Too much hot air

If there is a parallel, then it is in the power struggles between an ailing icon of British business, a power-hungry union and a battered and bruised Labour Government. The only certainty, amid the fog of claim and counter-claim over the success of the walkout, is that all three groups have come out of the dispute badly.

That's why voters are no doubt rather nonplussed by the strike. They have not been helped to make up their mind by a Conservative party whose education spokesman, Michael Gove, attacked Unite members before old photos emerged of him manning a picket line.

This lack of transparency across the political divide is typified by the re-appearance of Charlie Whelan, more than a decade after he was ousted from his job as spin doctor to Gordon Brown.

Mr Whelan, a canny if erratic operator and now the political director of Unite, is central to the strike. Yet his vast experience ought to tell him that neither his members, nor the party he once served, will be helped by prolonging a misguided protest.

BA has no money. What it does have is an eye-watering pension deficit, an antiquated business model and voracious competition from budget airlines. Persuading cabin crew not to turn up to work will not turn the flag carrier from loss to profit.

Given the sorry state of BA, it has no choice but to try to cut costs. The sooner that Mr Whelan realises this, the more chance some of his members will have of keeping their jobs.