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New Statesman
4 hours ago
- Health
- New Statesman
Why junior doctors are right to strike back
Photo by Guy Bell/Alamy My previous diary for the New Statesman was headlined 'Why junior doctors are right to strike'. That was 10 January 2024. Eighteen months later, here we are again. Resident doctors (now the preferred term) are still underpaid – 22.6 per cent less in real terms than they were in 2008-09. Strikes will begin on 25 July after 90 per cent of voters in a recent British Medical Association ballot supported industrial action. The only significant difference between these imminent strikes and those of January 2024 is the ruling party: with Labour in government, it's no longer possible to blame the Tories exclusively for breaking the NHS. The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has already warned doctors that 'the public won't forgive them', and that increasing their pay 'wouldn't be fair to other NHS workers either, many of whom are paid less'. Hardly a break from unsympathetic Tory tradition. I must declare a vested interest here. As a midwife, I am one of those 'other NHS workers' on a comparatively lower wage. The recent 3.6 per cent pay uplift offered to midwives in England, Wales and Northern Ireland 'barely covers an inflationary rise', according to the Royal College of Midwives, while a two-year pay offer of 8.1 per cent to those in Scotland just squeaks past the expected rate of inflation. This bare-minimum recognition of midwives' value undoubtedly contributes to our profession's recruitment and retention crisis, and it can't be unrelated to our disproportionately high rates of poor mental health. But far from resenting our colleagues' fight for fair pay, many of us support resident doctors unequivocally. We hope that full pay restoration for medical staff will set a precedent that might eventually benefit all NHS workers. A rising tide lifts all boats, even if, as Streeting suggests, the public wants us to drown in our own avarice. Streeting's surprising inquiry Midwives often profess to have 'seen it all' – from unlikely couples and miraculous conceptions to babies born in hospital car parks – but the one thing that has surprised us recently is Streeting's announcement of a national maternity investigation. The inquiry aims to improve outcomes by examining the failures of the worst-performing services across the country, formulating a 'clear national set of actions' by December. While any effort to rectify substandard care should be applauded, the Health Secretary's announcement was met with consternation by many midwives. Not only have numerous 'sets of actions' already been outlined by previous inquiries, but one does wonder how Streeting plans to take any action at all when, in April, the government slashed its Service Development Funding for maternity from £95m to £2m. The Royal College of Midwives' chief executive, Gill Walton, said at the time: 'These budget cuts are more than shocking; they will rip the heart out of any moves to improve maternity safety.' It remains to be seen whether change can be delivered by such a callously gutted service. Boomer baby boom In lighter news, the Office for National Statistics has announced a remarkable 14.2 per cent rise in the number of babies in England and Wales born to fathers over the age of 60. What's going on here? I suspect a post-pandemic boom in older men recoupling – and then reproducing – with younger women, as average maternal age hasn't seen a proportionate increase. Whatever the reason, it's yielded a bumper crop of babies; the overall number of live births has risen for the first time since 2021. Life rumbles on Midwives, then, are still very much in business. The NHS keeps NHS-ing, and life goes on, punctuated by the familiar landmarks of British summer: ever-worsening heatwaves, forest fires, Glastonbury scandals and Wimbledon wins. In my own little world, I am busy unpacking boxes; after 23 years in our family home, including one year as empty nesters, my husband and I have downsized to a flat in an area that's better for coffee shops than it is for school catchments. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Amid the house-move chaos, some things remain constant: my husband heads to his job in the Scottish Ambulance Service every morning, and I pack my scrubs for my next shift in the hospital. We're both trying, in our own way, to keep people safe, but we'd quite like to be paid fairly for our commitment, too. Sorry, Wes; sorry, reader – can you ever forgive us? [See more: Doctors are striking over the shambles that's been made of their careers] Related
The National
5 days ago
- Business
- The National
Unite canvass members on cutting ties with Labour
A survey has gone out to between 20,000 and 30,000 Unite reps across Scotland, England and Wales asking for their views on disaffiliating from the party. Unite ending its affiliation would inflict a major symbolic blow to Labour, severing its links with Britain's largest trade union. And it would deliver a punishing financial penalty, with the party currently enjoying an annual £1.4 million affiliation payment from the union. One source told The National: 'It looks like it's favourable to disaffiliate.' They said that the consultative survey was to 'test the waters' after the union voted to reconsider its relationship with the party should it continue to fail to back striking bin workers in Birmingham. In a dramatic measure last week, members voted to suspend Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner's (above) membership for telling workers to accept effective pay cuts. Any decision about whether to disaffiliate from the Labour Party would need to be taken by a members' vote at a special 'rules' conference, which is not scheduled until 2027. However, it is understood that pressure from lay members or committees within the union could push this forward to an earlier date. Severance would cause financial headaches for Labour, whose finances are reportedly feeling the pinch. READ MORE: Activist slams 'draconian' law as protester arrested at Palestine Action demo An internal document warns Labour is in a 'recovery plan' this year to address its 'difficult financial position' and must secure 'at least £4m to adequately resource the 2026 elections', according to the New Statesman. A union source said it would have been 'unthinkable' for Unite to deliberate on disaffiliation even a few years ago, but said repeated blunders from Labour in power – from the Birmingham strikes to cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment cut and disability – had brought the issue into focus. The revelation about the consultation, on which Unite have publicly remained quiet, could put pressure on the union's private discussions with Labour about their relationship. Sharon Graham, Unite's general secretary, this week told the New Statesman that she did not want to 'scupper' talks with Labour going on behind closed doors but added that it was becoming 'harder to justify the affiliation' with the party. Unite did not respond to requests for comment. Labour were approached for comment.
