A new industrial strategy announced by the Government is a bold admission that market forces by themselves cannot be relied upon to drive prosperity. Wealth creation requires both capital and labour, and labour needs a voice too. It also needs more weight, because what employees can achieve on their own is strictly limited. The second ingredient, which both labour and capital can easily overlook, is a wider cultural change so that work is viewed more positively, and workers are granted the dignity they deserve.

Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, told a conference at the Vatican this week that the world of work needed another Cardinal Manning. The famous intervention by the Archbishop of Westminster in the 1889 London Dock Strike led to his name and image being carried on trade union banners in May Day processions alongside that of Karl Marx.