National rail strikes, and the threat of industrial action by groups from barristers to BT engineers have raised the spectre of the 1970s. The “winter of discontent” in 1979, that ghost of Christmas past that has haunted British politics for over 40 years, is summoned to warn of the chaos and disaster that over-mighty unions bring to the country. Boris Johnson himself is warning of a 70s-style “wage-price spiral”, as pay rises chase prices ever upwards. This fantasy of a return to the 1970s is not just wrong, it is an inversion of today’s reality.
There is no “wage-price spiral” because wages are falling far behind prices. Data from XPertHR put the average pay deal over the last three months at a 4 per cent rise, even as inflation hit 9 per cent in April. A spiral has two arms, each one pushing the other. If one of those arms doesn’t exist, neither does the spiral.
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