The Tory conference was a pseudo-sacred affair, with devotees paying homage in front of Thatcher’s old shrouds — and your reporter, initially barred, only need mention he’d once met her to gain access. But would she consider what was on offer a worthy legacy, asks ANDREW MURRAY

THE start of 2023 has seen new anti-trade union legislation that has further confirmed that this is an increasingly authoritarian government intent on ever-tightening restrictions on our right to resist.
The attacks on our right to strike are the latest addition to the long list of reactionary legislation that includes the so-called Public Order Bill and many other attacks.
As Richard Burgon MP recently said, “It’s clear that, faced with mounting unpopularity, the government is curtailing some of the basic freedoms that we have in a democratic society to oppose its decisions: at the ballot box, through peaceful protest and through strike action.”



