Brown Shitstorm posted by Richard Seymour

It seems Gordon Brown is walking into Downing Street just as a labour revolt is brewing on several fronts over pay. Aside from the teachers and postal workers who are being balloted for strike action, and the civil servants and health workers who are fighting against Brown's 2% pay ceiling, the midwives are threatening strike action for the first time in 125 years. And Brown is apparently feeling the heat, having told Royal Mail bosses that: "I’m not coming into 10 Downing Street with a post strike going on – get this sorted."

Meanwhile, an important test case at the European Court of Justice has decided in favour of trade unions having a right to force companies supplying labour from outside a country to apply domestic pay rates, thus preventing wage depression. That fight is far from over: guess which side Brown will be on?