Why should under-productive civil servants get a pay rise?

We all know about the teachers and train drivers, but apparently there are 100,000 civil servants in 124 government departments and quangos also on strike today – if anyone has noticed. It includes members of the PCS union employed at the DWP, National Highways, the Food Standards Agency and, er, the Risk Management Authority, Trade Remedies Authority, Council for the RFSAs and, of course, Bord na Gaidhlig. It is only thanks to their striking that many people will ever have heard of them.   

That is the point, of course, of ‘Walkout Wednesday’ – it allows trade unions who represent obscure government departments to stand with train drivers and teachers in an attempt to create the impression of a general strike. There is a very big difference, however, between now and the 1970s, when far more public sector workers were employed in jobs where people would actually notice if they didn’t turn up to work.