Strike's a damp squib, jeers David Cameron

David Cameron infuriated union leaders today by branding the public sector pensions strike "a damp squib" that failed to cripple Britain.

He claimed victory in the Commons, boasting that major airports and transport systems were working, four in 10 schools were open and less than a third of civil servants had walked out.

"It looks like something of a damp squib," crowed the Prime Minister during rowdy Commons exchanges. However, millions of children went without lessons and hospital operations were postponed in a day of widespread protest.

In London 1,629 schools closed, 402 were disrupted and only 180 were unaffected. Half the capital's ambulance workers went on strike. Thousands of nurses, teachers and other civil servants took to the streets in marches up and down the country.

Some 36,000 NHS workers joined the picket lines.

Mr Cameron condemned the strikes as "irresponsible and damaging" and said pension reforms were "absolutely essential". But Labour leader Ed Miliband accused him of being secretly "delighted" to have a punch-up with the unions.

Mark Serwotka, leader of the Public and Commercial Services union, said Mr Cameron was talking "nonsense". "Cameron needs to get out more and see the real anger on the streets instead of slinging mud," he told the Standard.

The TUC said: "To call the biggest strike in a generation a 'damp squib' is from the Department of Propaganda."

Up to 30,000 union members met at Lincoln's Inn Fields to march through central London and gathered for a rally at Victoria Embankment.

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