TUC: Rearranging The Deckchairs?

I promised on Stroppy's open thread a few days back to do a wee post on Brendan Barber and his deckchairs. I thought it a story of such patheticness that it warranted blogging.

There I was watching BBC News 24 on the day before TUC Congress started, when the Beeb's cameras popped up on Brighton beach to show Brother Barber embracing a row of deckchairs, upon each of which rested a large letter, spelling out 'FAIR TAX'. Immediately, the BBC reporter said, "The TUC wants the government to tax the rich".

And therein lies the patheticness. The BBC had to spell out what the TUC's vague, motherhood-and-apple-pie slogan actually meant. Why on earth could Barber's deckchairs not have spelled out 'TAX THE RICH'?! Could they not afford the extra three letters, having blown the budget on Congress hospitality? Or did they not want to upset the, erm, rich?! Or not put a demand on the Labour government that was at all specific or put them under any kind of meaningful pressure?

Anyways, the deckchair 'photo-opportunity' seems to have left no lasting impression, as I have failed to find an image of it on the world-wide web - hence the rather more ordinary deckchairs atop this post. But Google 'deckchairs' and 'Barber' and you'll find that the links to TUC pages about the deckchair episode have been mysteriously replaced by other stuff.