New Statesman
5 days ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
Will Starmer prevail in his war on 'knobheadery'?
LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 17: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks at a civil society summit on July 17, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Frank Augstein -) The removal of the whip from these 4 MPs is abold, or brave, move from Prime minister. Very brave indeed at a time when the Labour party is losing votes to the left more than to the right; at a time when comrade Jeremy is thinking about his new party. And looking at that, you've got to be very, very careful about the left now to defend the government on this. When government sources accused these MPs of 'persistent knobheadery' the persistent bit of it certainly has some validity. I was discussing it all with Brian Leishman, who's a very vocal critic of Keir Starmer, and he said he thought he had rebelled against the government on serious issues at least 12 times. Now, that's a lot. And there comes a point – and it's not just walking through the wrong voting lobby, it's when MPs are criticising Starmer and the cabinet as betraying this and betraying that, in public, on the media, again and again and again. There comes a point when they are not behaving like Labour MPs and therefore taking the whip away from them is not that unreasonable. I do think there's a slight element of cowardice in this, in that they haven't gone for the most powerful and widely liked critics. They haven't gone for Meg Hillier who is so important on the benefits revolt. Apart from Diane Abbott, they haven't gone for the people who'd cause them real trouble in the media. These are mostly people less well known, and in some cases not particularly popular within their own groups. The timing is odd. And we'll still see whether we've got a reshuffle to come. But these are people who are going to go back and they're going to bond with their constituency parties over the summer. And I don't think many of them are going to come back and promise the whips that they're going to stop rebelling. I asked Brian Leishman, are you going to stop? If the Chief whips say, 'Brian, all you need to do is promise that you'll stop rebelling against this government'? He said, 'no, I couldn't possibly say that.' Andrew Marr was speaking earlier on the New Statesman podcast. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Related
The National
7 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Former Supreme Court judge says Israel is committing war crimes
Jonathan Sumption, a former justice of the UK supreme court, made the comments in an article for the New Statesman on Wednesday. He said that while he had no ideological position on the conflict, he "sometimes wonder[s] what Israel's defenders would regard as unacceptable, if the current level of Israeli violence in Gaza is not enough". READ MORE: See the full list of rebel Labour MPs suspended in Keir Starmer's 'clear out' "This is not self defence. It is not even the kind of collateral damage which can be unavoidable in war," Sumption wrote. "It is collective punishment, in other words revenge, visited not just on Hamas but on an entire population. "It is, in short, a war crime." Sumption wrote that there is "a strong case" that Israel is guilty of war crimes, as he said that a court would also "likely" regard Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide. He went on: "The most plausible explanation of current Israeli policy is that its object is to induce Palestinians as an ethnic group to leave the Gaza Strip for other countries by bombing, shooting and starving them if they remain. "A court would be likely to regard that as genocide." Sumption added that debate around Israel's actions in Gaza "is muffled by two dangerous falsehoods", adding: "One is the idea that this story began with the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023; the other is that any attack on Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is anti-Semitic." He continued: "The tragedy is that what Israel is doing in Gaza is not even in its own interest, although it may be in the personal interest of Netanyahu if it helps him to stay in power. "Hamas is, among other things, an idea. It is an idea which will not disappear and which Israel will have to live with, for it will never have peace until it learns to recognise and accommodate the natural attachment of Palestinians as well as Israelis to their land. READ MORE: Trump Organisation hold talks to discuss Open returning to Turnberry "That will involve considerable concessions by Israel, but the alternative will be worse." Sumption's comments come as at least 20 Palestinians were killed in a stampede at a food distribution centre run by the Israeli-backed American organisation Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Witnesses said GHF guards threw stun grenades and used pepper spray on people pressing to get into the site before it opened, causing a panic in the narrow, fenced-in entrance. The Gaza Health Ministry said 17 people suffocated at the site and three others were shot. The United Nations human rights office has said that 875 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food since May. Of those, 674 were killed while en route to GHF food sites. The rest were reportedly killed while waiting for aid trucks entering Gaza.
