It is soaring energy costs fuelling UK inflation – not humble pay rises

The government says it wants to tame public sector pay to fend off a highly unlikely wage-price spiral

For all of the warnings against a repeat of the 1970s, of industrial unrest, soaring inflation and national decline, it is this period in recent British history that Rishi Sunak wants the country to think of most.

Born in 1980, a year after the winter of discontent contributed to the fall of James Callaghan's Labour government, Sunak, like millions of others, has no memory of this turbulent decade. Yet the prime minister is hoping to rekindle the idea of greedy union barons bringing the country to its knees.