As we learn that 100,000 civil servants are going to go on strike, Guido wonders how we will be able to tell? Most of them are staying home on days when they are “working”.

It’s worth taking a look at how difficult it will be to tell they are striking. The Government’s most recent published figures for office occupancy shows that even the best attended office (Health) has less than half the staff coming in to the office:

It hardly looks like the strikes will bring the country to a halt or even be noticeable. If some of the more bolshy civil servants form a picket line outside it will be the first time this year that many of them will have made an effort to come to the office…