Unions warned

The message Mr Cable delivered to the GMB union’s annual conference yesterday, however, was one of courtesy and common sense. With strikes still at a low level, in spite of increasingly militant noises, there is no need for any further union legislation. Should industrial action increase, however, to the point where the public are inconvenienced, then Ministers will have to act.

Given that the legislation the Government has in mind is a simple democratic measure which would strengthen the legitimacy of strike ballots – ensuring a minimum turnout of voters before any result can be declared valid – it might be thought that no reasonable person could object.

That description, however, does not apply to most of the present generation of union leaders, who seem intent on using their members’ disquiet over the urgent need to reform public-sector pensions to turn Britain back to the 1970s.

In spite of Mr Cable’s warning, the overhaul of over-generous pensions, coming as it does against the background of other public-sector cuts, means that conflict with the unions is all but inevitable. When it comes, however, it is incumbent on the Government to hold to the line it has drawn and ensure that the Business Secretary’s reasonable words are not empty ones.