Will Rudge hold his nerve?

Certainly, the procedures to enable Rudge to go ahead are in place.
Council human resources director Andy Albon has written to all employees affected by the pay and grading review informing them that, if they turn up for work on Monday, they will be deemed to have accepted the new contracts.
This is clearly a tactic aimed at concentrating the minds of about 16,000 workers who have followed union advice and are refusing to sign their contracts.
The unions, it should be noted, are in a difficult position.
They are talking tough about further industrial action, but half of their membership stands to gain substantially from the new grading system and may not be in the mood for walking out.
A revised offer put on the table by Rudge a couple of weeks ago, reducing again the number of employees suffering wage cuts, was somewhat grudgingly put to workers by union officials- but only in the form of confrontational 1970s-style mass meetings.
The meetings overwhelmingly rejected the new offer and demanded further strikes, but Rudge reckons fewer than 10 per cent of the 20,000 council union members were actually given the chance to have their say. He wants the revised offer to be put to a formal ballot.
Rudge will have to decide in the next day or two whether to offer the unions yet another olive branch. He has shown himself willing so far to extend talks and go the extra mile for a settlement.
There is still a better than evens chance that the date for implementing the new contracts will be put back again.
Watch this space.