Britain: Cameron and David Davis come out in support of strike breaking

Kavanagh begins by railing against employers for having waved the white flag by agreeing to a 14 percent rise for striking Shell lorry drivers instead of sacking them for causing panic at the pumps.

If ever there was a strike begging to be broken, this was it, he continued, warning that the decision to do so had signalled to every hard-up worker that industrial muscle works.

In the next period, he continued, the government could face a wave of strikes akin to the 1978-79 Winter of Discontent, which drove Labour into exile for 18 years and apparently taught Gordon Brown that Labour would never regain power until it broke the link with union barons.

A hardline Thatcherite who was reportedly reluctant to support Rupert Murdochs decision in 1997 to back Labour, Kavanagh complains that Brown does not have the stomach to take on the 600,000 town hall workers threatening to strike against a 2.4 percent offer and 800,000 NHS staff wanting to renege on a 2.75 percent deal signed only weeks ago.