It seems a little like de je vous but the current impasse on the national pay negotiations does now seem rather familiar. What a position to be in?

The trade unions and employer side poles apart, strikes of yester-year organised and councils in the midst of their worst budget round since the start of the austerity pressures.

As the LGA suggested a few months ago, perhaps the current negotiating machinery in local government is well and truly broken. Clearly, this year there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that it isn’t!