Paleolithic politics

I have watched the grandstanding from the TUC over the past few days with a sense of both sadness and deja vu.

I fully understand the right of individuals to petition their employers for improvements in circumstance and pay. When, however, Bob Crow can stand at the lectern and call for a campaign of 'civil disobedience' in the face of cuts that all Parties agreed were necessary to differing degrees, and garner support from the floor, then something is deeply wrong.

Yesterday, Mark Serwotka - head of the PCS Union - called for not only a moratorium on public sector job cuts, but even an increase in public sector funding to lift us out of recession. Failing to see that it will be the private sector - in particular small/medium enterprise within this sector - that will most likely provide the growth we so need, misses the point entirely and risks a further decline into deficit and debt.

The most glaring hole in the Unionist argument has been posed very effectively by City Unslicker - what would they do instead? In the face of almost unilateral agreement on the necessity of spending cuts - Labour's plan was to halve the deficit within four years - how would they ensure their aims?

The Unions obviously feel that the time has come to show their hand. It remains to be seen whether the result is similar to that of 1974, where industrial action had the result of bringing down the Government, or of the early 1980s, where the Unions' power was crushed by a government organised and determined enough to face them down.