Interesting to see Francis Maude quoted at the weekend, suggesting that the Government would be “ok” if the Unions just staged a “token” strike for 15 minutes on the planned day of action on November 30th.

There were also some side swipes at the Union personnel involved in the negotiations with Mark Serwotka being described as “too grand to come to meetings…politically motivated…. and betraying his members”.

Once more, one is left with the irresistible feeling that there isn’t a real negotiation going on with the Unions here. The Government seems reconciled to a day of action going ahead, so the real negotiation is with the wider public, to gain their support for the Government’s position. In this context, the 15 minute strike “offer” is surely not expected to be taken seriously by the Unions, but it is another example of the government wanting to be seen as being “reasonable”. Equally, rubbishing of the other side in public is hardly conducive to getting a deal done, but it does play up to traditional public stereotyping of an old fashioned Union leader as aggressive and overbearing.

The “offer” of the 15 minute strike deal is also accompanied by a threat – abandon the strikes or face legislation making it illegal to strike without at least 50% of members voting for a strike. Threatening the other side is a “push” behaviour, which in the seeming absence of meaningful negotiation to date can only serve to heighten the tension.

Finally there has been much written about Francis Maude playing “Good Cop” in the negotiation and Danny Alexander playing “Bad Cop”. Good Cop/Bad Cop is a pressure tactic which can normally be punctured by letting the other side know that you know what’s going on. (Next time someone tries it on you, try saying to them; “I’m confused here. One of you is being great about this and the other is giving me a hard time. Why don’t we take a break, then you two can agree a common approach, and we can start again”). Those who play Good Cop/Bad Cop are normally more interested in the application of pressure to get the result that they want rather than a solution that meets everybody’s needs, so this may be another sign that the Government is more interested in managing the expectations of the public at large than thrashing out a genuine deal…