There’s an old adage that worker bees slave away all their lives and have nothing to show for it from their employer but a cheap gold watch.

RMT boss Bob Crow is still very much in employment, yet has already bagged an altogether more enviable timepiece.

At our Mandrake talking shop last night, the man dubbed “the most hated in London” gave a bombastic and credible account of his views on how the British workplace – and society – should function in order to be fair to all.

While I’m sure he has had tougher gigs, you have to admire the pluck of the Essex-born industrial action figurehead. Addressing a room full of entrepreneurs, managers and marketing types, he gave a 360 degree view of why he believes the union movement is still very much relevant today, why private healthcare and education are immoral, and why Baroness Thatcher is not his best ever mate.

And a stern rebuke of political parties and the forthcoming election (“you can’t get a fag paper between ‘em), which was difficult to argue with. At a time when party politics continues to appear pretty bland to the electorate, the RMT’s views at least stand out from the crowd. Not that Crow has his eyes on a move into Westminster anytime soon.

After a barrage of heated questions about taxpayer burdens and the morals of pension debts, I thought I’d ask him a lighter question, a bit more gossip mag than weekend supplement. So I enquired what his most extravagant purchase had been.

After all the earlier bluster, he stopped, looked a little sheepish and appeared to blush. A £2,800 Rolex, he then said, with deliberate fervour.

At least some things are likely to run on time.