Thatcher didn't set out to smash the unions because they of anything they were doing wrong. She set out to smash thjem because she hated unions, and she'd grown up hating them, something she'd learned from her father, who had a bust of Adolf Hitler on his mantelpiece at one time.

Anything that a union did that was over the top or could be made to look that way by a press controlled by her cronies was just what she and they wanted.

And the first moral of that is that we all need to make sure we are members of our union, and keep control of it, so that it helps us fight and win the battles we want it to fight, as and when necessary, and takes care of what needs doing in between. And the second moral is that you can never rely on the mass media to tell the truth - and with the internet, there are now other and better ways of getting the word out, if we get our act together.

But I really don't envy the naive people who think that you don't need a union these days because the nice kind boss is on your side, and we're all partners and colleagues. When push come to shove the nice kind boss is probably going to have his neck on the line himself, if he doesn't do what his boss tells him and turn as nasty as need be.