STRIKES, strikes and more strikes.
If you were hoping for a return to normality in the New Year, don’t hold your breath.
As strikes roll on this week and continue to frustrate large swathes of the country, Rishi Sunak’s government is set to unveil a “minimum service level” legislation in key industries to curb the disastrous effects of industrial action.
The strikes are indeed a disaster. In December, the rail strikes cost the UK’s hospitality sector alone an estimated £1.5billion, according to trade body UKHospitality.
As for the rest of the economy? The damage must be even worse.
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For any Government, ongoing strikes are a headache.
But for the Tories in particular, who saw three Prime Ministers in the last Parliament, four different Chancellors in just over three months and a PM who was outlived by a lettuce, the strikes are a nightmare.
This chaos cannot be allowed to continue.
It is for this reason Rishi hopes enforcing minimum service levels in six sectors, including the health service, rail, education, fire, and border security, will keep the country from crumbling.
If this legislation passes, strikes will be deemed illegal if unions refuse to provide the agreed minimum level.
It would also allow employers to sue unions, and for union members who refused to work under the minimum service requirement to be dismissed.
The usual suspects are enraged. Many on the left have already begun accusing the Government of violating human rights.
Aslef boss Mick Whelan went as far as saying such legislation could lead to “longer strife and a different form of action”.
As with most things in politics, this certainly won’t go down without a fight.
Nonetheless, I agree with Rishi. I have openly supported people’s right to strike.
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With the current cost-of-living crisis, who could blame people for wanting to secure higher wages?
And the right of an individual to withdraw their labour is essential in a free society.
But it is also the right of an employer to sack an employee who refuses to work. Unions can’t have it both ways.
It is also worth noting the knock-on effects industrial action has on other industries — from the caterer whose staff can’t get to an event because of rail strikes, to the local business whose deliveries are delayed due to mail strikes.
Everyone suffers — and it is unfair.
There is a clear difference between an individual withdrawing their labour and unions banding together to bring whole industries to their knees.
And that is precisely what is happening.
Act like henchmen
Putting aside the fact that, strangely, so many union strike dates happen to coincide, the reality is that some unions are acting more like henchmen rather than in the interests of their members.
Take the rail strikers. It is simply immoral for union bosses to convince their members that successfully negotiating against any redundancies or staff restructuring is a realistic possibility, in an industry that saw a massive drop in patronage because of WFH.
While the likes of Mick Lynch sit on comfortable salaries, their union members sacrifice their wages in the false hope they can resist any form of commercial changes.
Unions are risking the jobs of their workers with this irresponsible behaviour.
I would like to see this legislation go further. So far, the Government has abandoned plans to introduce an outright ban on NHS workers, particularly paramedics, from going on strike amid legal concerns.
But the Government should be more concerned with protecting the wider public, rather than agreeing to the demands of a few powerful unions.
Gone are the days when a single whistle-blow saw millions go on strike and cripple the country.
As Britain enters a recession, there is no sense in allowing the entire country to be dragged down for the sake of a few squabbling unions.
SPARE ME THE SPEECH
The NHS’s advice for people who feel unwell to wear a face covering has certainly rallied the troops.
Like clockwork, the usual suspects have bandied around the illogical warcry to virtue signal about who can best out-muzzle each other.
There is very little evidence to suggest face masks played any significant role in controlling the spread of Covid.
This is in large part due to the fact most people either wore the wrong masks, wore them incorrectly or simply had little use for a dirty cloth with some straps.
Either way, it still made people feel safe.
Clearly, the return to masks is more about gesture politics than a triumph of reason.
And that is fine with me. All I ask is to be left alone. I am not interested in being preached to by people who swear by masks with the same zeal as mystic hacks who swear garlic is a vampire repellent.
Please, for the love of God, leave me alone.
UK’S NOT OK, KEIR?
IF Rishi Sunak’s rousing Five Point Plan speech didn’t inspire fervent zeal for the future of this country, then the Labour Party’s Starmer-Tron 3,000 sure did the trick.
I found Keir Starmer’s New Year Speech simply moving. It still brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.
After charging up his batteries, configuring a platitude generator and making sure all of his circuitry was wired correctly, Sir Keir launched into a totally unpredictable spiel about a “fairer, greener, dynamic economy”.
Of course, no Labour speech would be complete without a quick reference to Brexit – with Sir Kier embracing the slogan “take back control”.
Except, in this case, the control he meant was to speed up the dissolution of the United Kingdom.
Because no Labour leader’s speech is complete without threatening the integrity of the Union.
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THE spending on New Year’s resolutions is always fascinating to observe.
Every January we see the surge in gym memberships and lifestyle buys by people who enjoyed a dirty December.
People always want to get fitter, healthier, and more in tune with themselves.
I have been guilty of this, ordering a 23andme genetic testing kit to better understand my “higher goddess”.
However, some brands don’t appreciate the momentary financial boost.
Luxury fitness company Equinox announced it wasn’t letting people sign up on January 1 because it didn’t want to “support the new year, new me movement that happens every January”.
The American firm, frequented by Hollywood gym bunnies (a la the Kardashians), is only interested in people who push themselves every single day.
Naturally, it has had a backlash after telling potential customers to “take your resolutions somewhere else”.
If that bit of genius marketing doesn’t bring all the fitness junkies to the yard, I don’t know what will.
SITE’S OUT OF TOON
NOTHING says free speech quite like banning satirical images of a sitting President.
This lunacy happened in the land of the free – the good ol’ US of A.
Facebook has come under fire for blocking an advert of a cartoon mocking Joe Biden.
The social media giant refused to approve this week’s edition of the Spectator, which featured the headline Six More Years but showed Mr Biden holding up only five fingers.
In Facebook’s defence, there is nothing funny about a President who is so senile that he struggles to string sentences together.
Facebook insists the ad was submitted in the wrong way, and that’s why it was blocked.
But some will still wonder why Facebook didn’t express the same zeal in banning adverts mocking Trump, Boris, and Liz Truss.
Your guess is as good as mine.
LUNCH CRUNCH
WORKING-from-home practices have certainly boosted local towns and village high streets.
But for larger towns and city centres, fewer commuters and office-based workers have hurt them commercially.
Gone are the days when the typical admin officer could pop into a local Greggs for a steak bake or a (disgusting) vegan sausage roll.
Now the typical lunch is a random amalgamation of edibles from the fridge.
Since Covid restrictions were relaxed, a continuation of hybrid working has meant less money for larger city centres, and more for your local corner shop.
It is unlikely things will ever go back to the pre-pandemic normal.
In the meantime, the Government needs to figure out a way to bring the high street to the people before more city centres continue to collapse before our very eyes.
- Jeremy Clarkson is away
