NOTHING could have been a brighter, better start for Keir Starmer’s Labour Government than to successfully end the pandemic of industrial action that blighted the final years of Tory rule. You heard it all the time: “Nothing is really working.” And it was sadly true.
The same nurses we applauded during Covid despaired at their pay and working conditions . Junior doctors were dreaming of emigrating to Australia . Train strikes lasted for years.
Disgruntled public sector workers were everywhere. Read More on Opinion This was like the Winter of Discontent in Narnia. It felt like the strikes would never end.
And we simply could not continue on with walkouts paralysing our nation. But is Labour making the chaos even worse? Even as they were snatching the winter fuel allowance away from ten million pensioners, Labour was still chucking inflation- busting pay deals at train drivers and junior doctors. Most read in The Sun The argument is that it saves money in the long run because strikes damage the economy.
And if giving a UK-trained junior doctor a better wage stops him or her from relocating their made-in-Britain skills to Canada or Australia, then that is true. But there has to be goodwill in return. There has to be a promise that the industrial action is over.
Yet how did Aslef’s militant leadership thank Labour for their more than 14 per cent pay offer? By immediately calling for more strikes. “Extremely disappointed,” Keir Starmer’s spokesperson sighed. Not good.