Brown won't want to be reminded of Callaghan

One thing that Gordon Brown will not be wishing for is to emulate the last unelected Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan whose government fell apart under the combined weight of industrial disputes and Scottish and Welsh Nationalism.

The later may already be haunting him in the spectre of Wendy Alexander,but reading the Times this morning the first may also be appearing on the horizon.

The paper says that

Refuse collectors, home helps and social workers are threatening “sustained strikes” this summer as unions prepare for a wave of industrial action over below-inflation pay deals.
Unison, Britain’s biggest public sector union, is to ballot nearly 900,000 members in local government for strikes lasting several days as unions sense that the 10p tax U-turn has left Gordon Brown vulnerable.
Dinner ladies, parking wardens, librarians, lollipop ladies and town hall office staff will be asked to back the walkouts after rejecting a 2.45 per cent pay increase, The Times has learnt. Civil servants and teachers are likely to follow suit

It was always going to happen as the years of economic prosperity come to an end.The question now is how will this "listening" government react to any pay disputes in the public sector.