Tabloid money… the latest bright idea from the NHS – virtual hospital beds
⬤ Prince Andrew’s payment of £12m to Virginia Giuffre only highlights the inequality between the royal family and the rest of us, says Fleet Street Fox in the Daily Mirror. “If you or I had pulled £12m out of nowhere to pay someone who had accused us of sexual assault, the bizzies would be round our house quicker than you could say ‘unexplained wealth order’.” Prince Andrew (pictured) receives a naval pension of £20,000 to £30,000, and £250,000 from the Queen every year, but even adding up all his incomings, the sum he paid his accuser is still in the region of 43 years’ worth of income. “That’s the equivalent of someone on an average salary finding £1m down the back of the sofa, and still something the police, the banking authorities, and the taxman, would be extremely interested in, if it was you or me.”
⬤ “Yes – MPs work incredibly hard, but so do others. I believe we should not be getting a pay rise ahead of those we represent,” says Nadia Whittome MP in The Metro. “When I was first elected as an MP in 2019, I pledged not to take my full salary of £79,468. I decided I would take home £35,000 after tax and donate the remainder to local causes.” This amount is still far higher than the amount I earned as a carer. Seeing MPs get a pay rise of 2.7% (lifting salaries to £84,144) is frustrating. Members of Parliament are already in the top 5% of earners. With the cost of living soaring, higher tax and energy bills, and cuts to universal credit, why should MPs get a larger income when key workers who risked their lives during the pandemic don’t?
⬤ The NHS is “bursting at the seams” with “suits” on obscene salaries, says Carole Malone in the Daily Express. Their latest bright idea is to spend £200m creating 27,500 “virtual” hospital beds by the end of next year. Instead of being cared for in hospital, those with lifethreatening conditions such as pneumonia and heart disease will be monitored at home through medical armbands. This is a “total dereliction of duty of care”. If they’ve got £200m to spend on this why aren’t they spending it on extra beds? “How dare these obscenely paid managers do this to our cash-strapped NHS, which is cash strapped precisely because of their salaries, their pensions, their payoffs and the fact that they can’t manage a you-knowwhat in a brewery.”