But at Vodafone, where members of the communication workers union Connect have successfully concluded a long campaign for union recognition, there is a cause to bring even the most mild mannered of white collar workers to the barricades – the state of the staff canteen.

Writing earlier this month, as the campaign reached its climax, the anonymous author of the Connect in Vodafone blog, claimed that the food on offer to staff at the company’s Newbury headquarters is one of the issues raised most frequently with union reps.

Not only, complains our blogger, will a subsidised sandwich set you back £4 and a hot (“slightly warm”) meal as much as £6, but the chef only runs to five choices – “affectionately known as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday”.

Worse still, having had to queue to pay, diners then have to sit in a dining room decorated with a shirt signed by the England cricket team that lost the Ashes, and another signed by Newbury’s second division rugby team.

The horror never stops. If staff at Newbury have it tough, then spare a thought for those in the Hayes office, whose view is spoiled by the presence of the M4 motorway and Heathrow airport.

To paraphrase Basil Fawlty, what do they expect to see from an office in Hayes? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plains?