Train drivers will strike for two days in the coming weeks, on 30 September and 4 October. These dates are no coincidence: they directly overlap with when MPs and attendees will be travelling to and from the Conservative party conference in Manchester. This move from Aslef and the RMT is far from subtle: the unions may be locked in a pay battle with train companies, but it’s the government’s attention they are hoping to get.

The train strikes add to a growing list of other walkouts planned over the next few weeks. Consultants and junior doctors will also be walking out separately this month. But then in an unprecedented move, they will be striking at the same time, from October 2-4. Again, this is a direct overlap with the party conference.

It seems our winter and summer of discontent will continue into the autumn

The decision to strike during the conference is overtly political. These strikes guarantee that every speech delivered by a minister at conference will be reported alongside analysis of what’s happening outside the ‘secure zone’, in the rest of the country, where the strikes are playing out. But while the unions hope to cause as much chaos for the Tories as possible, the real damage will be done to travellers and patients: another round of delayed trains, another round of cancelled medical appointments. The joint walkout between junior doctors and consultants poses an even greater risk to what we’ve seen so far this year. Patients are being told to expect Christmas levels of service, which boils down to emergency care, but with both groups out of hospital, concern for patient safety is heightened.

It seems our winter and summer of discontent will continue into the autumn. How might the public respond? While the support for junior doctors remains close to 60 per cent, the majority continue to oppose rail strikes and consultant walkouts: according to YouGov polling over the summer, 52 per cent oppose the rails trikes, versus 37 supporting them, while 50 per cent oppose consultant walkouts, versus 42 per cent in support. It’s not helped by the fact that these workers earn well above the average median salary in the UK: just under £60,000 a year for train drivers. The starting salary for an NHS consultant sits at over £93,000 a year.

So it’s likely the unions will get their wish and cause real problems for the government; but it’s not obvious they won’t cause problems for themselves, too.