They joined picket lines outside schools, train stations and job centres; at the gates of lecture halls, government offices, driving centres and museums. On ‘walkout Wednesday’ mass rallies took place in every major British city. An estimated 500,000 people took a stand, demanding better pay and conditions. The strikes have been running in various places since last autumn. But now, as the government shows itself reluctant to engage, they are growing quickly. Language about union barons and a militant few isn’t washing any more. This is across society. And it’s not slowing.
At what could be the most northerly strike in Britain, search and rescue coastguards on Shetland staged a windswept two-person picket. The award for the longest picket line, if someone were measuring, might go to staff at the University of Cambridge, lined up outside the Department of Earth Sciences
