Expert analysis: Will rail strikes lower public confidence in the government?

National World - LocalTV

LNER workers will go on strike, its been announced - just days after the government agreed on a pay deal for train drivers, which Transport Secretary Louise Haigh called a "breakthrough".

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00:00we're into a sort of state where, of course, as I said, there's a lot of issues to be sort of

00:04resolved. And quite clearly, this is unhelpful for the Labour government, because of course,

00:08having sort of come to a sort of an agreement, and then to find that there's something else,

00:12it reminds me of the sort of the Oliver Twist character, who goes up and asks for more.

00:18So this will not play well with the sort of the public and quite clearly, the sort of the

00:22Conservatives will undoubtedly use this to their advantage, which, of course, is the sort of the

00:26nature of politics. But I do sort of come back to sort of what's at the heart of these issues,

00:32long standing sort of grievances, which I think could be resolved by better industrial relations

00:38between the sort of the unions quite clearly, and the workers, which obviously is represented

00:44largely by the sort of the unions, and indeed sort of management. But dare I say that railways

00:51are a sort of pretty sort of poor example of how not to sort of to run your systems.

00:56As someone who sort of travels reasonably regularly, I'm subject to sort of to the delays

01:00and the sort of the irritations. But of course, in my case, they're pretty minor.

01:05The Conservatives have again raised a concern that was being voiced even before this new Labour

01:09government came to power, that they're too heavily influenced by union demands.

01:13How valid do you think these criticisms are? And what political implications could they have?

01:17Well, I mean, there's always politics at play, you know, that that's the sort of the nature we're

01:22in. And the Conservative Party are sort of still licking their wounds and sort of the

01:26the recent election loss. There's a whole sort of set of sort of

01:30structured issues with railways in particular, that are really, really problematic, you know,

01:34that lots of money has been thrown at them. And undoubtedly, there's been a lot of modernisation.

01:38The sort of the politics aside, it's obviously not good for the sort of the government. But

01:44you know, there will be sort of bigger challenges ahead. And dare I say, it's probably sort of good

01:48from sort of the Labour's point of view of getting these, these issues sorted out at this stage,

01:53rather than sort of with sort of a year to go to the next election,

01:56when of course, they'll hope that sort of people's memories will have faded.

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