DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Channel Thatcher in your union fight, PM
DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Channel Thatcher in your union fight, PM
It had been dubbed ‘Walkout Wednesday’ and, for an increasingly exasperated public, yesterday lived up to the depressing name.
On the worst day of industrial unrest for many years, the hard-Left trade unions brought the country to a near-standstill.
Up to half a million state sector workers went on strike, including teachers and train drivers. Even civil servants put down their paper clips – if anyone actually noticed.
Some nine in ten schools closed their gates to all or some pupils, dealing further harm to countless children who had already missed so much education during Covid.
Many parents were obliged to take time off work – often unpaid – for lack of childcare. And with railways paralysed, city centres resembled ghost towns – inflicting major damage on shops, pubs and restaurants.
DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Channel Margaret Thatcher in your union fight, Prime Minister
Sir Keir Starmer could, of course, have used such widespread disruption and misery as a stick with which to beat the Government. But when he got a golden opportunity at Prime Minister’s Questions, he refused.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out why. Labour is, and always has been, in thrall to the unions – ideologically and financially.
With his party reliant on union funds, Sir Keir will always side with the militants, irrespective of the mayhem they wreak.
Mick Lynch and Co may tell us that the unions are the authentic voice of the working class. But if there was ever a grain of truth in this, there’s none whatsoever now.
Indeed, this once honourable movement has become increasingly the mouthpiece of a self-serving faction of troublemakers in the feather-bedded public sector.
Their enemies are now the great mass of ordinary people, whom they hold to ransom by bringing vital services to a halt.
Do they ever give a second thought, these gimcrack radicals, to those whose businesses they will destroy? Or the children whose education they will ruin? Or those whose health they’ll jeopardise – perhaps fatally?
Most people understand that, with our finances destroyed by Covid and the war in Ukraine, the unions’ demands are unrealistic. We all have to tighten our belts accordingly.
It had been dubbed ‘Walkout Wednesday’ and, for an increasingly exasperated public, yesterday lived up to the depressing name
If ministers caved in, the bill would have to be paid via punishing tax rises, eye-watering borrowing or cuts to services.
On top of that, ruinous pay rises would embolden union extremism and risk embedding a 1970s-style inflationary spiral.
So the Government must hold firm. To capitulate, even with public services facing unprecedented disruption, would be an unmitigated disaster for the economy.
Mr Sunak is right to push legislation through Parliament which will guarantee a minimum level in crucial public services and make it easier to keep schools open.
That would show the public he is on their side. In the face of union intransigence, he must take inspiration from Margaret Thatcher – and bring them the smack of firm government.
Be bold on ECHR
When is Mr Sunak going to deliver on his promise to stop small boats bringing migrants across the Channel?
Despite signing agreements with France to try to halt the influx, we still have thousands of people entering Britain unlawfully.
If European judges block the Rwanda plan, the PM must consider withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights, which illegal migrants exploit to stay here.
Yes, the liberal Left will howl with outrage. But unless he acts boldly to control our borders, the Tories will pay a heavy price.
- If London mayor Sadiq Khan really cares about the cost of living crisis, why doesn’t he scrap the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone to the capital’s outer borders? By imposing a £12.50-a-day charge, he is condemning countless motorists – including small traders and school-run mums – to debt or job loss. But the truth is, he’s not interested in his citizens’ hardship – just virtue-signalling to the green elite.
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