I can't wait to see the next TV ad campaign aimed at enticing young people to join the British Army.
Now that the Government believes deploying troops is the best way to solve pay disputes rather than, say, negotiation, we can forget about all that “see the world, learn a trade and keep your country safe” nonsense and expect “be part of a cack-handed attempt to deny fellow public servants a living wage by becoming a scab and starving them back to work”.
They’re warming to this military theme. Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi has urged nurses in England to accept a 4% pay rise, as opposed to the 7.5% their Scottish colleagues have been offered, as it would “send a very clear message to Mr Putin that he can’t use energy as a weapon”.
That’s right. By taking an effective cut in living standards, some of the worst-paid nurses in Europe will convince Putin the game is up in Ukraine.
Which beggars belief until you remember Zahawi is worth an estimated £100million and once claimed parliamentary expenses to heat his horse’s stables. So he hasn’t a clue about the pain being felt during this cost-of-living crisis.
The Right are painting this wave of strikes as a co-ordinated attempt by Marxist trade union leaders to bring down the Government when in reality it is a cry for help. A scream of rage against the way our public services are being driven into the ground with those at the coal face being forced to pick up the pieces for less and less reward.
It’s a plea for dignity. A howl of frustration about the sheer bloody injustice of pay in modern Britain.
Low-paid public sector workers are being told wage rises are bad for everyone because they stoke inflation. Yet that point is never made about excessive share dividends and bonuses, soaring property portfolios or glutinous boardroom salaries.
The likes of NHS staff, posties and railway workers are striking because they have had to swallow a decade of pay cuts and feel, as bills spiral out of control, that they can’t take any more. Imagine risking your life to keep the nation safe and functional during a killer pandemic, then being told when you ask for an inflation-matching pay rise that you are militant parasites?
While hearing that the likes of Michelle Mone and every other Tory donor, Lord or drinking buddy who lobbied hard enough throughout Covid was ushered unquestioningly towards the money trough.
Imagine reading editorials in right-wing newspapers owned by foreign-based billionaires accusing you of sucking the wealth out of Britain. Labelling you selfish wreckers who stop real workers getting tax cuts. A brake on economic growth. The Blob as Michael Gove called public sector trade unions. The Enemy Within as Thatcher demonised them.
These strikes are asking a fundamental question. Do we value the work our public servants do to keep every facet of our lives ticking over, and do we want to keep them doing those vital tasks? Or do we see them as just a costly burden?
If we value them, we should be on their side, backing their fight for a fair pay deal, even if it inconveniences us.
Divide and rule is how the right-wing Establishment has always operated. It is now banking on the strikers ruining your Christmas, making you swallow the lie that they are greedy militants and turning on them.
Don’t let it happen.
