PETER HITCHENS defends Birmingham bin strikes in clash with SARAH VINE (2025)

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Best-selling author Peter Hitchens surprisingly defended the binmen on strike in Birmingham despite the protestations of co-host Sarah Vine on the latest episode of Alas Vine & Hitchens.

A major incident was declared in Birmingham in March after the Unite union encouraged binmen to strike over pay.

The dispute has dragged on into April, leaving heaps of rubbish strewn all over the city. The strikers claim about 170 affected workers could lose up to £8,000 a year if planned cost-cutting measures from the bankrupted Birmingham City Council go ahead.

'Having been a Labour industrial correspondent in those key battle times of the late Callaghan and early Thatcher years, I can tell you there are quite often two sides to these things', Hitchens said.

'You hear, for instance, that Birmingham councilors have increased their allowances at a time when they are reducing the pay of binmen.

'If someone comes along and tells a working person, you've had certain conditions up till now and we're taking them away; you've had a certain level of pay and it's going down; you can see why people get annoyed.'

Mail columnist Sarah Vine clapped back on the show, arguing that the Labour government is at fault for the unnecessary strike that only functions to hurt people uninvolved in the dispute.

'This is a story about Unions and Labour', Vine declared.

'As in the 1970s, we have a Labour government totally in the thrall of the unions. Angela Rayner has been giving them more and more power with her new employment rules.

'I think we're talking about seven jobs here in total, which were all brought in as the result of another strike in 2017. The people involved have already been offered new jobs.

'You say these are reasonable employment requests – this is really about political power and who is running Britain.'

The latest pay offer issued by Birmingham City Council to end the strikes was resoundingly rejected last Tuesday.

Unite labeled the proposed deal as 'totally inadequate' and it was denied by 97% of the membership.

While Hitchens conceded that some strikes are 'just stupid', citing the steel strike of 1980, most actions against employers do have some basis away from politics.

'What I learned over and over again', Hitchens began.

'There are some strikes that are just plain stupid. The strike against the closure of the steel plants… there was a moronic strike. Or Arthur Scargill's mining strike, which was effectively a coup d'etat that needed to be defeated.

'But there are other strikes where there is something on either side. I think that might be the case here.

'Although striking is a form of blackmail, a society where you are not able to withdraw your labour, is not a free society.'

Vine replied: 'But not everybody has the freedom to withdraw their labour: that's the key thing.

'Sometimes in life, things do get taken away from you – but for good reasons.'

Listen to Alas Vine & Hitchens, with Sarah Vine and Peter Hitchens wherever you get your podcasts now. New episodes are released every Wednesday.

Angela RaynerLabour

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