You’d have thought there was a fairly simple way for the government to resolve the current strikes. Negotiate. After all, it’s obvious to everyone that there’s a deal to be done somewhere between what the unions are asking for and what ministers are currently offering. And that’s where we’ll inevitably end up. It’s a no-brainer.
Except to Grant Shapps and Rishi Sunak. They see things rather differently. They have eyed up the nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, teachers and railway workers and seen a militant collective of hard-hearted killers. People who will strike just for the hell of it. People who would rather go without a day’s pay because they quite like making people’s lives a misery. People who enjoy inflicting anxiety and suffering on the country.
At least that was the subtext running through Shapps’ opening remarks for the second reading of the government’s anti-strike legislation. He began by trying to sound conciliatory. Or as close as someone who would cross the road to pick a fight can get. Of course he supported people’s right to strike. In theory. But in practice, not so much. At least not these groups of workers. And not at this time. Maybe in a parallel universe.
But here was the thing. The government was beset by coincidences. It was a coincidence that the UK was going through one of the worst cost of living crises after 13 years of Tory rule. And it was a coincidence that so many different professions were going on strike at the same time. So now was the right time for some legislation to make sure there was a minimum level of service. And if the unions didn’t accept that, then workers would get sacked. Hey. Makes a change from clapping nurses. That was so 2020.
While the Tory benches were almost empty – either Conservative MPs aren’t that interested in resolving the strikes or they aren’t prepared to defend their government’s handling of the crisis – the Labour benches were full. And their backbenchers had plenty to say in interventions.
Was Shapps bothered that even Human Rights Watch had said this was an attack on workers’ rights? Did he know that nurses and ambulance drivers had already agreed minimum safety levels on their strike days? Shapps merely shook his head. He’s never found a truth he’s not prepared to publicly deny. Could he point to anyone who had died as a result of the industrial action? And more and more of the same. The anger and the incredulity was heartfelt. The government had never felt so cheap. And vindictive. Which was saying something.
Shapps merely smirked and pointed out every speaker’s affiliation to a trade union. As if that proved anything. Labour’s Chris Bryant said he’d be proud to be funded by a union. Better that than some Russian oligarch. Or some distant relative you can’t even remember, for that matter. The nub of this was, the legislation wasn’t going to solve the current strikes. It would come into force far too late. So it was just some kind of distraction to keep the Tory anti-union fires burning. A pointless diversion.
Angela Rayner came out fighting. Labour’s deputy leader regretted Shapps’ condescending tone. Not his fault. He doesn’t have another. Where was the admission that it was Liz Truss and the Tories who had made the economic crisis so much worse? Where was the acceptance that the strikes weren’t just about pay? They were about sectors that were already operating at unsafe levels due to government underfunding. Try sacking nurses when there were already 131,000 vacancies in the NHS.
And where were the impact assessments? Hadn’t the most recent ones suggested that the legislation would be a total waste of time? Would make things worse. Shapps again just shrugged. It was like this. It was Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. The impact assessments could just be a tipping point into a total meltdown. So it was the government’s responsibility to make everything much safer by not bothering with them. That way, there was at least a chance things could work out OK.
Few Tories bothered to intervene on Rayner. Unsurprising when she’s in this sort of mood. Labour MPs behind her and right on her side. Those Conservatives that did soon regretted it. One suggested that if we could get away with underpaying the army and the police and still deny them the right to strike, then nurses and ambulance drivers should just shut up and get on with it. Winning hearts and minds. Someone should tell him that some of his constituents are nurses and ambulance drivers.
Another merely pleaded for Rayner to say what pay rise she would negotiate with the nurses. Game, set and match. She not so gently pointed out that Labour was not in power and wasn’t invited to the negotiating table. But too much more of this and you’d think the Tories have a death wish.
