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Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shorts,

Spectators Daily Politics Podcast.

I'm Elizabeth Hardman and I'm joined by Katie Bals and James Forsyth.

Well, this week is going to be dominated by rail and tube strikes

with walkouts over the next few days on both National Rail and TFL lines.

Katie, just explain how we've got to this position. There's been a lot of complaining from

the Labour Party that Grant Shaps hasn't been convening talks between the rail operators

and the trade unions. The government's been saying, no, that's not our job.

So, how have we ended up with the strike's definitely going ahead?

Well, ultimately because no agreement has been found and there's no compromise or

it's an negotiated settlement as we speak. Of course, you kind of rule something out

happening ahead of tomorrow, but it's really hard to see that that would be the case,

particularly because as you've touched on, you have the transport secretary suggesting that

he is not going to be hands-on in these talks. Now, the government line is that this would add

more complications to the conversations that are already going, but I think it's a decision

by the government which can go two ways. In the sense, there is obviously a risk that looks as

they're not doing everything in their power to try to stop this. Now, if we go back to the

calls of the strikes in the first place, the RMT Rail Union wants a 7.1% pay rise,

then they also want to stop compulsory redundancies, which is down to plan closures of ticket officers.

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