Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Act now to reward our NHS heroes
New crisis as 4 million face dole
Nursing is a job like no other. It can go from rewarding to upsetting, fulfilling to depressing, joyful to backbreaking in a matter of minutes. And that was before nurses were asked to fight a life-and-death struggle against Covid-19.
Ever more was demanded of them – although there are 43,000 too few of them.
Day and night, nurses go about their vocation with quiet fortitude, whether lifting spirits or emptying bedpans.
Yesterday they turned up the volume. Healthcare workers took to Britain’s streets. They marched on Downing Street. They clamoured for the pay rise that is their due.
It is a cause the Sunday Mirror continues to champion. Along with Jeremy Corbyn. And even many Tory MPs.
Nurses cannot live on vocation alone.
Yet ministers close their eyes and cover their ears. They expect nurses to give their all and then a little bit extra. But they give nothing extra to the nurses.
CHAOS
Boris Johnson praises the nurses who saw him through his darkest corona days.
The PM should put government money where his mouth is.
His failure to get a sure grip on the pandemic means nurses may once again be asked to put their lives on the line.
Independent SAGE chairman Sir David King warns today of another national lockdown in September unless the track-and-trace mess and mixed-message chaos is sorted.
He says a surge in infections is inevitable when schools return and the Government is ill-prepared for it. That could turn a surge into a second wave worse than the first.
And we will be looking again to our healthcare workers to pick up the pieces.
We know that the pay rise they should have now will be deserved even more then.
That is why, if Mr Johnson values nurses as much as he says, he should act fast – by beginning the pay talks he must hold anyway in September, a month early.
Because by then NHS workers could have their hands full saving the lives of those they always put first.
BRITAIN has plunged into its deepest recession for more
like nothing in living than 100 years, dire economic
memory. Director James figures are set
Smith said: “The figures to reveal this week.
will demonstrate the They are expected to speed and depth of the show our economy economic hit. The shrank by a staggering outlook is incredibly 21 per cent in the April to bleak.” The Foundation
JOBS WARNING
June in lockdown. wants the taxpayerfunded
The three-month fall will furlough scheme, be the year’s second consecutive quarterly period of negative growth – which is technically a full-blown recession.
The revelation comes during a tidal wave of job losses led by high street store closures amid warnings that four million could be on the dole by the end of the year.
The alarming figures will also increase pressure on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend his job retention scheme beyond October.
The respected Resolution Foundation think tank – which aims to improve standards of living for low and middle income families – says the scale of the nosedive will be
RISHI Sunak’s Summer Statement should have been a Back to Work Budget to help hard-hit workers and businesses and get the economy going again.
Instead he yanked away income support, broke the back of many businesses and gave second home owners a tax break.
I warned him against withdrawing furlough in one fell swoop. I told him handing billions in bonuses to firms set to bring which has protected more than nine million jobs, to be continued for hardest hit sectors. Mr Smith added: “Mr Sunak is gambling with people’s jobs and livelihoods if he doesn’t act decisively.”
His call was backed by the TUC, which wants the Government to jump-start the economy now by investing in “green infrastructure” back staff anyway wouldn’t save jobs. He didn’t listen. Now we face recession for the first time in 12 years. Until he understands some businesses still need help – especially those not yet reopened – jobs will vanish at an alarming rate. It’s not too late to change course, but time is running out.