If ministers can afford £150bn for energy bills, they can afford to pay nurses more. And two-thirds of the public support them
Stop all the strikes, delay the nurses’ ballot, abandon this year’s pivotal TUC annual conference in mourning for the Queen. You might note this respect for the late monarch from workers facing gigantic pay cuts was not matched by the London Stock Exchange, which has missed not a nanosecond of trading in shares, including among those companies profiteering from high energy prices. Imagine the outrage at lese-majesty from the Mail and other papers had Mick Lynch done the same.
Before long, strikes will resume among ever more unlikely “militants”; Daily Express journalists, criminal barristers and postal workers will be striking. So will refuse collectors, firefighters, Felixstowe dockworkers and a gathering storm of other workers who cannot absorb huge pay cuts on top of the lowest wage growth in the G7.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
