{"id":6434,"date":"2010-03-23T10:53:06","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T08:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=6434"},"modified":"2010-03-23T10:53:06","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T08:53:06","slug":"britain-has-bigger-problems-than-the-unions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2010\/03\/23\/britain-has-bigger-problems-than-the-unions\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain has bigger problems than the unions"},"content":{"rendered":"

FT.com \/ Columnists \/ Philip Stephens - Britain has bigger problems than the unions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sound comment in the FT this morning:<\/p>\n

So it is back to the 1970s. Or so the Conservatives<\/a> say. Britain’s present bout of industrial unrest looks like a gift for David Cameron’s party. With a general election six weeks or so away, what could be better for the opposition than the chance to summon up grim memories of the winter of discontent?<\/p>\n

The analogy with the crippling strikes that saw Margaret Thatcher sweep Labour from office in 1979 is at very best far-fetched.<\/p>\n

I have my doubts, [too], as to whether floating voters will be as impressed by Mr Cameron’s rhetoric as are Conservative footsoldiers. For one thing, quite a few of them work in the public sector.<\/p>\n

Teachers, police officers and nurses do not take kindly to being branded militants. For another, most people probably view well-heeled bankers clutching their large post-crash bonuses as better candidates for their ire.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Quite so.<\/p>\n

And many - indeed most of those really in middle England<\/a> - earning about what cabin crew get - know that this recession is being managed to make them pay and let bankers off.<\/p>\n

Why should they feel any form of satisfaction at BA bashing people making a reasonable claim for reasonable rights when they know they're next in line to be abused?<\/p>\n

The Tories need to be careful. Not many can remember the winter of discontent now - you have to be in your fifties. And age has left memory of a very different seventies. Cameron's on dodgy ground. Which is good news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FT.com \/ Columnists \/ Philip Stephens – Britain has bigger problems than the unions. Sound comment in the FT this morning: So it is back
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