Trade unions are a force for good, says MP Simon Hoare, but the issues get sticky. And dealing with inflation leads to some tough political love

As Gloucester put it in Richard lll, it does feel rather that ‘now is the winter of our discontent’. The spectre and presence of strikes have once again reared their heads and are having profound, negative effects on many people across the country. The term Winter of Discontent was first used in a UK political context to describe the strike-laden days of 1978/79. I do not believe that those of 2022/23 are anything like as momentous or ‘weather-making’ from a political perspective.

Sticky issues
Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of Dorset’s history will know the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The role that Trade Unions play, representing their members, championing workplace safety and rights, is a vital and important one. Prior to their creation, the life of the working man and woman was precarious, subject to the whims of the employer. Huge and beneficial strides have been made from which all of us in work, whether we are members of a Trade Union or not, benefit. Statutory sick pay, paid holiday and the like all came about directly through the lobbying of trade unions.
However, it is the right to withdraw labour below a certain public service level that is the sticky issue. Our police, military and prison officers are unable to strike because to do so would, among other things, jeopardise public safety.
Should we now be thinking about a similar caveat for other vital public services, for example in the health and transport sectors? I do not have a doctrinal view on this but rather I am committed to public service and people being able to go about their daily business, be educated, commute or receive healthcare irrespective of whether there is an employee/employer dispute going on.

Monster vs. chocolate
One of the concerns of many strikers is pay. Inflation, as we know, is higher than for very many years (it perhaps looks to have peaked and is now falling) and interest rates are moving upwards – although still historically low – as a way of addressing those upward inflationary pressures.
We often talk of inflation without really thinking about its affect. I was asked about this on a recent school visit and provided the following analogy: you have a chocolate bar at playtime, you expect to eat it all and to enjoy it. But! Along comes the Inflation Monster who swallows a great chunk of it. You lose out.
You may then buy a larger chocolate bar but the Monster only comes back to take a slightly bigger chunk. No matter what you do the Monster always wins. The Monster always comes back. He never really goes away.
You only have a chance of enjoying your chocolate bar if we ‘starve’ and defeat the Monster. We need to starve and cage, rather than feed, the inflation monster. Inflation-busting pay increases do not bust inflation, they feed it, adding fuel and stoking the rates higher.
Anyone in current public life knows this is not an easy message to communicate or accept. It is the political economy version of tough love. Unless we beat inflation everything else will be in vain, so that is currently the central and all-focussing task of the Government. It is not easy, but it is necessary.

Get in touch
Throughout this year I will continue my regular Advice Surgeries to provide help and support for those who need it. Please email [email protected] to make an appointment.
May I close this first column of the year by wishing everyone across North Dorset a belated but sincere happy, peaceful and safe 2023.

The New Year provides the opportunity to reflect on the past 12 months, and also to look ahead. My personal highlights of 2022 include knocking on doors in the villages around Wem in North Shropshire during our by-election effort. The experience told me that there is always much to play for, whatever the apparent odds. I found a great similarity with the Blackmore Vale. There were strong echoes at the Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show in August: a rural community that wants to have the wherewithal to get on and create its own better future and to lose the constraints of a centralising bureaucracy and top-down diktat.
The low points of the year were the events that gave us three PMs within a month and a half, ending up with someone with no mandate whatsoever outside the House of Commons. Yes, there is now a sensible, if managerialist, pair at the helm. The besetting sins of managerialism are that you believe you have a right to be in charge, have a right to say what gives and have a tendency to disregard the views of workforce and shareholders alike.
Does the cap fit? Is this sustainable? Is it even democratic? The questions of our age …

