Portrait of the week: Strikes, Scottish arrests and stabbings

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Nurses in England belonging to the Royal College of Nursing union rejected the government’s pay offer and hurried to go on strike over the first May bank holiday and thereafter on chosen dates till Christmas. Members of Unison voted to accept the NHS pay offer. More than 196,000 hospital appointments were cancelled because of the junior doctors’ strike in England the week before. Strikes by public-sector workers contributed to the complete lack of growth in GDP in February, according to the Office for National Statistics. Humza Yousaf, the First Minister of Scotland, declined to suspend Nicola Sturgeon, his predecessor, from the Scottish National party as police investigated its finances. Colin Beattie MSP, the SNP Treasurer, was arrested by Police Scotland and released without charge as investigations continued. Margaret Ferrier MP is to appeal against a proposed 30-day ban from the House of Commons for having travelled to Glasgow from London on a train in September 2020, though she had received a positive result from a Covid test; she was elected as an SNP MP, but lost the whip; more than ten days’ suspension allows a recall petition
seeking a by-election.

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Inflation fell from 10.4 to 10.1 per cent, buoyed by the price of chocolate. Voters in local elections on 4 May would have to show photographic identification; 22 forms of ID were authorised including an Icelandic passport and an expired older person’s bus pass. Protestors invaded the Grand National course, upsetting the horses, one of which later fell and died; protestors invaded the snooker world championships. Brecon Beacons national park said it would in future only use the name Bannau Brycheiniog (pronounced ban-aye bruch-ay-nee-og).

The government cancelled the building of planned so-called smart motorways (which allow traffic to run on hard shoulders).