ainda há um clipe no YouTube de 2011 de Ed Miliband, dando exatamente a mesma resposta várias vezes a uma pergunta sobre a greve de um professor. O então líder da fórmula estrita da oposição era dizer que não queria a greve e pediu que as partes se aproximassem da mesa para resolvê -la. Em um nível, a posição do trabalho é totalmente razoável. Eles querem um acordo, enquanto o governo parece querer um soco com os sindicatos, acreditando que vai cair bem com os eleitores em Wakefield e Tiverton. A esquerda pergunta qual é o sentido do Partido Trabalhista se não pode dar apoio sincero aos trabalhadores ferroviários que exigem um aumento salarial de acordo com a inflação rugindo? A direita sempre quer descrever o trabalho que está escravo de seus pagadores, sindicatos, desconsiderando o público que viaja. Os trabalhadores ferroviários com suas demandas salariais e as enfermeiras e professores tentando começar a trabalhar. Da tentativa de Barbara Castle de proibir os ataques de Wildcat nos anos sessenta com seu white paper "no lugar de conflitos", depois nas políticas salariais do governo de Callaghan nos anos setenta que terminam no inverno de descontentamento que os derrubou. Finalmente, mesmo em oposição, a luta amarga de Neil Kinnock com Arthur Scargill durante o ataque dos mineiros. A forma da investigação da polícia de Durham sobre Beergate. É provável que os meninos de azul estejam adiando suas descobertas até depois das próximas quintas -feiras por eleição. Essa não é uma receita para a confiança nos negócios. Johnson fez com que ele pareça um tolo quando não divulgou a ele mensagens vitais do WhatsApp quando Lord Geidt estava investigando inicialmente o escândalo de decoração de Downing Street Flat.
That is more or less Sir Keir Starmer’s position now on next week’s planned rail stoppages. On one level Labour’s position is entirely reasonable. They want a settlement, while the government seems to want a punch up with the unions, believing it will go down well with voters in Wakefield and Tiverton.
The danger is that the stance may please nobody. The left asks what is the point of the Labour Party if it can’t give wholehearted support to rail workers demanding a pay rise in line with roaring inflation? The right always wants to depict Labour being in thrall to their paymasters, the unions, in disregard for the travelling public.
Starmer, and other members of the Shadow Cabinet, have been mindful in their statements that there are two groups of workers involved in this dispute. The rail workers with their pay demands and the nurses and teachers trying to get to work.
Labour’s relations with the unions that brought them into existence to give a voice to working people in parliament is a long and troubled one. From Barbara Castle’s attempt to outlaw wildcat strikes in the sixties with her White Paper “In Place of Strife,” then to the pay polices of the Callaghan government in the seventies ending in the winter of discontent that brought them down. Finally, even in opposition, Neil Kinnock’s bitter fight with Arthur Scargill during the miners’ strike.
We will have to see whether Labour’s delicate balancing act works, but it comes at a time when the clamour is growing for Labour to be clearer on its policies and for Sir Keir Starmer to liven up his act.
We must not forget that a big shadow still lingers over the Opposition leader in the shape of Durham police’s investigation into Beergate. It is likely that the boys in blue are holding off their findings until after next Thursdays by election.
If Sir Keir and his deputy, Angela Rayner, are fined, they are out, and we will have turmoil in the leadership of both main parties at a time of roaring inflation and war in Europe. That’s not a recipe for business confidence.
If they are cleared, Starmer and Rayner will be praised for putting their jobs on the line in contrast to the Prime Minister whose problems with propriety have only increased with the resignation of his ethics advisor Lord Geidt.
I’m surprised the peer stayed in the job as long as he did. Johnson made him look a fool when he failed to disclose to him vital WhatsApp messages when Lord Geidt was initially investigating the Downing Street flat decoration scandal.
