Chapter 1525 – Layoff Storm

“As for how to treat the striking workers, you can pick some industries that don’t affect people’s livelihood too much and fire a group of people as a warning. To be honest this time the labor party is ultimately satisfactory, can’t agree to this kind of demand for pay rises with no end in sight, millions of industrial workers want pay rises, wouldn’t it be a mess to agree to the British economy, at least not to the figures they put forward themselves.”

The government’s settling of scores with Ford, setting out its determination never to back down this time, caused Ford to protest vigorously, but it was no use, who cares what you think in times of general strike. If you’re not satisfied, you can roll up and leave the UK market, Land Rover can always take over.

“It looks like Labor’s reign is coming to an end.” Pamela Mountbatten listened to her husband’s analysis, “The ruling Labor Party after the war clearly prevailed, and it’s not good for the Conservative Party to always stay out of power. Contrary to you civil servants, my dear, most members of our circle actually favor the Conservatives.”

“There’s no one else to blame for the end of Labour’s rule, and Callaghan’s demand for a pay rise against the unions was probably due to the fact that the Labor Party, which considers itself to represent the workers of Britain, is always reluctant to take strong initiatives. Not telling the unions earlier that they couldn’t do this, had a strike like this been carried out two years ago, it would have faded into oblivion by the end of the day. But a strike of this scale now would be very embarrassing for the Labor Party.”

Alan Wilson knew in his heart that such a thing in this year would surely make the Labor Party’s support plummet, but it was not only the Labor Party that was unlucky this year, President Carter, the rare moral standard-bearer of the United States, was also unlucky enough to stumble upon many unlucky things in the last year of his term.

Carter’s term of office in fact pulled apart four years to see, economic growth data is not worse than their predecessors and successors, but to take the year before the election data out, can be described as poor to the extreme.

President Carter’s last year in office was clearly a total explosion of problems, the kind of black swan event only experienced by King Know It All decades later, where the first three years were fine and the last year took a sharp turn for the worse.

Callaghan, whose approval ratings are lagging behind, is also trying to find ways to save himself, and when faced with a television interview described the strike as a winter of discontent, as Prime Minister he expressed regret for not taking the British economy to the next level, but still said that the unions’ demands are outrageous and have had an impact on the lives of all British citizens.

For the work of Whitehall, Callaghan still expressed his support, “Although Whitehall and the Cabinet do not agree on all issues, we recognize this, Whitehall’s ability to work professionally. It is an important basis for guiding the Cabinet in making decisions, Sir Alan is unapproachable at times, but for the most part, commands a great deal of respect from Cabinet Ministers. He is a tough negotiator and I believe that the trade unions, on this occasion, know that better than I do.”

This TV interview has brought Callaghan’s approval ratings back up slightly, but still trails Margaret Thatcher by more than ten percent, a gap that almost eliminates the possibility of a blowout.

Barring exceptional circumstances, such as the election in which Churchill was toppled by Adderley after the war.

Taking the remote control and turning the TV off, Alan Wilson sighed and spoke to the colleagues around him, “Actually, the Prime Minister is still worthy of respect in her work, as for that Conservative Party lady, it is yet to be verified in the future, but there is one thing that is true, female politicians tend to take extreme moves to get attention in order to prove themselves. Judging by the last six months of Tory speeches, if, let’s assume the Tories come to power at this year’s general election, would they dare take on the unions?”

“With the Tories in power, there is a real possibility that Margaret Thatcher could be a woman Prime Minister, given the current approval ratings.” Burke Trench said meaningfully, “We’re going to have our first female Prime Minister?”

“Just an assumption, without any personal bias.” Alan Wilson spoke slowly, “We have to take a certain amount of preparation for the future, to have a long term view and not be like politicians who are full of next week’s approval ratings.”

“They’re too much of a drag on the team.” John Hunter shook his head with disapproval written all over his face, “They approach matters differently, too emotional not as rational as us.”

“Can’t say that explicitly yet or they’ll either chew their tongue or shed a tear.” Armstrong added with a wide grin, “The ones that don’t shed a tear spill their guts, not charming at all.”

“And on top of that prejudices abound, and always arbitrary generalizations.” Burke Trench laughed bitterly, “Thinking things all one way, as any one can guess.”

“Gentlemen, a woman’s vote is of equal value to a man’s, and this is not before 1918.”

Alan Wilson waved his hand, “While what the gentlemen are saying is true, word gets out that it’s politically fraught with incorrectness out there, and everyone is right, that’s why word gets out that it’s a huge problem for us. Can you guys stand up to those careful shrews? The truth is that you just can’t, and the best thing to do is to treat them as if they were air, we don’t mess with them, and we avoid taking a stand on any male or female issues.”

