RMT leader Eddie Dempsey's stark warning shook up a fringe meeting at the Scottish TUC

FOR some time now, the New Year has for me fallen into a bit of a routine. Hogmanay happens also to be my birthday, and drink, as they say, was taken. A low key affair though, our house had something working on us, and we stayed at home.
The wind howled outside when I ventured out at the bells to blow on the post horn. For another year the neighbours demonstrated their tolerance. As this little ritual took place, there was to have been the big Hogmanay in Edinburgh.
The city has become synonymous with the celebration, over the years, as council and businesses alike cash in on the picture-postcard sight of the castle illuminated by fireworks after the ramparts had echoed to the sound of the big gun.

There are only two things that stand between workers and the musket’s volley today - the ballot and the union, asserts MATT KERR