As promising as the FDP's current rise is, by next year, supply siders and "locusts" may have a much harder time again in Germany.

WSJ: Daniel Schwammenthal: Germany��s Free-Market FDP Is on the Rise

For the time being she is barely known outside the union movement, but the honeymoon will surely end by the time she takes over from the TUC's current general secretary Brendan Barber next year - and as austerity bites harder.

BBC: Profile: Frances O'Grady, the new TUC general secretary