Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray has said he “can’t quite believe” the British Medical Association’s decision to strike after even Labour handed junior doctors the highest pay rises in the public sector for two years in a row. Old lessons about the unions are being relearnt…
The BMA continues to demand ridiculous “full pay restoration” equivalent to a 26% pay rise and has organised six days of strikes from April 7 to April 13. Starmer has written in the Times to threaten the withdrawal of a deal offer from the government if the union does not back down within two days…
The union has not consulted its members formally on strikes. Murray told Sky News this morning:
“I think the decision to go on strike is reckless. Um, to be honest, I can’t quite believe that the BMA leadership are doing this that they’ve got a, you know, a really good offer on the table, a really decent offer that will improve working lives for resident doctors. And they’re doing this without even putting the offer to resident doctors themselves to take a decision on. Um, and it will harm resident doctors, you know, as well as as harming, of course, the NHS and patients. Um, so I think it’s the wrong thing to do and I would, you know, really urge them to reconsider and think again.”
This is what happens when you let the incompetents in the union-backed party into government, by the way…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”