However, the threat is hollow, and Lynch knows it. Shapps seemed to enjoy the prospect of a confrontation with the railroad workers, all the more so as to divert attention from the growing list of government policy errors. As the supposed hammer of the unions, Saps also hopes to bathe the government with Thatcherite respect. Thatcherite is a little more for the Johnson administration, so that should be done. However, the fact is that no modern economy can function successfully without a functioning public transport system. The railroad is still struggling, all these decades later, to recover from the “beech cuts” that threw the ax at large sections of the network in the 1960s and ended the connectivity between the countries that the government is now half-heartedly trying to revived as part of the “leveling” agenda. If Mr. Shapps is seriously considering a new round of cuts, he shows remarkable ignorance of the building blocks needed for productive economic growth. Even driverless cars would not be a substitute for the public transport system provided by the railways. RMT or not, the government must find a way to make the railways work. With low inflation and low interest rates, living standards have been on a mildly improving trend for much of the last three decades. Unemployment was low and the reduced cost of mortgages offset more than the sluggish state of real wage growth. But inflation is back now, and for the first time in 30 years, the cost of mortgages is rising again. For many people, the savagery of current stress is a whole new experience. It is true that there are still many jobs around – more vacancies, in fact, than there are unemployed. At the top of the income scale, there is a desperate battle for talent, with employers offering high pay raises to attract and retain staff. There are also many downstream jobs that were filled by migrants from Eastern Europe, but for which there is limited appetite among locals. In many cases, salaries are simply not enough to pay for the ever-increasing bills. The once prosperous middle ground is compacted in a similar way. This poses a big problem for Downing Street as it struggles to keep up with the public sector pay line. If there is public money to spend, many Tory MPs would rather dedicate themselves to tax cuts than to public sector wages. But from teachers to doctors, public sector workers have none of that. The government urgently needs to act on its commitment to the 2019 manifesto and legislate to ensure a minimum train service during labor action. However, RMT’s Mick Lynch is just proud. There will be many more who will seek to imitate his militancy in the coming years. After all, it seems to work. Welcome back to Britain which is committed to hitting.
