COACH AND HORSES BOOK

I will regularly post excerpts from my upcoming book about my story inside the National Ambulance Dispute of 1989/1990 which occurred 20 years ago this week. I have written my story in “real time” 20 years on and spent quite some time on research. It has dual purpose, both telling my story and chronicles the dispute.
I am so lucky to have as introduction an interview with Roger Poole by award winning journalist Barrie Clement former Industrial Editor of the Independent. This is the precis……
“Joseph Conaghan now an elected member of the NHS Staff Council and Paramedic tells his story as a NUPE rep within the back-drop of the local and national events that became the National Ambulance Dispute in 1989/1990. The story takes us from October 1989 when the dispute over pay and recognition escalated to the point where Joseph along with thousands of his colleagues were locked out from stations and vehicles unable to attend to 999 calls due to a High Court Injunction that was served on them whilst the Police and the Army were responding to the emergencies. There is a full account of the bucket collections, the biggest petition in history with over four and a half million signatories and the march and rally in London where over 75,000 Ambulance staff their families and supporters gathered to consolidate their overwhelming support for the locked out or suspended Ambulance Workers. With exclusive extracts from the key parliamentary debates plus explanations of the history of Ambulance qualifications, the whole ”glorified taxi driver” insult and the settlement that created the shape of the Service that we see today, this is an essential read for anyone who wants to remember the most overwhelming episode in the history of the Service which happened exactly 20 years ago.” Buy the book on Amazon, Blackwells bookshop or by clicking the link on the right or visiting the website
www.coachandhorses.info
ISBN 978-0-9565482-0-7
Price £4.99