National pay talks - This is not the time for self-interest

IT HAS been a considerable number of years since the national pay talks took place in an atmosphere of such distrust and division.

That division has been deepened by the bitter sniping between unions and employers of the past few weeks. The gap between what the unions want and what the employers say they can, or will, pay is significant. That gap might even be insurmountable and this round of talks may well collapse in the autumn.

The Government, both as an employer and as guardian of the national purse, is between that rock and hard place that comes around every few decades. We — unions and employers — are at the end of an economic cycle and may have developed expectations that cannot be sustained. Some fall in living standards looks to be inevitable, especially in households carrying significant personal debt.