Capitulate to unions, and you undermine democracy
As a five-year-old, I adored it. The anticipation was electric. Strike Day meant I had a whole, uninterrupted day with my mother. Just the two of us. It was bliss: no school! But of course, for my parents, it was a different story. It was a burden. My mother would have to call in absent from work, adjust her commitments, rearrange the day.
Eventually, my parents, like many working-class families trying to climb, had enough. They opted to send me to an independent school. At least there, the calendar didn't tremble with every union whim. Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, these disturbances came to an end. The grip of the unions was broken. Britain felt governable again.
We thought the era of union rule had passed into history. But Strike Day has returned. Since July 2024, several hundred thousand working days have been lost to strike action. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, 160,000 working days disappeared into the black hole of industrial action. Since the peak in late 2022, over 1.6 million working days have been lost. Unsurprisingly, public sector productivity has plunged – now 4.2 per cent below pre-Covid levels.
The BMA – a union which now more closely resembles a political party than a medical association – recently called a five-day strike because its demand for a pay rise of over 20 per cent wasn't met. That strike saw around 50,000 resident doctors walk out, resulting in thousands of cancelled procedures. These are not Dickensian workers demanding hot meals and clean conditions. These are qualified professionals, whose average salary is between £47-55,000 per year. But the point isn't just about pay. It's about power. And they know they have it.
And it's not just the doctors. Nurses are threatening a winter strike. Civil servants have walked out in the last year. Train drivers, sixth-form teachers, university staff – all have joined the chorus of disruption. Britain is being quietly but systematically brought to its knees by the same forces we thought had been vanquished a generation ago.
And what has the Government done? Capitulated. Time and again. Ministers shuffle to the negotiating table like supplicants, pen in hand, ready to sign the next cheque. Each time, they hope the gesture will end the militancy. It never does. Appeasement, as history teaches us, only whets the appetite.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has learnt the hard way: this isn't a rational negotiation – it's a hostage situation. And the Government is tied to the chair.
The truth is that Labour is not merely negotiating with the unions – they are the unions. Or rather, the unions are them. Almost every Cabinet Minister owes their ascent to union patronage. The party machine is powered by union money, union operatives, union ideology. The very people meant to hold the line against disruptive action are, in fact, the authors of it. And the consequences are now being laid bare.
Consider the Employment Rights Bill – Labour's legislative love letter to the unions. It promises to repeal the Tory anti-strike laws of 2016 and 2023, lower the thresholds for industrial action, and tilt the field further toward collective bargaining. This is an open invitation for more disruption.
Once again, we find ourselves ruled not by Parliament, but by the backroom deal. Beer and sandwiches are back. But this time, they're accompanied by collapsing productivity, eroded business confidence, and the creeping sclerosis of the state.
Strike Day has become a national curse. And unless we find the courage once more to challenge the vested interests that now run Britain by proxy, it will become a permanent fixture of our national life – another symbol of decline in a country too frightened to govern itself.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
9 minutes ago
- The Independent
Greenpeace targets Starmer and Lammy over Gaza with ‘wanted' posters
Greenpeace activists plastered Westminster tube station in London with anti-Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy stickers and 'Wanted' posters on Saturday. The protest accused the prime minister and the foreign secretary of 'fuelling genocide' in Gaza. Greenpeace UK called on the government to stop selling weapons to Israel. The action follows Sir Keir's statement that the UK will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire and takes steps towards long-term peace. Watch the video in full above.
Telegraph
9 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Richard Tice: Sack peer who smeared me in Manchester Airport police row
Richard Tice has demanded that a peer who suggested that he 'applauded' police brutality be sacked from her role advising ministers on the definition of Islamophobia. Baroness Shaista Gohir condemned the response of Reform UK's deputy leader to footage of the Manchester Airport attack which went viral last summer. The chief executive of Muslim Women's Network UK (MWNUK) appeared to suggest Mr Tice's comments in support of the police response would ' fuel further racism and Islamophobia '. Lady Gohir has since been appointed to the working group on Anti-Muslim Hatred, working to define Islamophobia for the Government. Ministers have faced criticism over the process of drawing up the definition, which has sparked concerns that the current proposals could have a 'chilling effect' on free speech. Mr Tice has now written to the chairman of the group to say her response to his remarks 'raises serious concerns' about her role, as well as the prospect of introducing a legal definition of Islamophobia. He has also sent a letter to the Law Commission, of which Lady Gohir is a non-executive director. The commission has said it would 'consider the letter from Mr Tice carefully'. Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, was convicted last week of punching Pc Lydia Ward in the face, causing a broken nose, and also of assaulting Pc Ellie Cook. The assault happened on July 23 last year, when Amaaz and his brother, both from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, went to the airport to collect their mother. A fellow passenger who had been on the same flight reported being headbutted in the face by Amaaz during an altercation in a branch of Starbucks in the airport's Terminal 2. When three Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers approached Amaaz to arrest him in connection with the incident, he lashed out before his brother allegedly intervened. A video of the altercation between the brothers and the police appeared to show Pc Zachary Marsden kicking and stamping on Amaaz during his arrest. He and another officer, who are under investigation over the way Amaaz was detained, face possible gross misconduct charges over the use of force and could be sacked if found guilty. When partial footage of the incident first emerged on social media, Mr Tice told TalkTV: 'Police officers do not use tasers unless they are genuinely concerned for the safety of the public and themselves. This is not distressing; this is reassuring.' Lady Gohir, in her capacity as head of MWNUK, said in a statement last July: 'What is further concerning is that on social media many have praised the police response, including Richard Tice MP of the Reform Party, who described it as 'reassuring'. 