It’s time the break the union (not that one indyref fans!)

The Bank Holiday railway strike, which would have stopped more than 90% of nation’s rolling stock from running, has been called off.

But we shouldn’t be whooping with joy or owing any debt of gratitude to the rail unions The RMT and NSSA whose members threatened to walk out.

No way!

For too many travellers the call- off came far too late, their plans had already hit the buffers.

Virgin Trains had, prematurely in my opinion, cancelled all their mainline services and warned passengers not to travel unless absolutely necessary.

Motorway gantry signs had been flashing all week warning drivers to consider car-sharing.

Contingency plans for commuter services in the big cities, airports and road networks had already been drawn up. But chaos was still predicted, especially at Gatwick and Heathrow, where no trains were expected to run at all, leaving passengers at the mercy of taxi drivers and already rammed buses.

The RAC were warning that our roads, already expected to judder to a halt with 20 million jam-causing Bank Holiday car journeys, would burst apart if any extra pressure was put on them because of the strike.

The inconvenience and disruption to travel plans was one thing, but the cost and impact to business, large and small, another entirely.

Millions of pounds have already been lost. Strike or no strike!

Many freight and goods trains had already been side-lined to sleep on the sleepers and countless businesses,many who don’t have the luxury of being able to close on a bank holiday had already decided not to open. Especially those in the hospitality sector where cancellations had ruled out any need for staff.

My train of thought here is that the UK had been held to ransom by the militant Rail Unions, something that had not happened in nearly 21 years.

And Unions who were prepared to hide behind their members’ interests to inflict maximum damage on a Tory Government they hated and the fragile economy we’ve all been lumbered with . An economy that’s now entered deflation, something that’s not happened since Harold Macmillan was PM in 1960.

A country burdened with trillions of pounds of debt and one where private business, which is leading a slow recovery would be crippled by strike action.

Like French Air traffic controllers who only seem to strike in the summer, when they can inflict most pain on the airlines, they knew when to call this strike and more importantly when to call it off.

They knew Network Rail, because it was a holiday weekend would buckle under the strain and pay up.

They had insidiously calculated that they had no stomach, or resources for a protracted stand- off and that there was next to no chance of them being taken to court.

And so it proved.

Job done either way, strike or not, the unions got what they wanted plus an extra £500 for each of their members.

As for all those people who, through no fault of their own, had their holiday plans wrecked or those businesses which were derailed.

Well yet again they were shunted aside and left steaming in the sidings!

I’m all for unions protecting their members and looking after their rights, but this snide action smacked of the dark days of the ’70s and ’80s when unions would strike over the colour of a boiler suit.

Days which I do not want to ever see return and one which we must signal our opposition to by having those red-in-the-bed militant antagonists run off the rails before they railroad us and the economy into the dirt.