UK tabloid the Daily Mirror was near the mark with its "Summer of Discontent" headline in reference to the strikes mushrooming across the country.

For certain sectors, these strikes are their first in many years.

The last time port workers put down their tools at UK's biggest container port, Felixstowe, was in 1989. Postal workers went on strike in 2013 - and legal-aid criminal case barristers going on strike was unheard of.

At the center of the avalanche of industrial action is the boiling issue of mounting living costs stoked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The energy crisis caused by the war has pushed up international oil and gas prices, with knock-on effects being felt throughout the supply chains.

Before the war, Russia was Europe's major energy supplier. Although Britain imported its oil and gas from other sources, European Union states scrambling for alternative supplies has stretched non-Russian supplies overall.

Electricity and gas bills that were already increased in April are set to go up again by almost 90 percent in October and inflation has hit above 10 percent to reach a 40-year high.

Now British workers are saying normal pay adjustments - ranging from a few percent to as much as 10 percent - are not enough to meet their increased living costs. For example, port workers at Felixstowe rejected a 7 percent pay rise offer.

And in Scotland, garbage is piling up on the streets of capital city Edinburgh after bin workers went on strike.

Those are scenes that would baffle newcomers, including those arriving from Hong Kong on BNO visas.

Jaw dropping as the ongoing and upcoming strikes look to be, they would have been impossible most elsewhere.

However, people who have lived in Britain for some time know that the right of everyone to take industrial action is part of the culture.

People are affected by industrial action but they also know that, when it comes to their turn to feel a need to strike, others would understand and respect them.

Like it or not, this is how this ancient country runs its democracy.

Meanwhile the Conservative Party leadership race continues. With Foreign Secretary Liz Truss set to take over from Boris Johnson to become the next prime minister, she will have to face the hot issues of strikes and high living costs immediately.

But she will be unable to solve these problems - and neither could Labour's Keir Starmer if he were prime minister.

The answer to runaway inflation - and, therefore, pay disputes - rests with an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, after which global food and energy supplies will ease.

Brexit has conveniently been blamed for the super-inflation facing Britons. However, comparable inflation on the other side of the English Channel fails to lend credence to that theory.

Like the British, mainland Europeans will also have to tighten their belts until the war ends.

It may be ironic to say so, but the industrial action helps lubricate a frictional society, allowing the British to vent their anger over rising living costs.

Strikes show true Brit mettle