Chapter 1518: Inside Out

Ford, an American company but with car production lines in the UK for entry into the EEC market, had been selected by Pamela Mountbatten this time as a sounding board for watching the interplay of two of the more contradictory developments, the government’s fight against inflation and the unions’ demand for pay rises.

Allen Wilson naturally couldn’t let Ford go over the five percent limit set by the government, but it was clear that the unions wouldn’t feel the same way, and naturally the more pay rises the better, and if you can control British companies, what else can you do to American companies?

Whitehall’s message was clear, a pay rise out of thin air would only raise inflation in the UK again, a declaration of war against the government’s fight against inflation, while the unions countered with the contribution of British industrial workers to the country’s prosperity.

The two sides are at loggerheads, leaving the strike in a stalemate that centers on Ford, the striking workers on the one hand, and the government, which is applying pressure, on the other.

“If the struggle fails this time, I see ten percent inflation on the horizon.” Alan Wilson spoke to senior officials up and down Whitehall about the consequences.

For most of the people here, let alone ten percent inflation, even if it was one hundred percent it wouldn’t delay anything, but people change, all pay rises are the same as none, and the situation won’t get any better with a pay rise, it will only give Labor’s opponents even more reason to oppose it.

Whitehall is actually helping the government, but it’s clear that the Callaghan government lacks the determination to take on the unions, and the last election wasn’t a resounding victory, and after two years of by-elections arising from various factors, resignations or illnesses, Labor is just barely in control of the House of Commons, but thankfully there’s no situation of a hung parliament.

“Every time the government backs down, it’s increasing the confidence of the striking workers.” Frank shook his head, “Their appetite will grow, and sooner or later they will fall into the abyss.”

“These unions have over six million members, and the Prime Minister really wouldn’t dare offend these workers.” John Hunt sighed, he could understand Callaghan’s concern.

“If you don’t offend these six million workers, you offend all British citizens, and six million industrial workers is ultimately the problem of six million people. Inflation is the problem of all British people.” Alan Wilson held his forehead and said, “Ford had better hold on, if it compromises, this will be the beginning of a series of events.”

Workers are a whole, Ford workers want a pay rise is that just Ford’s business? Settle Ford, won’t workers at other companies continue to strike? The rationale is such a reason, but the relationship between the Labour Party and the trade union organizations, the MPs who value their support more than their lives, really do not dare to act rashly.

“It might have been different if the Conservatives had been in power.” Burke Trende suddenly opened his mouth and raised such a hypothetical question.

Alan Wilson raised an eyebrow, this was the first time he had heard a similar statement in Whitehall, but since he had started to hear it, it meant that it was definitely not a personal statement. It might have been discussed when he hadn’t heard it.

“Will this year’s recruitment be able to get in to fix that.” Alan Wilson opened his mouth to ask, referring to the civil service recruitment and whether it could absorb a group of idle staff.

“Since the oil crisis, our recruitment efforts have increased quite a bit, and now the number of civil servants across the UK has passed six hundred thousand.” Armstrong, the Deputy Cabinet Secretary, replied, “If it’s continuing to increase, isn’t it?”

“Keep recruiting.” Alan Wilson clapped his hands, “There is nothing else we can do, and if there comes a time when the newly recruited civil servants have to go back into society, that will be the government’s responsibility.”

The final decision is still in the hands of the Cabinet, it is useless for Whitehall to be in a hurry here, after work, Alan Wilson decided to walk around to take a break, go up to Vivien Lei’s place to sit down and talk about how David is staying in Xiangjiang.

“I now know why you are optimistic about Jack Cheng, Drunken Fist has been widely acclaimed across Asia since its release a month ago. I really didn’t expect such a filmmaker to emerge from such a small place like Xiangjiang.” Vivien Lei mentioned Drunken Fist, which had been in theaters for a month, and was very amazed at the current results, as well as proud of her man’s judgment.

“Told you, kung fu movies can break through cultural barriers.” Alan Wilson was not proud to puff out his chest, Jack Cheng’s achievement was a small thing to be knighted in England in exchange.

In fact, people in the end do not care if they are knighted or not, knighthood and his achievements compared to, has been less valuable.

“With the emergence of such a superstar, we really should help out, we still underestimated Xiangjiang before. I wonder if there are any undiscovered treasures.” Vivien Lei now had a strong interest in Xiangjiang movies, the most important thing about movies was the box office, without it it was nothing.

“That would be difficult.” Alan Wilson went through the actors from the golden age of Xiangjiang movies in his head and finally shook his head. While kung fu movies could break through cultural barriers, other genres could not.

