TAKE a peek through the keyhole of Number 11 Downing Street and you are likely to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer shovelling huge amounts of cash into a war chest.

It's his fighting fund, or at least the Government's, and he is busy filling the chest with income tax, petrol duty and VAT, so when it comes to election time next year, he can afford to make all sorts of expensive concessions to buy votes.

It's a job Gordon Brown has to do and he does it hoping and believing the public mind has a very short memory. While dissent at the moment is running high, in particular over the cost of fuel, he hopes it will soon be forgotten, a distant memory by the time the canvassers knock on people's doors.

Lorry drivers across the country are showing a militancy not seen in this country for 15 years, since Margaret Thatcher's Government broke the backs of the miners and the heart of unionism.

Bus drivers have recently been on a similar bandwagon, taking industrial action over pay and conditions and winning small concessions from management.

The latest unity is an anachronism that was never expected to be seen again, and a major headache for a political party founded on unionism.

The catalyst for the revival, ironically, has come from Europe, where traditionally governments and unions have worked together closely to achieve harmony and avoid disruption.

New European legislation, particularly on human rights, works in the favour of workers and encourages unionism. For instance, employers now have to recognise the unions they once derecognised if more than 50 per cent of the workforce joins up.

On the price of fuel, the columns of national and local newspapers have been full of letters demanding the Government does something to help.

Until recently no one has taken a blind bit of notice with many demonstrations falling flat, general apathy from the public and indifference from ministers.

It's taken the action of French farmers and fishermen to focus public attention on an issue that the British have hitherto moaned about incessantly but nonetheless accepted.

Our Gallic cousins may still be paying 20p a litre less for their fuel than drivers in this country but a recent increase in costs was still enough to provoke a violent reaction, including Channel blockades.

Normally, such action would be viewed in this country with a disapproving look from the British public; ungentlemanly action to be derided.

Not this time. The mood of the nation, particularly towards the French, has suddenly changed and the man and woman in the street are now saying not only "good on them", but " we should do the same". The British blockades of major roads and fuel depots, which have left traffic in chaos and petrol pumps dry, have shown it is now more than just talk.

One of the most surprising things is that the chat on the petrol forecourt, as car drivers are turned away empty-handed, does not blame the lorry drivers for staging the blockade, nor the oil-bearing nations for shoving up the cost of crude. It doesn't even blame the French.

It lays the blame fairly and squarely on the Government for lining its pockets.

Kate Gibbs, of the Road Haulage Association, says the action reflects the abject level the industry has been driven to.

"These are desperate measures that reflect a desperate crisis within the country. Things have never been this bad before, and people have been inspired by what has happened in France.

"Whereas in the past they have forgotten that direct action could be used, now people are voting with their trucks.

"We want to see concessions made to fuel users. We pay the highest rate of tax yet really see little benefit from this. The road haulage industry pays vast amounts to the Treasury, very little comes back to give benefits to our society.

"Also the Government's excuse that education will suffer if tax is cut is completely false and used to fob people off from taking action. I don't think that the Government can ignore the action this time."

But North-East academic David Holding doesn't see how the Government can make concessions now. If it did, what would be left for it to concede in the run up to the General Election and how would it pay for those concessions?

"I don't think the Government is going to cave in and take 10p a litre of the price of fuel," he says. "It can't afford to and it would open the floodgates."

However, he believes the current situation is interesting in how it differs from the oil crisis of 1973 and the miners' strike of 1984-5.

When Opec increased the price of oil by 70 per cent in the 1970s it was a punitive attack on the West for supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur war. The situation was exacerbated by industrial unrest in coal mines, railways and power stations which led to blackouts and petrol shortages. Just over ten years later when the miners went on strike, again it was a populace insurrection against an employer and government which was deemed to be exploiting the workers.

Today's blockades do not represent worker versus management but, more often than not, small-time management versus Government.

According to Mr Holding, an expert in operations and analysis at the human resources department in Northumbria University's business school, many of the protestors are the bosses of small haulage businesses, the very people who are suffering the most from the high price of diesel.

"The haulage industry is fragmented, averaging about three trucks per firm. They are under pressure the most, the bigger operators haven't been. So it's not industrial action in the conventional sense. It's the employers this time, but if you have to drive one of your own trucks then you are very close to the workface."

Mr Holding says the issue has been simmering for some time and some earlier actions simply fizzled out. But the French action rekindled the unrest.

"It shows the difference between Britain and France. The French have a much greater instinct of solidarity, that is where the British fall apart."

The strength of the tanker drivers, traditionally a militant force, broke up with derecognition of unions. Big companies doled out the work to a large number of small firms that were scared of losing contracts which imposed a financial discipline on the workforce.

While in Europe unions are seen as militant, they have always been more collaborative than in Britain. Union officials sit on supervisory boards. "They say 'let's sit down and talk this out' rather than 'man the barricades'," Mr Holding says. "The main impression is that European employers go into situations with much more an attitude of compromise than confrontation."

With this in mind there is no need for either side to back down, simply to come to an agreement, both sides having made concessions, neither losing face.

But in Britain the divide between labour and Labour remains as wide as ever, with no sign of anyone pouring oil on troubled waters.