In 1978-79 a wave of strikes engulfed Britain in the so-called Winter of Discontent.
Streets went unswept, sick people went untreated and even the dead went unburied.
I was 16 and an avid Daily Express reader. Horrified by the public sector chaos, I became a Conservative and remained so for decades.
Today I support 100 per cent the strikers fighting to protect themselves against a Conservative Government hell-bent on cutting their pay.
Of course, Tory ministers, who always object to industrial action, denounce strikers as selfish, militant and irresponsible. They are none of those things.
Take our nurses. Every day, they care for patients with a spirit of service, selflessness and sacrifice for which they are loved throughout the land.
It was clearer than ever during the pandemic when they put themselves in harm’s way to protect us all. Indeed, even the Government clapped for the NHS.
What stomach-turning hypocrisy that was. Nurses don’t want to be patronised. They want salaries that allow them to heat their homes, eat properly and meet their bills. Yet they can’t.
Since 2018, over 40,000 nurses and midwives have left the profession,
citing stress and low pay. Now the Government wants them to accept a pay deal that would leave them sharply worse off thanks to the soaring inflation wrought by that self-same Government.
Take our teachers. Every day, they educate our children, prepare them for exams and help to transform lives for the better.
Yet tens of thousands of them are quitting teaching early because the combination of workload, stress and low pay has become unbearable.
Rishi Sunak, with eye-watering naivete, talks of requiring students to study maths until they turn 18 when there is already a chronic shortage of maths teachers thanks to his short-sighted, mean-spirited and tight-fisted Government.
We all know of stories of teachers, as of nurses, who skip meals to make ends meet or have to turn to food banks to survive.
In one of the richest countries in the world, it is an abomination that Conservative Ministers preside over this mess without a hint of embarrassment, let alone an apology.
It was Conservatives who legislated for pre-strike ballots. Health service staff voted to strike because they are sick of being undervalued by this wretched government and striking is their only weapon when Ministers won’t listen to reasoned arguments.
Teachers voted by an overwhelming majority to do so for the same reason.
It is no good Ministers repeating the mantra that there is no money to pay our nurses and teachers any better. Of course there is.
To govern is to choose priorities. The Chancellor opted to spend money on pension tax relief for high paid professionals.
He and the Prime Minister are plotting now to bribe people with tax cuts next year, hoping to buy an election victory that way.
I reckon most people would happily forego a tax cut to see fair pay for dedicated professionals. Ministers should stop bleating and cough up now.
