WATCH out, the unions are coming! The Daily Mail reports today how Unite union chieftain Len McCluskey told Ed Miliband that his three wishes for a Labour government would be “trade union freedoms, trade union freedoms and trade union freedom.” A trade union leader wanting more trade union freedoms, whatever next? Conservative chairman Grant Shapps warns in response that it suggests a “plot to take over Labour and cripple Britain with strikes”.

Here the DM reports: “Mr McCluskey – known as Red Len – spoke at an event last month about his conversation with Mr Miliband but his remarks went unreported until they were leaked yesterday.”

Leaked is a funny old word. As even the newspaper explains, McCluskey’s leaked quotes came from a talk he gave at the London School of Economics last month. They were not leaked from some sort of clandestine, basement meeting of gunpowder socialists. Instead, he spoke of his hopes for greater union representation within the Labour Party at an open-to-all public lecture which was leaked broadcast live on the LSE website. A recording of his comments  can be heard on there today and his quotes were also leaked reported in that week’s edition of the – woo hoo! – New Journal.

If these union barons are trying to stop their top secret world domination plans from being leaked, it seems, they are going the wrong way about it. Speaking at a public lecture, silly, a schoolboy mistake.