So next week’s London tube strike is off. But in all the sound and fury over the bitter negotiations, there was little mention of what they might have cost business and the UK economy. Transport strikes inflict precisely the widespread misery they are intended to – that’s why they are such a powerful weapon for getting the way of the strikers. The financial damage they cause to a sickly economy is huge. And the possibility that tube drivers might turn their backs on their dead man’s handles – the train accelerator to you and me – during the Olympics next year is enough to strike terror into the heart of Government, who would be made to look impotent and pathetic if the capital ground to a standstill while the beach volleyballers frolic on Horseguards Parade.

You have to hand it to Bob Crow, the RMT leader – he’s played a blinder. The proposed strike was over not money but principle. It only had the support of 379 of the 1298 union members who were eligible to vote. And we all know Bob sticks by his principles. It was caused by the sacking of two union activists, one for breaking health and safety rules and the other for abusive behaviour. The ever-bungling Transport for London managed to lose one of the tribunals last week and it may well lose the other.

The whole thing is a ghastly mess and tempers are now so high that Mayor Johnson has had a huge punch up with Tory ministers about where to pin the blame. Johnson wants tougher anti-strike legislation from Westminster: they want him to keep his own house in order with a no strike agreement. Meanwhile Johnson and Crow can’t be left in a room together without a UN peacekeeping force in attendance.

But why the whole workforce of drivers has to walk out over something like this defies belief. These are the stupid ways of the bad old days of the 70s – days we hoped we’d all left behind. It doesn’t happen in 98% of public and private organisations in the UK. (It also doesn’t happen on London’s buses where the unions are more impotent and the wages are far lower than the £45,000 you get for the less skilful and demanding job of driving a tube train). But then Crow loves the ways of the past – he’s the trade union equivalent of a Velociraptor. Except not so clever.

The grim truth is that TfL is an appallingly badly-managed organisation with just about the worst labour relations it’s possible to have. It’s a near monopoly supplier to the suffering masses of the capital who have no choice but to use its dreadful service.

The mentality of its staff is summed up by a depressing incident I experienced a couple of weeks back. As I was wearily ascending the tube escalator at the end of a day and making my way towards the exit barrier, I watched as two yobs simply vaulted the obstacle and sauntered off to the street. They were observed by two members of staff who did nothing whatsoever to stop them. I asked why they did nothing and received not a word of response. Maybe they counted my question as the kind of abusive behaviour that they repeatedly lecture us they won’t tolerate on posters plastered all over the network.

I then went to the station manager’s office and had a word with him through the glass. He refused to say anything, either. A pretty odd attitude towards a customer who reluctantly puts getting on for two grand each year into their pockets. If they’d had the courage to say, ‘I’m not getting a knife in the guts for the sake of three pounds,’ or even ‘More than my job’s worth, mate,’ I might have sympathised. But no. It was the customary talking to a brick wall. And we can’t even privatise them to sharpen up their act and attitude. We already tried that and it failed.