A number of Ulster Unionist, DUP and TUV assembly members cross the picket line at Stormont on Wednesday.

Never before has every main teaching union withdrawn its labour at the same time

Here is a selection of posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the last week. Spectator.co.uk introduces its new Business and Investments section. Fraser Nelson recalls when he crossed a picket line. James Forsyth says the government must look beyond Europe, and says that Christine Lagarde’s appointment is a win for Osborne. Peter Hoskin says that this week’s strikes are a prelude to someth...

Picket line anger and mixed feelings at the school gate

Shortly before Michael Gove organised a strike for journalists in Dundee, I crossed a school picket line with my mum, a teacher at my local school (Nairn Academy). She was a member of a teaching union, the PAT, that didn't believe in strikes, so when the school closed the two of us went in. It was a perfectly friendly affair: my teachers (and her colleagues) were at the gate, with no one else...

Labour MPs will be crossing picket lines during Thursday's public sector strike, it emerges, as David Cameron taunts Ed Miliband in the Commons over the issue.

· Maggie’s baton waving boys in blue· Their Doc Martins enforcing marshal law across the land.· Beating up the striker on the picket line· And bashing the blood soaked peace campaigner · Hey man who cleans your bloody batons.· Who wipes the blood and guts from your sheilds?· Who removes the smell of fear from your uniform?· The people h...

Picture is of the picket line this morning and below the latest bulletin from Mike Tucker unison NECMarshajane"2400 UNISON and Unite members employed by Southampton City Council commenced industrial action today.  110 Refuse workers started a 5 day strike, while all other union members started various forms of industrial action short of strike.   There was 100% support for the Refus...

If you want a dramatic illustration of how working class and trade union politics was transformed in the 1970s, compare the victory at Saltley Gate with the defeat at Grunwicks. Picket line militancy and solidarity, often informed by the socialist politics of the shop stewards, was sufficient to beat the Tories in 1972. Just five years

When I arrived at BBC White City studios yesterday I had expected a deflated and demoralised picket line. But it proved to be much more optimistic. Coffee and cake was circulating the picket line. Even the heavy downpour of rain didn’t harm the fighting spirit. Paul Mason, economics editor for Newsnight and the Father of the Chapel, told me he expected them to win the strike, providing an ag...