"Holding the country to ransom" is Daily Mail parroting and has been for decades. If anyone holds the country to ransom it's big companies who constantly threaten to pull out, forcing us to let them pay less corporation tax, and the mega-rich who have taken everything and who have armies of accountants to make sure they give nothing back. Sort the tax evaders out and the deficit would disappear overnight. But we can't do that, because, why, they're holding us to ransom! But you'd rather think that it was the bloke with poor wages who knackers himself underground every day in filthy, dark and dangerous conditions just to keep your lights on who's holding us to ransom when he fights for better conditions and a wage rise, using the only tool in his armoury, his labour. You have a very peculiar way of looking at things to say the least.