Nobody wants to go on strike.
It’s a last resort, to withdraw your labour when nothing you have said is getting through.
No-one wants to do it. And particularly nurses. We know work is important to everyone but with nurses it feels different.
We saw it in the pandemic. Along with other NHS staff, they were at the front line. Long hours got longer, pay and conditions thrown into sharp relief.
And we stood and applauded. Other medics, of course, but the nurses most of all.
Keir Starmer knows this.
His wife works in the NHS. His late mother Josephine was a nurse. “She took great pride,” he said, “in what she did all her working life.”
He understands.
And we understand why he feels he is in a difficult position.
With an enormous lead in the polls, the Tories in disarray, Labour is on course for a huge election victory.
Mr Starmer and the rest of the party want to do nothing to rock the boat. They realise how vital a win would be.
But this is different.
There are very few people in the country who would not stand with the nurses.
Backing them won’t alienate anyone. Quite the reverse. If Mr Starmer is worried about being tarnished as some left-wing firebrand, that won’t happen.
This is the time to back the nurses.
For the first time in its history, the RCN is balloting for strike action. Some 300,000 may walk out and they want nothing more than fair pay
So forget the politics of it. Forget optics and triangulation.
Sometimes standing up is just the right thing to do.
Waiting for justice
Serial killer Peter Tobin has died. No one will mourn this monster, who snatched the lives of so many young women.
The only sadness involves the secrets he has taken to his grave as he boasted of more killings.
His death denies the families of those killed the right to justice.
With advances in forensics and dedicated police work, one day families will learn the truth.
Hopefully the knowledge will bring them peace.
