There’s a Tube strike in the old-fashioned style as I write – and you’ll understand the irritation, mine and that of restaurateurs across London, when I add that I’ve just cancelled a table at Noble Rot in Greek Street because my companion can’t face struggling into town. The loss of trade on these days, of which more are planned for May and June, is immeasurably damaging for an already fragile urban economy.

More irritating still is the fact that behind the disruption is disharmony between unions: RMT members, just under half the driver workforce, are striking against Transport for London’s proposal of a four-day week (plus extra days off in return for other minor changes) which their Aslef brethren are keen to accept. There’s an echo in this of the way rival print unions in the 1980s helped destroy each other (a story currently on stage as In The Print at the King’s Head Theatre in Islington) as they lost the battle against Rupert Murdoch’s Wapping revolution. A similar denouement can’t come soon enough for London’s public transport.

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