Winter of discontent? More like a summer of selfishness

By Richard Littlejohn for the Daily Mail
Created: 21:37 BST, 30 June 2011

The last time the unions marched through London, Ed Miliband was in 十分な Henry V 方式.

決起大会／結集させるing his 軍隊／機動隊s in Hyde Park, he invoked the spirit of Nelson Mandela, ツバメ Luther King and Emmeline Pankhurst.

In perhaps the most risible speech ever made by a いわゆる serious 政治家，政治屋 he compared the 'Stop the 削減（する）s' 抗議するs with the anti-人種隔離政策（アパルトヘイト） movement in South Africa, the struggle for civil 権利s in America and the Suffragettes.

On the march: Thousands of pub lic 部門 労働者s and civil servants took to the streets to 抗議する but they likely inconvenienced more people than agreed with them

People 現実に gave their lives in 追跡 of those noble 原因（となる）s. I can't see anyone making the ultimate sacrifice over 計画（する）s to 凍結する the 支払う／賃金 of five-a-day co-ordinators.

By the end of Miliband's speech, I felt like throwing myself in 前線 of a horse. This hysterical drivel is what political 審議 in Britain has been 減ずるd to.

Yesterday, however, as thousands more took to the streets, Miliband went 行方不明の.

Apart from a 簡潔な／要約する TV interview, in which he said he 同意しないd with the タイミング of the strikes and called for その上の 交渉s, he was nowhere to be 設立する.

So what was the 推論する／理由 for his absence?

The answer is 正確に／まさに the same as the explanation for?his absurd 'I have a dream' speech earlier this?year.

Hiding? Who's hiding? 労働 Leader Ed Miliband was nowhere to be seen as the strikes 攻撃する，衝突する the streets

Miliband is bought and paid for by the unions. Without their 支援, he would never have become 労働 leader.

Without their money, 労働 would be 破産者／倒産した. The unions 供給する almost 90 per cent of the party's 基金s. Since Miliband became leader, 私的な 寄付s have melted away.

And he who 支払う／賃金s the piper?.?.?.

Tony Blair used to warm up the （人が）群がるs with Things Can Only Get Better. When Miliband takes the 行う／開催する／段階 at a TUC 決起大会／結集させる, they should play Puppet On A String.

Wh ich is all 罰金 and dandy if Miliband's only 目的（とする） is to ingratiate himself with his paymasters.

But he finds himself caught on the horns of a classic 窮地. The unions might have got him elected 労働 leader, but they will never get him elected 総理大臣.

Miliband has worked out belatedly that there isn't 普及した popular support for the anti-削減（する）s 旅団 - even の中で the unions' own members.

Only one in five members of the PCS union 支援するd yesterday's walk-out. 人出／投票者数 の中で teachers wasn't much higher, either.

That's why the 政府 is under 圧力 to pass a 法律 要求するing that 50 per cent of a union's total 会員の地位 must 投票（する） in favour before any strike can be called. And the sooner the better, if they've got any?sense.

Yesterday's walk-outs 証明するd that a 決定するd 少数，小数派 can still 原因（となる） disruption. More than 10,000 schools were either の近くにd or were 軍隊d to 取り消す lessons.

Some 法廷，裁判所s and Jobcentres had to shut and there were longer 列s?at airports. But さもなければ, life went on.

Far from 前進するing their 原因（となる）, the unions only managed to 疎遠にする even more members of the public. Think of all the young working mothers who had to take the day off - and lose a day's 支払う／賃金 - to look after their children.

Millions of 私的な 部門 従業員s, who have taken 支払う／賃金 削減（する）s and lost their final-salary 年金 計画／陰謀s, are hardly going to sympathise with strikes by public 部門 staff already enjoying higher 給料, better 年金s and an earlier 退職 age.

There have been 試みる／企てるs to paint this （選挙などの）運動をする against the '削減（する）s' as a re-run of the Winter of Discontent.

Superficiall y, there are similarities. But there's one 根底となる difference. 支援する in 1978-9, 労働者s in the public 部門 were playing catch-up.

The wave of 産業の 不安 that winter was 誘発するd by strikes in the?私的な 部門. Ford car 労働者s 始める，決める the （判断の）基準, winning a 17 per cent 支払う／賃金 rise.

With the 政府 意図 on 制限するing 行う 増加するs to 5 per cent to 戦闘 runaway インフレーション, leaders of the public 部門 unions 恐れるd their members would be left behind.

As a result, wave after wave of 政府 and 会議 staff, from ambulancemen to 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な diggers, walked out. The dead went unburied, the dustbins weren't emptied and the 残り／休憩（する） is history.

Some of today's union leaders would like to see an 活動／戦闘 replay. They should be careful what they wish for.

It's the public 部門 which is ahead of the game today. There's no chance of a wave of strikes in 私的な 産業 now. Ford is 負かす／撃墜する from 72,000 労働者s in Britain to just 11,000. Most 生産／産物 has moved abroad.

The days when the car 労働者s and the 工学 労働者s were the big beasts in the union ジャングル have long gone.

What's left of the TUC is 支配するd by the public service unions. Gordon Brown pumped billions into the pockets of 明言する／公表する 労働者s. The unions bankroll 労働. And so on and so on and scooby dooby dooby.

