The widespread disruption caused by the recent series of strikes in the UK - in which even driving test examiners have laid down their iPads - has led to comparisons with the 1978-79 Winter of Discontent, when large-scale action across a range of industries contributed to the fall of the Labour government led by James Callaghan. The current prime minister, Rishi Sunak, was not yet born in 1979, and memories of its events are now fading. Nevertheless, they retain a powerful hold on the political imagination, and have eclipsed other periods of disruption which were of equivalent historical significance.
With important exceptions, the British trades union movement has focused on improving pay and conditions rather than
