Tories must look to Thatcher and take on hard-Left unions

THIS time next week, Britain may well be in chaos. A series of strikes by rail union RMT threatens to cripple the railways for a week, with profound knock-on effects for the country that go far beyond any personal inconvenience from not being able to travel by train.

- Stephen Pollard

Our supply chain involves a mix of lorries and railways, and if one part of that chain is unable to move, the edifice can easily come crashing down. We saw recently how green protesters could destroy the distribution of petrol by blocking just a few roads near refineries. Next week would be much worse and will add to British travellers’ woes in understaffed airports and overpriced petrol stations in the first summer free from Covid restrictions for two years.

For anyone of a certain age, the planned strikes are all too reminiscent of the last time we had major industrial unrest, the 1970s. That unrest reached its nadir in the winter of 1978-79, the so-called Winter of Discontent. Britain was brought to its knees by strikes. Union power was out of control – as it had been for many years.

NINE years earlier, the then Labour government had attempted to deal with the issue with a White Paper, In Place of Strife. Ironically, the unions were so powerful that they defeated Barbara Castle, the Labour minister for employment who had championed reform.