Parents, patients and public services users of all stripes look on with growing trepidation as negotiations between unions representing public sector workers and the Government have broken down, raising the spectre of that dreaded euphemism, “disruption”, over the coming weeks.

The crux of disagreement is that the unions want agreement on pay increases to protect against inflation before they will discuss anything else, such as changes to working practices; the Government wants everything on the table, all at once, all over again, now that the existing collective agreement has expired.

The unions have threatened industrial action if there is no movement between the sides. Some unions may be inclined towards taking strike action in September when schools and colleges reopen to students, for maximum leverage and, yes, disruption.

Indeed, comparisons have already been drawn between the disruption caused by fuel protests earlier in the year and the potential disruption from public sector strikes. One line of thinking in Government and the media at that time, which clearly did not win out, was that to “give in” to the disruptive fuel protesters would encourage trade unions to become more bolshie.

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And lo, they say, the chickens are coming home to roost.

Not so fast. Whatever one thinks of the aims and means of the fuel protests, there is a world of difference between those protests and the current risk of public sector strikes. Those........

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