A LITTLE more than a generation ago, Britain was brought to its knees by a series of strikes in the Winter of Discontent.

The disputes, which saw public service workers among those who walked out, eventually led to the collapse of Jim Callaghan's government and ushered in the long years of Thatcherism.

Those who lived through the winter of 1978-79 will never forget scenes of piles of uncollected rubbish decomposing in the street and even, in some places, bodies going unburied because the gravediggers were on strike.

Tomorrow, public sector workers are due to join a one-day strike which will be their biggest industrial walk out since those grim days.

Nationally, union leaders said the strike was a way of underlining their demand for a "realistic" pay rise of six per cent - instead of the three per cent they had been offered - at a time when the Government was prepared to invest massively in the public sector.

Locally, Unison, the TGWU and the GMB are all expecting their rank-and-file members to take part and cause disruption to schools, libraries, refuse collections and social services.

And that, of course, means than ordinary people will be in the firing line. How hard we will be hit is open to question, with much depending on how many workers obey the strike call.

The best Worcestershire County Council can do by way of advice is to warn the public to check with individual schools, libraries and so on, to find out what's happening.

In other words, brace yourselves for a difficult day and hope the dispute can be settled quickly.