What a fall from grace. Three years ago, the British Medical Association (BMA) could barely put a foot wrong. It could moralise over Tory failures – austerity, health inequalities, poverty, chronic underfunding of the NHS, mishandling of the pandemic – and even Tory politicians would quietly nod along. Its members were national heroes, even angels within the country’s national religion. And, importantly, most people believed the BMA was a medical body.
Now, people will be far more aware that the BMA is a militant trade union for doctors, representing their financial interests above the welfare of patients or the reputation of the institution they purport to protect. It wields enormous power, exploiting the NHS’s position as a monopoly to get all it can for its workers at the expense of the taxpayer. These workers add up to over 190,000 members and nearly 1,000 staff. Standard membership costs just over £39 per month.
Ideology, not the professed desire to protect the needs of patients and the NHS, is driving these strikes
Over the next two days, the BMA, along with other doctors’ unions, will inflict terrible damage on an NHS, which is already on the brink of collapse.
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