Brotherly disunity
 
It took Labour several years into its term of office before the British trade unions started to protest.  The novelty of supposed left-wing government for the first time in a generation was more than enough to keep them quiet.
 
Not so in Brazil.  There's to be a big protest against the Lula government's economic policies by CUT, the equivalent of the TUC.  What makes this more depressing for the Workers Party (PT) will be the fact that CUT and the PT were both forged in the same battles in the 1970s, many of its activists slipping between the two with ease.
 
To steal - and reverse - a phrase from Andrew Marr, is this the low water mark for Lula?  Or will there be losses in October's polls, after which things will improve?