It's an incestuous merry-go 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, all 財政／金融d by the British taxpayer. We even 支払う／賃金 the salaries of 十分な-time 行動主義者s in 政府 departments, Town Halls and the NHS.

Hilariously, the anarchist group UK Uncut asked its 支持者s to turn?up at yesterday's デモ 'dressed as a 労働者' ーするために blend in with the?（人が）群がる.

There was never any danger of anyone turning up as a chimney sweep, or a coal 鉱夫. Today's '労働者s' are 適切に 代表するd by the scruffy 暴徒 on parade across Britain this week.

Forget about the wheel-tappers and shunters. 労働 is now the party of the keyboard-clatterers and box-tickers. Of teachers, lecturers and social 労働者s.

There are only superficial similarities between these strikes and those of the Winter of Discontent, and while the political balance is very different now, it will still be 労働 that 苦しむs

Thirteen years of 労働 説得するd the public 部門 that the party would never end. Now it must. As someone said: There's no money left.

We are all going to have to work longer and 推定する／予想する いっそう少なく in our old age. Get used to it.

It was instructive to listen to some of the デモ参加者／実演宣伝者s on TV. Two young schoolteachers from the Midlands said they were striking not just to 保護する their pensi ons but to support parents and pupils.

'Who wants their child taught by a 68-year-old teacher?' one asked.

現実に, pet, given the choice, most of us would prefer an experienced 68-year-old teacher to a soppy bird with no conception of 経済的な reality, last seen waving a 社会主義者 労働者s Party 掲示 in the 立ち往生させる.

Scratch the surface and this is a political stunt, a strike about having a strike - organised by feather-bedded union leaders on six-人物／姿／数字 salaries.

It's not a Winter of Discontent, it's a Summer of Selfishness.

支援する in 1979, it was a 労働 政府 which stood up to the unions and a 労働 政府 which was brought 負かす／撃墜する.

This time it's a 保守的な-自由主義の 連合 in the crosshairs. 労働 is 元気づける on the unions, but when the dust settles it will be 労働 which 苦しむs by 協会.

That's the real 推論する／理由 why Mister Ed has abandoned his Henry V 行為／法令／行動する and left the 行う／開催する／段階.

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It's a 国境 line fiasco

乗客s arriving at Heathrow yesterday were held up for more than two hours because of the strike by 国境 staff.

Days earlier, it 現れるd that an anti-semitic Palestinian preacher of hate, 恐らく banned from entering Britain, had been waved through by 移民／移住.

And now because of the yuman 儀式s 行為／法令／行動する, we can't get rid of him.

See ms like the only people we're trying to keep out are those who arrive here 合法的に.

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その上の proof that '気候 change' is 急速な／放蕩な becoming an 設立するd 宗教.

Coventry Cathedral is to 任命する／導入する solar パネル盤s on the roof as part of its かかわり合い to 戦闘ing 全世界の warming.

It was always 必然的な that one day the Church of England would 変える to environmentalism. After all, it has embraced every other passing fad. The 大司教 of Canterbury seems to see himself as some sort of celestial social 労働者. Only last week he was lambasting the 連合 about the 衝撃 of spending 削減（する）s.

Now a vicar in Devon has told his parishioners not to bring fruit and vegetables to this year's 収穫 Festival.

The Reverend Gavin Tyte, who became the first cle rgyman to preach a sermon by 'beatboxing' (some 肉親，親類d of rapping, 明らかに, don't ask me), wants them to bring underpants and socks, ジーンズs and jackets instead.

Rev Tyte thinks these will be of more use to the homeless and underprivileged than a 巨大（な）?骨髄.

He is also looking for toiletries and canned dog food - 推定では for beggars who keep their mangy dogs on a length of string and 料金d them discarded pizza.

Yet again I am reminded of the trendy vicar in the Minder episode, Bring Us This Day Arthur Daley's Bread, who gives 避難 to a ギャング（団） of petty 犯罪のs led by the late James Booth.

In the old days, they would have stripped the lead off the church roof. These days, they'd have it away with the solar パネル盤s.

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Call that a meal? Some robbers bit off more than they could chew 取り組むing 茎 the Staffordshire bull terrier

Utterly Muttley

An 武装した robber fled an off-licence in Torquay after 存在 bitten in the crotch by the owner's Staffordshire bull terrier.

Shop owner Eve Watson 賞賛するd her dog, 茎, and said he'd earned his keep this week.

'He's had a couple of extra 薄焼きパン／素焼陶器s.'

One way of putting it, I suppose.

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Just my imagination

If 激しく揺する'n'roll is so 権利 on, why do most of the pop 星／主役にするs I ever 会合，会う dress to the 権利 政治上?

Maybe they just grow up as they grow older.

Bono is a 税金-追放する, Roger Daltrey has just given an interview attacking 労働 for 輸入するing cheap 労働 to the detriment of the British working class.

Even that old 社会主義者 warhorse Billy Bragg has 認める 投票（する）ing Lib Dem.

Now it is 明らかにする／漏らすd that John Lennon was a 保守的な who admired Ronald Reagan. Imagine that.