Jonathan Isaby

Wednesday

Jonathan Isaby

The Tube is an essential service and should be protected from strikes

From our UK edition

Today, London feels on edge. For the second month in a row, militant transport unions will shut down the Underground system at 6:30pm, leaving Londoners to face seemingly endless queues for buses, inflated Uber prices and an army of occasional cyclists bearing down on them. The estimated cost of a 24-hour strike (this time, over the plans for a 24-hour Tube service) is some £50 million. It’s time for the government to step in. Currently, the fire service, among others, is regarded as an 'essential service', which means a minimum service has to be provided during periods of industrial action while full-scale walkouts are illegal. It is time for the Tube – and potentially the railway network as a whole – to receive the same designation.

Thursday

Jonathan Isaby

Forget the Brussels Summit — here’s how Cameron could challenge EU power at home

From our UK edition

Much has already been written this week about the negotiating hand that David Cameron should be playing in Brussels over the next couple of days.   I am fervently of the view that there is indeed a whole raft of policy areas over which he should be seeking to reclaim powers from Brussels, and they are detailed in a new paper by Dr Lee Rotherham, Terms of Endearment, which was published earlier this week by the TaxPayers’ Alliance.   But forget the European Council for a moment. For it is worth highlighting the things that the British Government could do immediately and unilaterally, here at home, to challenge EU power — and without recourse to Brussels whatsoever. And Lee’s paper gives the following six examples:   1.