There is no comparison with what they want to do and the way parliament works. If you don’t show up to vote in parliament that is not automatically counted as a no. Kindly explain how that is the same? If you abstain you are not voting against.

Also what are you views on the parts of the bill that would require picketers at a perfectly legal picket having to give their details to the police 2 weeks in advance of the picket despite the very real issue of the police handing trade unionists details to black listing organisations? Can you not see how that is a) a breach of peoples right of assembly and b) will have a chilling effect on any picket because people will fear being put on police lists and blacklisted.

What about your thoughts on requiring unions to tell the police exactly what they plan to publish on social media during a strike 2 weeks in advance of any strike. Does that not strike you as a massive curtailment of peoples right to free speech? Also why precisely is this a requirement? what problem that currently exists does this solve except of course curtailing successful campaigning.

If these requirements were put on any other section of society people would be up in arms. I am flabbergasted that you attempt to defend such draconian and unnecessary laws. I look forward to your reply.

Now I know where Alf Garnett came from!……….Maaaaan!

Now I know where Rik from the Young Ones came from.

No, you poor deluded soul, the Tories are not “tidying things up a bit”, they are descending into fascism.

Ah, so on the one hand, the caring balm of Leftiness can cure the bigotry of millions like me. But on the other hand, you wonder that I’m even curious about your wonderful church. (Alright, ‘mosque’. Gotta be inclusive.)

I think the likes of John Lewis is a wonderful thing. Just goes to show that balance on both sides can get a happier deal. But just as a bastard boss could do with a striking against, a loony union leader can do with his wings clipped. The Tories are just tidying things up a bit.

Nothing’s been ‘banned’, as the left wing scream sheets wail. On the crux issues, workers can still do as they like, so long as the Aye-s have it. Just like in Parliament.

No, I don`t misunderstand at all. I used to be a lay Trades Union official and I can reassure you that what I said was correct. No one wants to take any form of industrial action unless they have to, but if they do they want it to be from a position of strength and solidarity.

The company I worked for at the time was a progressive one and recognised that proper Trade Union representation in the workplace benefited them as much as the members.

Sadly, enlightened companies are rare, especially these days.

You seem to be living in a somewhat imaginary Daily Mail-tinted past and have formed your colourful views as a result.

Don`t worry, millions share your affliction, but with the advent of better internet access and websites like Left Foot Forward, they are recovering slowly and seeing the light.

By the way, you do know this site is called LEFT Foot Forward.

Just asking.

No, I don’t know I’m born. I’ll have to check with that woman I call my mother.

Again, you do underline what I’ve said – past battles against mill owners who even sent hired thugs themselves, etc., are indeed a stain on our industrial past. Britain was great but nothing was perfect.

A moderate trades union movement is not the same as a feeble one, which you yourself misunderstand. And in saying that, the kind of heavy, constant wildcat actions which ended up punishing ordinary people more than bosses is the only other order of the day, then. How does that make people appreciate past victories for genuine rights?

A moderate trades union movement can still argue, protest, strike and negotiate without becoming feral at the whims of a militant leadership. And with feral leaderships able to use block votes, ballotless walkouts, flying pickets and beaten ‘scabs’ to swing their way during the glory years, power does indeed go back to ordinary workers when these communist dictatorships are dismantled.

It`s not everyone else missing the point, it`s YOU missing the point.

A “Moderate” Trades Union presence is useless up against the powerful interests it seeks to negotiate with, they will just trample all over workers and ignore the Unions, just like they have been doing for the last 30 or so years since the first wave of oppressive legislation to restrict Trades Union activity was introduced by Norman Tebbit.

Parity in strength and the resolve and commitment to stand up to them is what the wealthy companies fear. The only thing they understand is money and profit. They don`t give a stuff about laying off hundreds or thousands of loyal workers to keep profits up and the shareholders and directors happy. They don`t give a stuff about their future either.

That`s why companies lobby governments to keep such legislation in place and improve on it.

You seem completely oblivious to the point I was making in my initial post. That is that you owe virtually everything you have to Trades Union resolve, collectivity, sacrifice and the vision of a better future. You enjoy decent housing, good sanitary conditions, decent public services, free education for children, a decent health service, universal suffrage and proper representation in Parliament. And much, much more.

Go back in history to a time before The Trades Unions and the Labour Party and you will see the filthy conditions most people lived in, the long, backbreaking hours of work in desperately unsafe and unsanitary conditions to scrape a pittance of a living. Children as young as six working in factories and
down mines to support their family.
The poor laws and the horrors of the workhouse for those who went under.
The split families and the lives of servitude.

All this at a time when Britain was the richest country on the planet.

You don`t know you are born.

Not as much as you think. For some examples, Churchill only lost office to make way for a lovely day tomorrow, supposedly. The Tories just ran out of steam to make way for Harold Wilson, 20 years later. Edward Heath was consumed by the same rabid minority union militancy you think should be restored, while Mrs. Thatcher was also threatened by the same phenomenon. She was ousted by her own mates – not the Left – for John Major, whose restored economy wasn’t enough to save his also tired government because he broke it in the first place.

Labour, on the other hand, are still acutely embarrassed by 1970 and 1979 – losses so bad as they reflected the catatonic states of the economy, their own union buddies or social system. Unlike the Tories, Labour losses are so bad that the party feels a need to actually radically change ethos.

Though Labour still does lose office less, paradoxically; though only because the party’s there less often.

Well the previous conservative government, would have lost if the opposition had a monkey as its leader.

We could easily say that the conservatives have always been kicked out of office in disgrace on the same level.