'Paying strike-breaking nurses is a bit rich - what a pity we can't sack Tories'

18 January 2023 , 00:50

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A nurse holds a placard demanding fair pay rise from the government for healthcare staff (Image: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Paying strike-breaking nurses more than striking nurses would earn if they were on wards is both ludicrous and revealing as it proves the money exists for rises.

The £40 per hour inducement to cross picket lines at York Hospital is unlikely to be the only instance of lucrative deals being dangled before the eyes of replacement staff.

In fact, it would pay a nurse to join the strike, enlist with an agency and then do their job for extra money.

Six weeks after the first national walkout in the history of the far-from-militant Royal College of Nursing, and with more threatened, it is unacceptable this dispute is unresolved.

With the public on the side of the nurses, the Government will be damned if it fails to take a lead and pay fair by tabling an offer that could clear a path to industrial peace.

Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade

What a pity we can’t sack Tories failing to provide minimum standards in public services.

Make right call

The legal, political and constitutional battles over the rights of trans people to change their legal gender is unedifying and people who are often vulnerable and suffer discrimination deserve better.

Emotions run high on both sides of this debate and thorny issues require careful consideration – particularly areas like women’s sport, changing rooms, refuges and prisons.

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So it is dispiriting to suspect both Scotland’s separatist SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Rishi Sunak, leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party as well as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, are playing politics as well as setting out personal beliefs.

Finding a way forward won’t be easy but that doesn’t mean abandoning hope that common ground and common sense will prevail.

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