The Supreme Authority finds the words of his colleagues too extreme, he himself doesn’t see it that way, there are still plenty of women out there who are lovely – Hepburn, Monroe, Her Royal Highness and so on. As for Ms. Pamela Mountbatten, the most successful businesswoman of quality in Britain, naturally, even more needless to say.

Since the supreme authority has said so, the discussion has also turned to the matter in question, and excluding the personal ability of Margaret Thatcher, the current situation of the Conservative Party is also very optimistic.

The opportunity for a female Prime Minister to emerge is objective, and on the current inflation facing the UK alone, along with the occasional strike, is the focus of the current discussion in Whitehall.

“If women take the bull by the horns, Margaret Thatcher, if she came to power, might fire workers who dared to make trouble in large numbers.”

Alan Wilson reminded his colleagues of the problem, although he had already fired a group of truck workers yesterday, it was a temporary dismissal and not on a large scale, “There’s also the threat that this woman might fire a group of colleagues who have done a lifetime’s service to the country, and don’t think that’s impossible, women are capable of anything to prove that they’re not inferior to men .”

“So let’s unleash some of that tough Tory talk about workers and civil servants?” Burke Trench spoke up and suggested, “I just don’t know if it’ll have any effect.”

“It’s not us releasing, the words are coming from the Tories, how does it become us releasing, that’s just what a transparent government should do. Saying we release it as if Whitehall has a bias in this, it’s well known that Whitehall has always adhered to the principle of neutrality and has never questioned partisan interests.” Alan Wilson mused, “The situation facing the Labor Party is indeed bad.”

As for dealing with strikes, common sense would dictate that waiting for workers to use up their savings and have to work would be the time for strikes to die down. But because it’s an election year, it’s hard to say whether Labor can be tough to the end, even though it’s expressed support for Whitehall.

Labor actually still wants to talk, and the sooner the strikes are quelled, the better it will be for Labor, and although Labor is too far behind in the polls right now, it’s only human to expect a little bit of a miracle.

In an effort to garner as many votes as possible, Callaghan agreed to hold a referendum on the Scottish Devolution Bill on March 1 to gain support in Scotland, which received a majority of votes in favor of the bill, however, opposition MPs pointed out that the referendum rider to the bill had a requirement for turnout, and that the low turnout resulted in the bill not being passed.

“Labour fainted?” Alan Wilson was very upset to hear this, if that was a minor issue in the face of workers’ demands for a pay rise, placing the hope of reversing support on Scotland was a major issue in principle.

“To this time on the strike movement compromised enterprise pressure, in the government and trade unions to choose between one, to participate in the strike workers in accordance with the proportion of dismissal.” Alan Wilson picked up the microphone straight away and put the call through to the Home Office, “Brexit, or start with Ford, it’s all their doing.”

In the end, Ford was still selected by Allen Wilson to start, since the oil crisis broke out, American cars have been beaten by Japanese cars because of gas mileage, and even the local market has been stolen.

The automotive sector is the focus of the recently emerging US-Japan trade war, and Japan has also shown persistence unlike previous trade wars.

It’s no wonder that real estate can only be engaged in their own country, the car is able to sell all over the world, the Japanese are not willing to give up also deserved. The rapid rise of Japanese cars, the United States of America’s large displacement hit quite hard, now the United States of America’s hard times, Allen Wilson seized this point to start.

It wasn’t as if he had wronged Ford; the strike had originally become uncontrollable from Ford’s compromises, and it had to be made to pay.

Whitehall immediately issued a new fine, which, together with the previous one, came to £30 million, the first time in recent years that Britain had issued such a heavy fine to an American company.

Whitehall then sent civil servants to have an amicable and happy exchange with Ford, and the next day Ford of England announced twenty-five percent job cuts as a response to inflation, which was even greater than the wage increases Ford had previously announced.

In the face of Whitehall’s threat, Ford decidedly chose to bow down and concede, sensing that this time it was for real.

After this first company to compromise in the face of a strike was packed, rumors of layoffs to ride out the unstable economic cycle came out from various companies, and a steady stream of information about layoffs to be made spiked the nerves of the strikers.

Alan Wilson was also distracted from sniping at some backbenchers, as the Ford penalty had caused some MPs to have second thoughts, especially a section of the Conservative Party.

Margaret Thatcher, the leader of the Conservative Party, held an internal meeting at this point to analyze if there had been another unknown change in the current Whitehall and Labour Cabinet moves.

“From Callaghan mentioned Scottish devolution bill appeared, Whitehall’s action all of a sudden become extremely intense, obviously civil servants face the Scottish issue, become extremely dissatisfied with the Labour Party.”