But this ballot is a little different. Crow and the RMT union have actually won their campaign to break-up the tube PPP and the public sector is now back in control of renovating the London Underground.

All should be well at Crow towers now the Tube Lines consortium of Amey and Bechtel has been bought-out by Transport for London.

But Crow and his cronies are not content with winning that war and have sparked another battle by demanding that all jobs are protected and pay rates maintained under the new regime.

Talk about having your cake and eating it. Crow may not have noticed but the economic landscape has shifted and guaranteed jobs and pay rises are a thing of the past – even in the public sector.

To paint the operation to upgrade the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines as a ruthlessly efficient machine that cannot bear job cuts or efficiency savings is a total nonsense.

Anyone walking past a closed tube station late at night who has to step over an army of maintenance workers waiting to actually gain access to the track can see that.

It must be galling to Crow that his campaign to rid the underground of PPP operators has co-incided with an efficiency drive among the public sector.

But that is the cold reality of the world today and staging a strike ballot will anger the traveling public and cause yet more delay in the network’s upgrade.

Crow was pictured over the weekend hurling abuse at the visiting football manager during Dagenham  & Redbridge’s play-off win.

The RMT leader was calmed down by stewards before the situation got out of hand. Perhaps it is time the country gave him a red card once and for all.