Cabinet minister Mel Stride describes the RMT union’s announcement of rail strikes in December and January as “a failure of negotiation”. The work and pensions secretary says he doesn’t “think it’s right” for strikes to take place over the Christmas period, and calls for “cool, calm heads” to come to a resolution. Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn