensioner and have made mistakes in my life which I regret, but none of us can change the past, indeed it is better to learn from past failings.

So Ricky, welcome to the real world instead of television comedy, and accept you cannot do a retake.

The past we have to live with, but we all have the opportunity to improve the future of others as well as ourselves.

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