Rishi Sunak sees himself as inheritor to Margaret Thatcher – however in coping with December’s strikes, which model of the previous prime minister does he wish to be? Mrs Thatcher was an ideologue who claimed the backlash towards the “winter of discontent” in 1978-79 represented a “sea change” in public opinion and a mandate to “clip the wings” of commerce unions. However she was additionally a pragmatist who in 1979 gave public sector employees a 25% pay rise – roughly double the speed of inflation…
