That Starmer fella...

This is one of the left's three comforting myths and it does us damage on a daily basis. If someone disagrees with us we assume they are either: being paid, evil, ignorant.

I also know that the vast majority of people on zero-hours contracts are not members of a union. It is therefore my belief that the union model does not work for people on zero-hours contracts.

There are significant legal and cultural barriers to labour organising, especially for precarious, informal workforces that operate predominantly on the 0-hour model. Those barriers exist because unionising works, not the other way around.

You know what MIGHT work for people on zero-hours contracts? Labour being in power and ensuring that the conversation with businesses is two way, based on trust, and therefore having the credibility to remind businesses of the social contract they have with their employees.

Yes, absolutely. Though you are now talking about "trust" and "social contract" which are relatively washy terms in context of business, and certainly not a concrete legal backbone to ensuring rights are upheld and betterment achieved.

It's what Blair did when he introduced minimum wage.

Minimum wage had been debated in the Labour Party for years – and originated as a position on the left. It was opposed by business at the time and seen as a vulnerability rather than a winning policy.