"Staffing levels are unsafe, those wards are horrendous and the pay is absolutely shocking."
On a freezing cold picket line in Liverpool this morning, with the bright sun bursting over the clear skies, one nurse perfectly and succinctly explained what today's historic strike is all about.
No nurse wanted to walk out on strike today, they desperately hoped the government would listen. They wanted to be with their patients. As one nurse of over 20 years put it: "Nobody believed it would ever come to this, I can't believe we are stood here in this position today."
The more reactionary elements of the media and those out to cause trouble on social media will claim that nurses have actually had a pay rise, that they are being unreasonable and that they shouldn't be leaving their patients. They will neglect to tell you that nursing pay has declined in real terms by at least 20% over the last decade and that people are leaving the frontline of the NHS in their droves because they can no longer safely do the job they love.
READ MORE: Where nurses are striking in Liverpool today and why they are walking out
It was against this backdrop of criticism, attacks and gaslighting from the government that thousands of hard-working, exhausted nurses made the impossibly difficult decision to walk-out from their hospitals today and take their fight to the streets.
If anyone on the Liverpool picket line had any doubts that this city would back them all the way, they needn't have worried. This is a city that cares deeply about its NHS, that sticks up for workers and that knows a thing or two about fighting for what's right.
At all hours today the picket line at the Royal Liverpool Hospital was engulfed by a thunderous cacophony of car horns, cheers and whistles. It was the same at Alder Hey, Aintree and all over the city. Liverpool is backing its precious nurses - and it always will.
One of those striking today said: "The support has been amazing, but I expect nothing different from this city.
"We've all been brought up with union fathers, they have done this, so we would stand here all day, no matter what weather conditions - because Scousers have been born to fight for our rights.
"We wouldn't know what we would do if we didn't have this NHS and I don't think people realise this. We were the ones risking our lives during covid, going to work to risk our lives and our families."
Some people have very short memories.
For two gruelling, traumatic years we watched on with awe as NHS staff headed onto the covid battlefield day after terrifying day, facing constant anxiety, exhaustion and fear. Many lost colleagues and loved ones, others got ill and remain ill - they risked it all and now they are putting it all on the line once again - and they need your support.
Pay is of course a major factor in this dispute and so it should be. The fact that many of those working on the frontline of our health service are now relying on foodbanks to feed themselves and their families is nothing short of a national shame. But every single person I spoke to today said the same two words were foremost in their mind today, patient safety.
Danielle McLoughlin has been a nurse for six years, she said: "No nurse has taken this decision lightly, its one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. Patient safety is being put at risk because of a lack of nursing staff because of poor pay. Nurses can't afford to remain in the profession because it isn't working for their own family lives, it's really having an effect on them."
She added: "Its difficult for people to come into work and feel like they can't do enough. I've come into work at times and not been able to give a patient breakfast because I've had to give another patient life-saving medication. I went into nursing to care for people and make people feel well and at the moment we can't do that properly."
But this absolutely is about the pay these nurses are receiving and the ability of these most vital workers to live a decent life. There should surely be few more shaming images than a foodbank opening up within the grounds of a hospital to give food and supplies to health and care workers who are not being paid enough to survive on, but that is now the shocking reality for a quarter of hospitals across this land.
What does it say about the state of a country - and one of the world's richest countries at that - when those who we rely on to look after us, to care for our friends and family when they are at their most vulnerable and who put themselves in the line of fire for the good of everyone else can no longer look after themselves. What on earth does that say.
For the nurses I spoke to today, conflicted, angry, sad and exhausted, it means one thing - the government must now listen and must sit down and talk, because they won't be giving up, the stakes are just too high.
For Health Secretary Steve Barclay in particular, the message was clear. As one nurse in Liverpool put it today: "I'd like him to come and shadow us on the ward for an hour, see if he could last - he wouldn't, not a chance."
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Where nurses are striking in Liverpool today and why they are walking out
