Britain hit as up to 400,000 strike

BRITAIN was hit by the most wide-ranging wave of strikes in a decade on Thursday, with up to 400,000 public sector employees, from teachers to coast guards, striking against the Labour government.

It was another blow to prime minister Gordon Brown after he was forced by party rebels into a humiliating policy reversal over tax cuts on Wednesday, and came a week ahead of local elections that will be his first big test at the ballot box.

Driving instructors, job centre workers and employees in pension and benefits offices joined teachers and coast guard operators in the one-day strike over pay. The unions estimated that between 100,000 and 400,000 people joined the action.