A week of strikes against Con-Dem pay cuts climaxed on Saturday in a spirited 100,000-strong show of force by people working harder than ever under poverty wages. 

Nurses, midwives, carers and civil servants marched through central London with thousands more workers days after taking to the picket lines to demand their first real-terms pay rise since the Tories took power.

Speaking at the vast Britain Needs a Pay Rise rally in Hyde Park, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady praised their determination and said: “This is what solidarity feels like.”