The Government may be looking ahead to another winter of mild disruption, lengthening waiting lists, and protracted negotiations. Nonetheless, the prognosis is not half as gloomy as this time last year.
MPs have spied a winning row over the RMT’s Christmas strike, but the broader issue of public sector unrest is not going away.
The case for restraint isn’t going to be popular, but we’ll all pay if the Government bows to the ‘summer of discontent’.
The Transport Secretary, an early backer of Johnson for the leadership, has become one of the Government’s most trusted media performers
At PMQs, he demanded the Government meet with the RMT. But what would the current Shadow Cabinet do in such a meeting?
The public will react very badly if they come to see the strikes as essentially political, but the Conservatives won’t want to appear unable to govern.
Voters aren’t used to a world of rising prices and interest rates, and their hearts and minds are up for grabs.
As in the 1970s, the looming “summer of discontent” from the trade unions may ruin any hope the Government has of avoiding a wage-price spiral.
He plans to bring in a Fat Controller – as he seeks to balance the public interest with private sector freedom. This is the second piece in our rail mini-series.
Corbyn wants to “repeal anti-trade union legislation” to make strikes easier. The Conservatives have pledged to give commuters greater protection.
The Transport Secretary’s announcement this week about price indices sounded timid and technocratic.
The shop selling “Really British” products should flog London to Brighton season tickets: nothing gets more Really British than the grinding misery of that journey.
If those striking drivers and guards don’t want to sign new contracts, that is their decision, and if they don’t, they must be shown the door.
The waves of strikes we are seeing punish patients, children, and commuters. Acceding to the inflated pay demands of the unions would punish us all by making our inflation problem worse.