The Grant Shapps anti-strikes bill published this week sets out to establish minimum service levels to be maintained during future strikes in the public sector.
It does nothing to soothe the current terrible industrial relations situation but totally inflames it, setting the Tory Government at war with the working people of the UK.
The Government hopes it will win over traditional Tory voters by portraying the current strike leaders, Messrs Whelan and Lynch, as the modern-day Scargill and McGahey.
They vainly hope doing so will bolster their currently low poll ratings.

In addition, it will hope the present sympathy for health workers and ambulance strikers, plus the reasonable degree of support for rail workers and drivers, will dissipate as the disputes become ever more acute and entrenched.
However, if we look at the areas of economic activity to be included in the Bill we will see they are: health services, fire and rescue, education services, transport services, border security and radioactive waste.
These areas of activity will inevitably bring the Government into conflict with a host of outsourced service companies from the private sector over which it has no direct control.
While the unions will undoubtedly end up taking the Government to Court over the matter, the outcome is bound to be a long drawn-out and messy affair.

Witness the situation with the Government’s attempt to deport immigrants to Rwanda – a policy designed to provide dividing lines and traps for Labour, with little chance of implementation in a country that still has regard for human rights.
The anti-strike bill appears to me to be a deliberate policy of a greater clampdown on anti-government protest, strikes and the freedom to protest generally.
And this administration is heading for a rough ride as the deplorable economic situation gets ever worse with the cost of living tightening its grip on the population.
Not a problem for the plutocrats and fund-managers of the Tories who will continue to ride roughshod over us until they are it is hoped ousted at the next General Election.
Nor a problem for one of the recent disgraced Tory prime ministers, Boris Johnson.

In the last four months he has received more than two and half million pounds in earnings from speeches, hospitality, gifts and donations. He’s also benefiting from rent free accommodation in both a London town house and a village in the Cotswolds, courtesy of a wealthy Tory donor.
Maybe he should spend more time in his constituency, connecting with real people. A connection his party is sorely missing.