"Unlawful, unwarranted and unworkable."

A recent anti-austerity demo in Liverpool

That's how Steve Cavalier, the chief executive of Thompson's Solicitors, described the Trade Union Bill to MPs on the Trade Union Bill Committee yesterday. Read more of what he said here.

Sajid Javid, the business secretary, is behind the bill that plans to ban strikes by key public sector workers unless they are supported by at least 40 per cent of all of those eligible to vote. But in May's general election, he himself was supported by just 38.3% of the 74,000 people eligible to vote in his Bromsgrove constituency. Like most Tory MPs, he wouldn't have reached the threshold he is setting for trade unions.