This Christmas, Britain is facing what is not far short of a general strike. Rail workers, ambulance drivers, nurses, postal workers, and firefighters have already announced a strike wave or are balloting their members for authorisation to do so.
Rail traffic across the country will be paralysed. Families will be unable to easily get together for the festive season. Christmas gifts will go undelivered. In hospitals, an already overstretched NHS looks in danger of breaking down altogether. Seriously ill patients – already facing delays in getting to hospital – may now die before they can do so. Even if they do manage to get to a hospital, will there be enough nurses on hand to care for them?
The government is washing its hands of its responsibilities and pretending that the strikes cannot be stopped
By any standards, this is a serious national crisis, potentially adversely affecting almost everyone. So what is the response of our nominally ‘Conservative’ government? One minister, Nadhim Zahawi, has helpfully suggested the nurses are helping Vladimir Putin by walking out; another, Nick Gibb, pathetically describes the rail strikes as ‘very disappointing’.
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