Trades Unions - the new Guy Fawkes?

As various Trades Unions continue to exert their vice-like grip on the country's infrastructure, it is time to consider whether the change in Government could result in a change of attitude from the Unions.

Dave Prentis: The new Arthur Scargill?

It has never been a secret that the Trades Unions are effectively the non-political arm of the Labour Party.  The Unions have enjoyed funding from Labour in the past and in return are the party's main backers, which means that they both enjoy enormous influence over each other whilst sharing a hatred of the Conservative Party.

You only have to take a look at the number of Labour MPs that are funded by the major Trades Unions to see that it is the Unions that effectively run the Labour Party.  If that wasn't enough, Labour broke their own rules in the last General Election to ensure that one of the big wheels in the T&G Union was given a safe seat and therefore uninterrupted passage into Parliament.

Over the last 13 years, the Unions have had to tread a careful line; protecting the interests of their members whilst ensuring that their actions do not jeopardise the position of the Party.  Now that the Labour Party are now comfortably on the opposition benches, all moderation can go safely out of the window.

No one action can sum up the ideology and intent of these organisations better than Arthur Scargill's attempt to overthrow the Conservative government in 1984.  The media (not that I'm looking at anyone in particular... BBC...) can try and paint it in whichever light they want, but there is no hiding the fact that Scargill's intention was clear: to divide the population to such an extent that the position of the Conservative government would be untenable and thus pave the way for a new, Labour government to take the reins.

David Cameron and George Osborne have this week been making it clear to the public at large that the steps needed to reduce the deficit will not be easy.  In essence they have been running a hearts-and-minds campaign to get the electorate used to the fact that everyone in the country will have to feel the strain of cuts.

Nowhere will the cuts be swingeing than in the public sector.  This is an area which has grown bloated as a result of Labour's attempts at gerrymandering the system by trying to get as many people as possible on to the government payroll; a situation that cannot last.  The problem here is that these people will not give up their gold-plated salaries and jobs without a fight; a fight that the Labour-supporting Unions will be all to happy to help them with.

And with the vast majority of Labour MPs in their pocket, they'll have the backing of a large portion of Parliament too.

David Cameron is right, the cuts will be painful; but will the Unions conspire to make them deadly for the new government?