How they kept their cool at Keele OF THE JUNE 21, 1970 No. 6,604 PRICE EIGHTPENCE salaries. The chairman Lord Kindersley is a director of Rolls Royce, Layards Bank, the Royal Exchange Assurance Company, and the Bank of England, well suited to take a balanced view of the financial needs of doctors; three others out of the seven have been prospective Tory candidates. Kindersley and his crew have looked kindly on the profession, providing generously for Consultants and GPs over the years and now, at last, as they have emerged from their attitude of feudal serfdom and formed their own organisations, the Junior Hospital Doctors.
The recent furore follows the latest Review Body report. In their evidence to it (and they are the only body allowed to TENANTS LEADER DIES AFTER ATTACK ON FRIEND Councillor Doug Watts, one time Vice-Chairman of the United Tenants Action Committee, died recently of a heart-attack which was almost certainly caused by the shock of seeing his friend Alderman Bill O'Dell beaten up by a fellow-Alderman from Tower Hamlets Council.
The incident occurred on April 4th at the Burdett estate in the East End. Bill O'Dell a long-time fighter for the tenants, had resigned from the Labour Party previously, and was standing as a "Rent Rebel" Candidate in the GLC elections. He was being supported in his campaign an old-age pensioner.
The two were sitting in a car addressing a meeting through a microphone attached to a loudspeaker equipment on the car. Suddenly Alerman Rackley, who lives on the Estate, pushed through the crowd with two companions. Bill O'Dell told the Black Dwarf what followed:
"Rackley pulled me out of the car by my tie. Then he roughed me up. He wrecked my equipment, and I ended up with a black eye."
Doug Watts, who had only a week before discharged himself from hospital after a heart-attack, was no stranger to the hostility of reactionarieseven actionaries like Rackley who were in his own party. But the sight of his friend being treated in this way was evidently too much for him. Two hours after the incident he suffered another heart-attack and was taken immediately to hospital. A week later he died.
Bill O'Dell told the Black Dwarf that one aspect in particular had made him angry about the tragedy. After the funeral, Mrs Watts put a notice in the paper about her husband's death. She received mans messages of sympathy and condolence, including messages from most of the Tower Hamlets Councillors. Noticeably absent from the list, however, was Alderman
Black Dwarf July 71970 page 4