ON behalf of Keighley Trades Union Council can I wish readers, and especially trade union members and their families, a merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Not of course that the super-rich need it as they continue to bleed the country dry with their excessive greed (there may be a Christmas message there as well!).

Sadly, wishing on a star is not going to pay the gas and electric bills, the overpriced fuel and daily rising food costs. The Government’s message is very clear. Just because we have wrecked the British economy doesn’t mean that we are going to pay for it. That task falls upon you, working people, who have no responsibility for the current mess.

But there is a ray of hope, a bright star is beginning to shine. The British trade union movement has begun to discover its fighting traditions. Millions are relearning the centuries-old lessons that only struggle brings about change. Only trade unions can defend workers’ living standards.

As we enter the new year we are at the beginning of the journey to redistribute wealth and bring about social justice. It will be long and hard and suffer defeats on the way, but the course is set. A new generation will have no choice but to fight. As millions go into battle to defend jobs and living standards they will learn in days what has been forgotten for decades.

Our seasonal message is “victory to the strikers” – the railway workers, postal workers, nurses and NHS workers, teachers and college lecturers, dockers, oil workers, bus drivers, private-sector manufacturing workers, and those that will join them in the coming months.

In years to come children will ask their parents, “what did you do in 2023?”. Our wish is that they will be able to answer with pride.

Steve Davison, president, Keighley TUC

* Email your letters to alistair.shand@keighleynews.co.uk