REFLECT on the Wapping dispute four decades later and many things come to mind. Rupert Murdoch’s influence on trade union law was apparent then and since. Its plans for the trade unions were set out in the Stepping Stones Report and the Ridley Report, both in 1977. It gave workers the upper hand in “wage share,” ie the proportion of GDP going to wages rather than profits. The Wapping dispute played, therefore, a historically important part in the establishment of the neoliberal economy which, as we now see, has reduced Britain to penury.

Source: The Times January 25, 2026 11:41 UTC