Whether it was a literary film or a comedy, what worked for the audience of one culture would not work for a group of other civilizations.

What’s the point of having a Chow inside a Double Chow, that is, being famous in Southeast Asia? Liu Tianwang’s fame is not worse than the double week, this point must be made, Liu Tianwang’s status in Hong Kong film is not bad, from the film pay above and double week is not far from the difference, but also the annual top five top ten regulars, as for Jack into no matter when it is ten times the other stars.

Liu Tianwang in addition to being a filmmaker is also a singer, individually split are not the first in their respective fields, but together it is very scary, the audience at once and other people to pull away from the gap, and even half a century later is still active.

Sank Xiangjiang movie, have to say two movies, Jurassic Park in 1993 directly took the all-time champion.

Although Jurassic Park broke the box office record, but it is not unbreakable, with the box office record of the local films in Hong Kong continue to refresh, the second in the history of the film continues to change, the dinosaurs are also being approached step by step, but the Titanic directly broke the 100 million Hong Kong dollars, the record is almost doubled, it should be the box office record was raised the most exaggerated, which almost means that Hong Kong films have no hope of breaking the record.

Jurassic Park and Titanic directly sank the Hong Kong movie industry, and it became the beginning of the downhill spiral of Hong Kong movies that kept stepping on the gas pedal, and the Hong Kong movie market kept regressing, and the box office yearly crowns were not as good as they were in the 1980s.

If Vivienne Fei wants to borrow a little bit of the golden age of the power of the Hong Kong movie, thinking that Jack into things can be mass-produced, then it is better to early to dispel the idea. There’s only one in the entire Chinese world. Local British filmmakers can work with Jack Cheng, but don’t try to control each other.

Although Jack Cheng lived in Xiangjiang, his upbringing was traditional Chinese, and the theater troupe was also a place that focused on tradition. He is inherently uncomfortable with the UK.

Fei Wenli decided to release Drunken Fist in the UK, which Alan Wilson did not object to, let the market to test the gold, anyway, the British film industry is now mainly diversified.

There are no restrictions on Commonwealth country films entering the UK market, but if the native citizens don’t want to see it, there’s nothing that can be done about it, and Whitehall can’t press its head to let its citizens into the cinema.

The UK certainly has a race problem, but because it was a colonial power, it’s not as obvious as the US, and certainly not as daring as France to teach blacks that our ancestors were Gauls.

Britain’s race problem is evident when you look at the strikes of the last two years, which are on the verge of being played out by the unions, pushing foreign immigrants towards the front of the stage to confront the government.

During the Ford strike, the TUC was holding its annual conference in Blackpool. A Labor representative in Liverpool, Terry Duffy, moved a motion wanting the union to demand that the government immediately stop intervening in all labor negotiations. The motion was carried, and the following day Callaghan announced that he would accept the offer but reiterated that he “would not stop fighting inflation”.

“Meeting Labor seems to be getting tough, and with the October by-election, Labor has lost another five seats and is approaching the suspended parliament threshold.” Frank arrives at the Cabinet Office with the results of the by-election, “The leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher, has claimed to be launching a motion of no confidence because of inflation. It’s something our Prime Minister can ignore if he wants to get through his term in peace.”

“The whole world knows the Prime Minister wants to be re-elected.” Alan Wilson snorted, “What is he now and what is Mrs. Thatcher? And when the time comes?”

Even Lok wants to be re-elected when he sits on the talking points, let alone being the Prime Minister of a country. What about being Prime Minister, so you can take the limelight from all sides, being a backbencher in the House of Commons is not that.

“We’ve heard that Ford is prepared to compromise.” Frank drew out a long note, “It’s not that simple, it looks like this time the government backpedaling is a done deal.”

The very next day, Citroen announced an eight percent pay increase, and after Citroen announced the increase, Ford of England compromised with the striking workers by promising a fifteen percent pay increase.

The moves by the two companies have violated the five percent limit on the third stage of pay rises that the Labor government and the unions talked about last year.

Whether to appease or to express toughness has again become a problem in front of Callaghan, if there is no indication, the whole of the United Kingdom’s substantial wage increases will soon come, if toughness is sure to lose support.

Pay rises are also losing support, control pay rises are also losing support, when has the Labor Party reached the point where it is not a man inside or outside? But that’s the way it is now. Some things just rush in here, and it’s wrong to do anything about it.

The British trade unions have sent word to boycott the government’s purported measures to sanction companies that breach the five percent share of pay rises, while saying the sanctions are not legal. The Conservative Party has also sided with the unions, and so the seldom-seen scenario has arisen, with the Conservatives backing the unions and fighting the Labor government.