Unison’s leadership is mostly famous for being useless at everything except Trot-hunting. Yet sometimes the outside world impinges on bureaucrats’ concerns.

Dave Prentis speaking yesterday at the union’s conference is reported to have said that "the Government "won’t know what hit them" if it takes on public sector workers and cuts services, pay and pensions. You do have to wonder if the press officer who wrote the phrase “with conference delegates inspired by his words” did so with a straight face but it’s a straw in the wind that even the most undistinguished apparatchiks have to talk left at the moment.

“If this government picks a fight with us, then we will be ready for them,” declared general secretary Dave Prentis to a packed and cheering audience of members.

“Do not underestimate us. We will be fierce defenders of our members and the services they deliver. The government won’t know what hit them.

“Don’t get me wrong. We are not looking for a fight,” he added. “We will always be prepared to talk, to engage – to negotiate, that’s what trade unions do. And where we find agreement, to move forward.

But he did not shy away from the strongest defence of public sector pensions.

“If Nick Clegg comes for our pensions, as he boasted only yesterday, then we will ballot for national strike action,” he affirmed to noisy and enthusiastic applause.

Dave Prentis was scathing in his view of Cameron and Clegg – “politics’ answer to Jedward” – and their repeated warnings about the debt and the deficit. What they are proposing is “gutting, not cutting” public services, he said.

But he had a different message for UNISON members.

“The biggest danger is that people accept the propaganda that all this is inevitable. That there is no alternative. But we will not allow people to lose hope. We will stand up for a better way.”

There is an alternative, he said. The choice for the employers is to stop cutting pay and conditions, and start cutting out the contractors and management consultants.

The choice for the councils, he said, is to stop council tax giveaways that benefit a few and start protecting the services needed by the many.

And he had a special message for George Osborne: “Even you – you do have a choice. Stop taking money from schools, hospitals, care homes. Have the guts to go back to the banks, the speculators, the profiteers. And tell them on our behalf – you pay for it.”

With conference delegates inspired by his words, the general secretary hammered home the rallying cry to defend public services.

“We begin that fight, here, today. We will organise. We will organise public meetings and street demonstrations, in towns and cities, up and down the country. We will build lasting community alliances, to defend our public services… We will promote an alternative economic political and social agenda.”

He stated that the union would only support a candidate for the leadership of the Labour Party who is ready to stand up and fight against cuts and privatisation.
And he received a standing ovation for his rousing closing words:

“It is time to stand tall. We know who we are. This is the time to lift our hearts and raise our flag. A brand new chapter. Strong, determined, united. This is really our time.”