Wake up, unions: there will be no Prime Minister Corbyn | Martin Kettle

Rather than fighting old battles, Conservatives and unions should build a modern industrial democracy. It’s time to revisit the spirit of cooperation

Whatever happened to that post-election stuff about “one nation”? It is clear that David Cameron and some of his ministers genuinely believe in the Disraelian ideal of social cohesion at some important level. Yet in the wake of the government’s latest move against trade unions, the commitment will look to many like mere hypocrisy.

Part of the essence of any kind of one-nation politics, whether from the left or the right, must be an effort to reconcile old antagonisms. But these new measures to make it more difficult to join a union are only designed to provoke this antagonism still further. They are a petty and partisan poke in the unions’ eye, timed to coincide with the London tube strike, and intended to extract a primal response from the Labour leadership candidates, in which they will probably succeed.

Related: Tories accused of 'mean-spirited' attack on trade union funding

Why are we still refighting old battles? Why have we not moved on?

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