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I’M wearing some casual trousers bought from Greenwood’s in Keighley several years ago.

£20 they cost and still in good nick, plenty of life left in them (unlike the wearer).

That’s the problem. The historic Bradford-based retailer who clothed my generation with stuff that practically never wears out (and to hell with fashion) has gone into administration.

Greenwoods, founded as a hat shop in 1860, still has more than 60 stores across the country, including one in Huddersfield’s Packhorse shopping centre.

That’s way down on the peak of about 200 but still a valuable High Street asset and the chain employs nearly 300 retail staff.

The business, which traditionally catered for gentlemen of a certain age – alright, 45+ – continues to trade and administrators Deloitte LLP are “assessing the options, including a possible sale.”

Greenwoods isn’t just another men’s outfitters. It’s a part of our way of life. RE we heading for another “winter of discontent” with rubbish piled in the streets?

I’m just back from Brighton where Unite union boss Len McLuskey is breathing fire and brimstone at the Trades Union Congress.

He threatens “coordinated strikes” across the entire public sector to smash the government’s hated pay cap.

Threatening is easy. Delivering isn’t, not since the Tories slyly changed the law to make legal industrial action as difficult as possible. And impossible in some emergency services.

The TUC set a target of a 5% wage rise for all five million workers involved, not just police officers and prison staff who get the promise of cap-busting increases today. Ministers have been warned not to “divide and rule” by cherry-picking uniformed employees and groups like teachers and nurses facing huge problems of labour retention. But that’s precisely what they will do, putting militant union leaders like Comrade Len to the test. And, more to the point, his members. I will back them if they come out. I always support workers on strike. I’ve been there, twice. It’s not pretty. First time, for four days, and we won. Second time, for five months, Threatening is easy. Delivering isn’t. Not since the Tories slyly changed the law to make legal industrial action as difficult as possible. in the infamous Wapping dispute of 1986/7, and sacked.

I’d do it all again because in the last resort the right to strike is a basic human right. That’s why it’s banned in totalitarian countries.

However, sabre-rattling at the seaside may not be the best way to proceed. It’s alright for the Unite boss to boast of a £36 million strike fund, and breaking the law that requires a 50% turnout in postal ballots to legitimise action.

But think back to the miners’ strike. The government and its allies used the courts to bust and bankrupt the National Union of Mineworkers. As an industrial force, it no longer exists.

They would dearly love to do the same to Unite and public service union Unison whose leader Dave Prentis is noticeably less militant.

So, steady as she goes. If the workers’ will is there, let it happen, and let’s see where it takes us.