Striking nurses don’t deserve a bumper pay rise

Today’s strike by nurses may indeed be the biggest action – or inaction – of its kind in NHS history. But there is a distinct sense of having been here before.

The nurses’ grievances been a daily theme of news broadcasts for weeks, as though, as a group, they are uniquely affected by the double-digit inflation rate, and uniquely deserving of a commensurate pay rise. Not only that but their complaints about low wages, long hours, intolerable working conditions and the general hardheartedness of government replicate many of those heard back in the spring of 2021, when the then-Chancellor (a certain Rishi Sunak) drew their ire. 

Back then, Sunak made the mistake – in the context of a generally tax-raising budget – of announcing a 1 per cent increase for NHS staff across the board. He was rewarded with an angry chorus saying the government’s offer was mean, measly and a slap in the face to ‘our heroes’ of the Covid pandemic.