'When police brutality is applauded by influential public figures, it is likely to fuel further racism and Islamophobia.' Writing to Dominic Grieve, the chairman of the working group on Anti-Muslim Hatred, Mr Tice said: 'Following the Manchester Airport incident in July last year, I immediately questioned the initial narrative presented in the partial video that was released, noting the use of tasers by the police. 'I publicly defended the actions of the officers. Two days later, Baroness Gohir issued an aggressive press statement accusing the police of brutality, and accusing me of supporting such brutality and of fuelling racism and Islamophobia'. He added: 'Had a law on Islamophobia been in place at the time, it is entirely plausible that I could have been prosecuted, convicted and removed from my position as a Member of Parliament based on entirely false and erroneous accusations. 'Concerns about Baroness Gohir's credibility' 'This highlights not only the dangers of introducing an Islamophobia blasphemy law, but also raises serious concerns about Baroness Gohir's credibility and suitability to serve on your working group'. Concerns have been raised by opposition MPs to the process by which the Government is working to define Islamophobia. Claire Coutinho, the shadow equalities minister, claimed that the way in which it was being drawn up was insufficiently open and those working on it were 'activists with extreme views on how to define Islamophobia'. The communities department, headed by Angela Rayner, has insisted that the group is independent and will provide 'evidence-based advice' to ministers. Mr Tice demanded an apology from Lady Gohir in the wake of the verdicts last week, but Lady Gohir said: 'My remarks were grounded in principles of human rights and accountability – not in any defence of criminal behaviour. 'Given longstanding concerns about the disproportionate use of force against ethnic minorities, it is both appropriate and necessary to scrutinise police conduct, especially when a person is already restrained and poses no ongoing threat.' She also accused Mr Tice of spreading 'misinformation' after he accused her of having 'defended' Amaaz. MWNUK said it welcomed a guilty verdict in Amaaz's case, and that 'those who commit violent offences must be held accountable and face appropriate legal consequences'. A spokesman for the Law Commission said: 'We will consider the letter from Mr Tice carefully and will respond in due course.'
The Guardian
9 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Right to buy in England ‘fuelled housing crisis and cost taxpayers £200bn'
Margaret Thatcher's right-to-buy scheme has cost UK taxpayers almost £200bn, according to a report into the policy's contribution to Britain's housing crisis. In its report into the sale of millions of council homes to their tenants at steep discounts since 1980, the Common Wealth thinktank said the policy had fuelled vast shortages in social housing and turbocharged inequality. Describing it as one of the 'largest giveaways in UK history', it said the sale of 1.9m council homes in England had contributed to a situation where one in six private tenants in England now rents a former local authority home. Local authority tenants have been able to buy their homes since 1936, but changes made under the first Thatcher government in 1980 triggered a boom in sales at steep discounts to market value. Calculating the 'opportunity cost' of the sales, Common Wealth said the former council homes were now worth an estimated £430bn after taking account of inflation and the surge in property prices since 1980. Of this sum, the thinktank said £194bn represented the value that was effectively given away when the homes were sold at a discount. Between the years 1980-81 and 2023-24, the discount averaged 43% on the prevailing market price. The report comes as Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, pushes to tackle Britain's housing crisis by making sweeping changes to right to buy, including making it harder for tenants in England to buy their council home. Under the planned changes, eligibility for the scheme will be tightened. This will include extending the minimum time a council tenant must live in their home from three to 10 years before they can buy it at a discount. Right to buy was launched by Thatcher as a pitch to older working-class voters to build a 'property-owning democracy'. Although it helped millions of families into home ownership, it also dramatically depleted Britain's affordable housing stock as the homes were not replaced. After rising for decades, home ownership rates have fallen since 2004, and have collapsed among young adults. From a peak of more than half of 25- to 34-year-olds owning their own home in 1990, less than a quarter of young adults are now property owners,leading to a boom in private renting and many choosing to live with parents. After decades of sharply rising property prices, Common Wealth said, local authorities have lost the use of housing assets that could have either been sold at higher market values or used for social housing. Chris Hayes, the thinktank's chief economist, said: 'The severe financial straits facing councils should be seen in the context of a decades-long assault on local government, in which right to buy was a central pillar, denying councils discretion over how best to use assets that they had built. 'Now those assets are in dire shortage and councils still bear the heightened cost of seeing people through the housing crisis.' Many of the properties are now rented out, often to tenants on housing benefit at a cost to local authorities of more than £20bn year, while councils have lacked funding to replace the homes sold. The leftwing thinktank, which has links to senior Labour cabinet figures, said local government has been in 'net disinvestment' in every year but one since 1988-89 – meaning it sells more assets than it builds. A report earlier this year by the Centre for Cities found that returning the number of affordable homes back to 2010 levels would cost the government £50bn. Labour has pledged a 'social rent revolution', allocating £39bn of social and affordable homes over the next 10 years, alongside slashing planning rules to support private sector housebuilding. However, critics have warned that the government could struggle to hit its target to build 1.5m new homes in total. Kwajo Tweneboa, a social housing campaigner, said right to buy had 'gutted council housing and transferred public wealth into private hands'. 'We're in a housing emergency. Millions stuck on waiting lists. Tens of thousands living in temporary accommodation that's unfit and unsafe. All while homes that were once publicly owned are now profit-generating assets for private landlords,' he said.
