Isn't it a shame that industrial relations in the UK seem to have gone full circle. Back in the mid-1800s the employers were the ruthless new industrialists, the mill owners for whom employees were a necessary but unpleasant evil required to make the factories work. Then by the turn of the 20th century things had improved somewhat with far sighted industrialists such as Rowntree, Salt, Lever and Cadbury recognising that their staff were valuable assets, demonstrating social awareness and still making a fortune. One hundred years later and we're back where we started from. The staff are scum once again, an asset to be exploited ruthlessly, to be squeezed for every last uncomfortable saving regardless of its significance to the bottom line whilst the macho mill owners move from one industrial relations disaster to another, coining it in as they go. How depressing.