New Statesman
7 days ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
From the archive: The UN's Rwanda failure
Photo by Gilles Peress / Magnum Photos Ten days after the end of the Rwandan genocide, a New Statesman editorial condemned the failure of the international community to stop the tragedy. 'The Ghost of Somalia hovers over the whole Rwanda operation,' a top UN official told the New Statesman this week. The spectre certainly spooked the Clinton administration into making Rwanda the test case for its new policy of explicit abdication from any crisis that does not directly affect US interests. On its first application the policy proved as financially ineffective as it is morally defective. The US has now committed $250m for relief in Rwanda: it could have saved most of that sum if it had not originally delayed authorisation of the peacekeeping force in Rwanda to save $35m. If that operation, UNAMIR II, had been promptly funded and equipped, perhaps the massacres could not have been completely prevented, but they could certainly have been curtailed. In the new world disorder, short-termism afflicts diplomacy as much as business. A statesman looks to the following day, only visionaries look as far as the following week. And in the case of France, even more than with British Tories, diplomacy is business, particularly where arms sales are concerned. As Frank Smyth shows in this issue of the New Statesman, France was a major supplier of arms to the toppled Rwandan regime; it was still delivering equipment to the forces committing genocide a month after the slaughter started in April. By 22 June, France, which had not volunteered troops for UNAMIR, had extracted Security Council blessing for 'Operation Turquoise', its own 2,500-strong task force. Although it was embarrassingly obvious to other Security Council members that this was a blatant attempt to maintain after-sales service to the crumbling genocidal regime, no other country was able or prepared to offer troops, so UN approval was furtively granted, with five abstentions. One of those voting for was the Rwandan ambassador to the UN, on the Security Council under the Buggins'-turn principle operated by African countries. UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali strongly backed the French proposal. Somehow this is not too surprising. Paris was his major sponsor when he was first elected, and he recently announced his interest in a second term. His native Egypt was also a major supplier of arms to the Rwandan regime. The catalogue of failure does not stop there. Radio Milles Collines played a key role in provoking the massacres and then stampeding the refugees across the border from behind the shelter of lines defended by the French. But, according to one diplomat, 'there's just an embarrassed silence in the Council when the question of doing something about the radio is raised'. Last week the French claimed that the fallen government's mobile transmitter is in Zaire, but that they have so far been unable to jam it. In similar vein, ten weeks after the Security Council decision to approve UNAMIR II, the force still has only 550 men out of the approved number of 5,500. Although UN officials say that there are more than enough offers of troops, mostly from African countries, they have no equipment. How many deaths could have been prevented if the French had agreed to equip them with the same alacrity with which they put in their own troops? Although the UN has plenty of excuses for its failings in the self-serving behaviour of its leading members, it is far from blameless itself, not least in the poor leadership shown by Boutros-Ghali. Even now, the military, diplomatic and relief efforts are working separately, and at times almost at loggerheads. It is clear that the whole situation would have benefited greatly from strong unitary control But whose? The Rwandan Popular Front, now the government in Kigali, charges that the secretary-general's original special representative to Rwanda, Jacques-Roger Booh Booh, appointed last year, was hopelessly partisan towards the old regime. He was fired, but his replacement, Shaharyar Khan, although less partial, has no control over either the military or the relief operations. General Romeo Dallaire, the commander of the under-equipped UNAMIR force in Kigali, has no influence over the French troops in the south or the US military task force now assembling the relief effort in Zaire. The welter of UN agencies and private relief agencies dealing with the refugee problem is officially being coordinated from Nairobi, where the UN Rwanda Emergency Office was set up, but, says one UN official, 'No one is in charge. Each agency expanded from where they were strongest.' Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe The Security Council will soon set up yet another tribunal to consider charges of genocide. But, as in Bosnia, the world community is an accomplice through its inaction. It would be some comfort to think that lessons will be learnt from the horrors. The stupidity of the UN having to assemble, from scratch, troops and equipment for every single operation that it has to undertake should be apparent to all: the world desperately needs a standing rapid-intervention force dedicated to UN peace-keeping, using some of the (otherwise useless) forces left over from the cold war. It is equally obvious that the UN's decision-making procedures and its leadership need urgently to be renewed and reformed; and that the US, as the sole remaining superpower, must somehow be made to cease abdicating responsibility where its own material interests are not at stake The likelihood, however, is that none of this will happen. Instead, as with Bosnia, the culpably negligent will hide from recrimination behind the cover of sterling humanitarian efforts – and, when the next Rwanda happens, the hand-wringing and buck-passing will start all over again. [See also: From the archive: Enoch and after] Related
