Nurses’ pay betrays government priorities

This government has some very distorted priorities. Their offer to nurses of just a 1% pay rise shows this.

They spent £22 billion on a test and trace system to avoid further lockdowns. Then they had two more lockdowns.

That test and trace system employed 2,500 private consultants. Some were paid more than £6,000 a day. Yet, the Public Accounts Committee of MPS stated there was no clear evidence that this massive £22 billion cost had contributed to the reduction in coronavirus infection levels!

The government wants to spend £15 billion more on this ineffectual system - yet it took nearly a month to find the missing person from Brazil who slipped through the net by simply not filling in his form! No one bothered to check! Where were the lucratively paid consultants when this happened?

All these billions are largely being handed to government cronies, (Dido Harding, in charge of test and trace , is married to a Tory MP and went to school with the Prime Minister’s sister). Yet, there is not enough money to give NHS workers a decent pay rise?

The substantial private sector involvement in test and trace, is partly why it is so expensive and ineffective. In stark contrast the vaccine roll-out is carried out by GP surgeries and NHS staff familiar with annual flu vaccination. They have the database of patients who require vaccination, the expertise and the experienced staff.

The delays in lockdowns, the U-turns, the waste of money on inadequate PPE from inexperienced suppliers, came from the government. The NHS have been on the receiving end of the 4.2 million Covid cases and is now working hard to fight back against cornavirus.

Boris Johnson’s obedient Yesmen MPS were given a 3.1% pay rise last year, taking their salaries to £82,000. Again, in stark contrast to the nurses’ offer of 1%. MPS did not risk death fighting Covid-19!

MPS have received over three times what the nurses have been offered - they are not the NHS Heroes, daily putting their lives on the line.