Tony Blair was yesterday warned off radical public sector reform by TUC chief John Monks.

Raising the spectre of 1970's union militancy, the TUC's general secretary expressed his concern that some in Labour seemed to relish the prospect of a show down with public sector unions.

"I say to them 'Look at the lessons of history'. Look at 1978-79 when there was such a confrontation and it was an electoral disaster for Labour and trade unionism. We still walk with those ghosts of 20 years ago," he told delegates an AEEU conference.

Arguing that "privatisation was not the way forward", Monks urged ministers to seek a partnership with trade unions and he warned that "if public servants are regarded as second-class the services will remain second class".

Also looking back to the dim and distant 70's, the Times connects higher than forecast inflation - at 2.4 per cent - and planned RMT guards strikes on June 25 and July 4 to raise its own ghosts of the fall of Jim Callaghan's Labour government in 1979.

Teaching unions have threatened to strike over plans to get teachers to train in their own time.