Should soldiers cover for striking NHS workers?

The government has a plan for dealing with the wave of walkouts affecting nurses, paramedics, Border Force staff and a swathe of public sector workers: send in the soldiers. Unfortunately though the idea has hit a snag: the army is not impressed. The head of the armed forces himself, Admiral Sir Tony Radakan, chief of the defence staff, has said that the military should not be the ‘go to support service’ during strike action.

‘We are busy doing lots of (other) things on behalf of the nation’ Admiral Radakan added. ‘We’re not spare capacity’.

While it may be unusual for troops to be called out to man vital services in Britain, it is not unprecedented. What is new, however, is for Britain’s most senior military man to go public – however obliquely and discreetly – with his doubts, and criticise the government’s decision to put soldiers on the streets in place of strikers.