Nobody forces those workers who go on strike to do so. The days of the closed shop and lightning strike are gone. Thatcher ensured that trade unions need to jump through incessant hoops before their membership can withdraw their labour. The fact that the vast majority of public service employees have voted to strike in the last 6 months should inform you that this isn't some isolated case of an evil union baron leading his/her/their sheep. People are voting to strike because after a decade of real term wage cuts, they can't afford their mortgages (or more likely rent). They can't afford to feed their families as they should. My wife has police officers working for her who claim universal credit...these are serving officers doing 40 hours of shift work a week...and their diminished wages don't support them and their families. That's what we've come to. It isn't time for another public enquiry...or debate as to how we can afford to pay key workers a living wage. Public servants need better pay NOW! If we want properly performing public services, we need to pay for them. There's only one solution - the tax haul needs to be bigger and spent in services and those who provide them. Those who can afford to pay more tax, need to do just that. However, under consecutive Tory governments, the aim has been for them to pay less, creating the current imbalance and need to do something urgently to start to redress it. It ain't difficult to understand and in France, they'd be setting things alight.
I think we have a new front-runner for images that sum up the UK's actual standing on the world stage
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how mixed economies work. We've decided to purchase our health care on a socialised basis because we think it's more efficient and fairer. There is no reason at all why that should alter what individual doctors and nurses are paid. If their pay is too low to attract sufficient new entrants then the rest of us are robbing them, not the other way around. Public services are just as likely to add value as the private sector. In the US the entire healthcare industry is in what you've labelled the commercial sector. That simply means it's funded in a different way, it doesn't alter the value it adds.
Good to see that half the western world is run by a petty, neurotic urchin afraid that a TV show might make him look like what he is
Thank you all for your measured responses. I feared that as almost the entire content of this board is leftward leaning I would be labelled a rabid Tory and my words twisted. I do not consider myself left or right as I see pluses and minuses in most political perspectives so prefer not to adhere to a label. If I were to choose one though it would be liberal with a small "l". I am also an unfashionable conscientious objector who believes it simply wrong to take another person's life. (This is a very difficult area for me when you consider the likes of killing Hitler to save many more lives - a conundrum) I like the Yogic philosophy of "Ahimsa" or harmlessness - in thought word and deed. I do not believe in any god so think mankind has to set its own rules. I have not really expressed (deliberately) views on the medical profession in this but if I were to it would only be to say that if I did agree with strikes they would be first on my list of those permitted to do so. Despite Treble's opinion on me I do respect the medical profession. As I said they saved my wife's life when she had a heart attack, again when she had renal cancer and had an eight hour operation to remove the kidney and various other things and thirdly when she had a massive stroke which has left her unable to walk or talk. I just think strikes are a form of blackmail. To say to someone "do this or I cause harm" is a definition of blackmail. Maybe some of you think the end justifies the means - perhaps it does. However then consider the sliding scale of who you would support in striking and what damage you would accept they are allowed to inflict. One aside - the term Junior Doctor is not designed to belittle anybody - it refers to a specific set of doctors who have yet to complete the requisite number of years post qualification training. I have said many times I think our system is broken - Brexit has only highlighted how much even more. Things like the NHS was set up decades ago to deal with what were then fairly limited and relatively inexpensive conditions. We need a root and branch Rethink of our whole society. What we need to fund and how. I suspect that doubling th eamount spent on health and care would hardly be sufficient. Yes taxes would have to rise - but if we lived in a better fairer society it would be most welcome.
I think you are wrong to use the term blackmail. Strikers are not threatening harm they are just deciding not to work and not be paid. They are committing no illegal acts so cannot be blackmailing anyone. I usually also think of myself as a liberal where I would allow people to do anything that doesn't harm anyone else. However that would exclude a lot of behaviour that is permitted by current laws which don't restrict damaging behaviour enough in my opinion.
Just definitively so. They're not threatening to reveal anything or even do anything. It's almost the opposite. This is especially true in this situation, where the government are opposed to negotiating. They've decided to apply this across the board in the hope that it'll all go away.
Of course the gobblers of Exlax's knob are attacking the BBC for "bias" Because in their minds, "bias" is stating any fact that demonstrates their billionaire manchild god is a clueless bumblecunt and always has been
Ok - we can disagree over the term blackmail. If though I am paid to do a job which if I refuse to do it may cost lives that is threatening harm - it is not as if someone else can step into the breach. Arguments about justification for action is another issue. Doctors leaders on TV have admitted people may die due to the strikes - a direct consequence but I am perfectly aware that strikes are not illegal. Striking is a historic practice which should play no part in the modern world. Nobody would strike if they did not intend their action to cause harm and the aim is to get what they want. Compulsory arbitration is the short term answer. Figuring out how to pay everyone a decent living wage and to prevent others being paid excessively without paying a decent proportion to the public purse is what is really required. More than that we need to develop a post-Scandinavian health and welfare system that meets today's and tomorrow's needs. Who is harmed by strikes? The workers themselves who lose pay and the public who need a service. If anyone believes that strikes help the working man's cause politically then they have not looked at election results in times when industrial action is high. I suspect most Tories rub their hands with glee when they hear talk of mass strikes - not least those who have private medical care so could not give a **** about the NHS.
I think people strike to show the absence of good if they don't work. In the particular case of the health service, if the workers carry on as normal when conditions are dangerous then they are not behaving correctly. The current situation is unacceptable and compulsory arbitration has been ruled out by the Government.
I used to work in kids homes and social services before I had kids. I then did boring but better paid office jobs so I could give as much time and energy to my girls. When my girls were in secondary school I went back to working with kids. I took a massive pay cut to do so and that is completely my choice (and my very understanding partner) and I never moaned. However, I did not agree to 11 years of 1.2% pay rises and one year of no pay rise. That was imposed by a selfish, immoral government who have happily dished out billions on vanity projects, tax cuts, brexit propaganda and handouts to big businesses while they starved the public of money and left it on its knees. My pension has been mullered, my pay has effectively been cut by 25 -40% in the past decade depending on whose figures are most accurate. I understand the fears people have about strikes but they IMHO have been left with no option. I fully support everyone on strike because if history teaches us anything it is that divide and rule kills normal people slowly but painfully. This government are scum, imo the opposition are poor and I think that our best hope of any justice is unity of those the government bitch about whether its about discrimination, refugees, strikes etc. Tbh any real change comes from fighting those in power ... the chartists, tole puddle martyrs, suffragettes, the anti fascist movements in this country, the riots in the 80s, the poll tax riots and non payment campaigns were all illegal and condemned. 2 million peacefully marching against the Iraq war was just ignored like most peaceful movements. I think this country is desperately making every for of legal peaceful protest illegal...and that's deeply concerning. Sorry for the ramble...not aimed at anything any one else posted
I fully appreciate it is a generic term for that group, however I was referring to the way that in this particular dispute the Gov stooges are emphasising the term to diminish the Drs credibility. It is clearly part of the media campaign to undermine the Drs position.
I'm going to totally disagree with that statement. I don't believe anyone strikes with an intent to cause harm and in the particular case under discussion, the BMA and Drs reps have been trying for 3 months now to get the Employers & Gov to the negotiation table. Their refusal to do so actually places the element of harm on their (Gov) shoulders, not the Drs. In occupations where there is an increased risk to health and safety, there should be an additional legislative framework which protects those workers Pay Rights whilst removing the immediate ability to strike. e.g. Police.
They really have given up any attempts to hide their true affiliations.... That fecking 'guest list' is a Who's Who of the worst Far Right elements from UK & US. And Lineker to the Heritage crowd who just gave DisasTruss a speaking gig!
