On wrong track

They have a funny way of showing it. Their deliberately provocative use of language, after maintenance workers voted in favour of industrial action, is likely to increase, rather than lessen, the likelihood of a four-day strike starting on the first working day after Easter.

Negotiation has to be the way forward rather than confrontation. And it is also in the interests of the Government to pursue such a course of action – and not just to stop a "spring of discontent" breaking out because of the confluence of several strikes.

For, in case it has escaped the attention of Ministers, the railway strike is due to begin on April 6 – the date when Gordon Brown is

tipped to call the General Election.

A strike will affect the travel plans of all politicians. And, perversely, this offers the best prospects of a settlement being found. For the last thing Labour needs at the start of an election campaign is pictures of Ministers being left stranded at stations because they failed to persuade Network Rail and the RMT to see sense.