Mr Blair described the Government's Fairness at Work reforms as an attempt to give, or restore to, employees rights to fair treatment in the workplace. The White Paper will reinstate safeguards which had been removed by successive Conservative administrations, particularly those led by Margaret Thatcher. She had been motivated largely by the imperative to rein in on union power which had been abused during the Callaghan years. She went too far in restricting the power of unions which had failed to exercise proper restraint.

New Labour could therefore strike a balance. It is neither beholden to the unions nor dismissive of them (the latter something which will not happen as long as they put so much money into party coffers). Mr Blair's Government is closer to business than any other Labour administration. And business has learned that it can live with Labour. These factors are all detectable in the White Paper, which over the piece is balanced. As far as the unions are concerned, the justifiable anger and disappointment caused by the requirement of a 40% employee threshold before the granting of recognition have largely been mitigated by a raft of welcome statutory measures.

These include granting all employees the right to union representation in dispute procedures, better protection against unfair dismissal, parental leave, and extending minimum paid maternity leave. Unions will rightly press to reduce the 40% rule so that it is in keeping with the spirit of New Labour's manifesto commitment to grant recognition based on a simple majority in a workplace ballot, something which, in government, it could not sell to employers. Business has little to fear. Those which treat their employees properly but do not recognise unions, such as Marks & Spencer, will not be pressured by unions which also live in the real world.