A broken dozen
We are likely to see a continuing focus on inflation which has now probably peaked. Success will be claimed even though prices will remain at their new higher levels. The underlying reality is that heating our homes has become a luxury, buying a home has become even more of a stretch for the young, travelling to work chews up a greater proportion of our income than ever and a decent diet is beyond the less advantaged. Who would have thought it after 12 years of a Conservative government?
We also have broken systems in health, social care, the railways and the Royal Mail. The issues are not just about pay; they are about long-term viability, about the motivation, energy and productivity of the people involved. Add in the fragmentation of the Union as a result of Brexit and you get a very sorry overall picture of incompetence and failed dogma.
Looking ahead, though, a different kind of government is available.
You see it everywhere the Liberal Democrats are at work – an approach based on listening, understanding and caring. On building for the future, harnessing creativity and creating opportunity and fairness for everyone. Both Tory and Labour depend on narrow views and the dividing lines between have and have not, city and countryside, north and south … inevitably, the solutions from either side are demonstrably and palpably polarised.
In the face of global warming we have Putin, Xi, an inward-looking USA and an arms-length EU. It won’t do. Our best chance is to come together and develop a broad, unifying and more effective way ahead for the good of everyone: broadly based and unifying. Unifying, above all.
Mike Chapman
for Liberal Democrats across the Blackmore Vale

Generally I consider myself towards the glass-half-full end of the spectrum, but I must admit the events of last year had me beginning to doubt my sanity in seeing any reason for optimism. However, there are some encouraging signs for hope. Perhaps even, dare I say, the metaphorical green shoots of spring?
One is a positive shift in some of the right-leaning media, away from simple outraged condemnation of environmental protests and towards an acceptance that the climate and environmental crisis is real and must be addressed urgently. In a recent Times column, for example, the writer admits to having fumed at environmental protesters blocking roads and throwing food at artworks, but reflects that he now realises that they are entirely right to be concerned, and that their cause is actually everybody’s cause. He highlights the gulf between what almost every government agrees needs to happen, and what they are actually doing, our own government included.
Another positive note has been HSBC saying it will stop funding new oil and gas fields, and that it will expect more information from energy clients about their plans to cut carbon emissions. Hopefully it will not be just another example of corporate greenwashing.

The innate decency of humans
Something that gives me particular cause for hope is the fact that although we humans can be thoughtless, selfish, greedy and sometimes downright barbaric, we also have a huge capacity for caring and compassion. Where I live in Hazelbury Bryan, the community response during the COVID pandemic focussed on the Red Barn village store, where the proprietors Tara and Darren packed up regular supplies of food and other items for a team of willing volunteers to deliver to residents who were unable to collect for themselves.

Looking forwards
This new year will be what we collectively make of it – we all have a part to play. Let’s look out for those in need, some of whom may face greater challenges than we do, but find it difficult to ask for help. And let’s stay focussed on our capacity to care, both for our fellow humans and the natural world we all share and depend on.
Ken Huggins
for the North Dorset Green Party

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Rishi Sunak and Co stood on their doorsteps every Thursday night along with the rest of us, applauding NHS workers for keeping us all safe during the pandemic. But following the largest strike in the history of the NHS in December, with the promise of more to come, the Prime Minister and his cronies are showing their true colours by snubbing and scapegoating the same hardworking people they once cynically lauded as heroes for their own political advantage.
Key workers from the NHS, Royal Mail and the railways are not just fighting for a pay packet that will put food on the table and pay rising energy bills. They’re also fighting to protect the services they provide and the safety of the people who rely on them.
In the case of NHS workers, it’s the NHS itself that they are fighting for.
The response from the Tories has not been to enter into dialogue with workers and acknowledge their legitimate concerns about the rising cost of living and degradation of services. Instead it has been to try to blame them for an NHS crisis born of 12 years of ideological spending cuts and their total loss of control over a broken UK economy plagued by inflation.

Fat cats not tired nurses
With the cost of energy bills, the weekly shop, filling up your car, rents and mortgages all going up, the only thing that isn’t is wages. Already-squeezed people are being put under ever more pressure. Meanwhile, big energy predicts £170bn in ‘excess profits’ over the next couple of years, with a further £33bn predicted for City bankers. It doesn’t take Carol Vorderman to work out that it is fat cat profits and not nurses pay that is at the root of our current inflationary woes.
Pat Osborne
for North Dorset Labour