In defence of striking

Here’s something I’ve learned over the past few days. The right loves the working classes when they’re voting for Brexit, but it hates them when they go out on strike. When they strike, they’re wreckers, a pox on the nation. They’ve clearly been led astray by their smooth-talking union bosses. So what if there was a democratic secret ballot in favour of the strike action they’re taking – these low-information workers clearly did not understand what they were voting for.

The left, meanwhile, loves the working classes when they’re out on strike, but of course it hates them when they’re voting for something like Brexit. When they strike, they’re heroic, they’re sticking it to the man. But when they cast a ballot to leave the EU, they become tabloid-addled ‘gammon’, dimwits who have been led astray by populist demagogues. So what if millions of them voted to cut ties with Brussels – they clearly did not understand what they were voting for.