Latest news with #doctorstrike
The Sun
5 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Have you heard the best doctor joke yet? They want huge pay rise just after 22% deal. Here's where they can shove it
'DOCTOR, Doctor . . . since the operation I can't feel my legs.' 'That's because we've amputated your hands.' 5 Until this week, that was my favourite doctor joke. I mean, there was another one in really bad taste about dementia. But we won't go there. And even that wasn't as funny as the one I'm about to tell you. The doctors, they call themselves resident doctors now, by the way, have demanded more money from the government. Want to know how much? A pay rise of at least 29 per cent. Or more. I heard one trade union rep on Times Radio saying they should be asking for a rise of 50 per cent. That's not the punchline, though. The punchline is that they've just been given a pay rise already this week. Of 5.4 per cent, so way more than the rate of inflation. The British Medical Association has said this is nowhere near enough money and is urging the quacks to vote for strike action. So we are looking at another summer of misery and chaos in our hospitals with yet more strikes. The doctors say the reason they deserve more money is that their settlements have been below inflation every time. They say they have taken a massive real-terms pay cut since 2006. Listen, you mouth-breathing spazzocks. Everyone has taken real-term pay cuts since 2006. Nobody is quite as well off as they were then, that was before the economic crash. So, anyway, they're likely to be going on strike. Oh, there's another punchline. Do you know how much they received in their pay settlement two years ago, after they had been on strike? It was a gobsmacking 22 per cent. Wes Streeting brutally slams Kemi AND Farage and demands Tories say sorry for how they ran the NHS in blistering attack It is the absolute duty of our Health Secretary Wes Streeting and the Labour government to tell these docs to shove their pay rise right up their sphincters and into the duodenum canal. Or the Grand Union Canal, whichever is nearer. This country is broke. Largely a consequence of the economic mismanagement of Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor. We cannot afford to be splashing out enormous sums on ludicrous pay rises. The problem for Wes and co is that the doctors are loyal Labour voters. And Labour likes to reward its client base — and sod the economy. 5 As soon as Starmer got in the winter fuel payments for pensioners were scrapped and instead the train drivers got a massive pay rise. So Labour has partly created this mess itself, by giving the trade unions exactly what they want. And I can see Starmer saying: 'Well, it is a very generous pay deal. But we had to do it because we didn't want a summer of chaos in our hospitals.' Don't do it, Wes. Don't do it, Keir. While a year or so ago the public was fully behind the health workers in their battles for more dosh, it's nowhere near the truth now. A recent poll has suggested that support for the resident doctors has slipped from 52 per cent in the polls to 39 per cent today. So have some spine, Starmer. Call their bluff. Tell them they're getting 5.4 per cent and should be grateful. Because how many workers in the private sector have been getting pay awards like that? Have you? HOME WORK DODGE WELL, at least there's one poll the poor old UK comes top in. Yes, we have more people working from home than in any other European country. The average number of days spent sitting in front of Bangers & Cash, sorry, studiously working for your company, is 1.8 in the UK. In Europe it's 1.3. The only country worldwide that beats us is the basket case which is Canada. I have nothing against working from home – hell, I do it – so long as it means working from home. But too often it doesn't. And too often it's our public sector – who are generally already paid more on average, have more sick days and longer holidays than those in the private sector. You can't beat Black Lace's Agadoo, Zak 5 POOR old Zak Starkey. Will nobody give him a job as a drummer? He was 'retired' from The Who's tour because Roger Daltrey thought he played too loud. And now he's not available for his old band Oasis either. If he doesn't watch it, he'll end up on the Northern cabaret circuit keeping time for Black Lace on Agadoo. Zak was taught drums by the madman Keith Moon. I think that explains a lot. BLURT IT, BEEB 5 BYE bye, Gary. The BBC got itself in a terrible pickle over Mr Lineker. I think the bloke had every right to express his opinions. Even if they were always fairly stupid. And like as not, we will miss Gary from our screens. He was a much better broadcaster than his opponents gave him credit for. My answer to the BBC's conundrum is this. Let every employee speak his or her mind. Wherever they want. And then maybe we would see in glorious Technicolor the political bias of the corporation. And they would have to fess up and start to change it.
Telegraph
06-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Wes Streeting: More junior doctor strikes will put NHS ‘in jeopardy'
More junior doctor strikes will put the future of the NHS in 'jeopardy', Wes Streeting has said. The British Medical Association (BMA) announced after a meeting with the Health Secretary on Friday that its doctors would vote on returning to the picket line. This comes less than 10 months after a 22 per cent pay rise and an agreement that the professionals would be referred to as 'resident doctors' as opposed to junior doctors. The BMA said it was asking members if they wanted to strike again after Mr Streeting would not commit to increasing their pay back to 2008 levels over the next two years. The Health Secretary suggested that the resident doctors' demands of a more than 10 per cent rise were unaffordable. He said the decision to vote on striking again was 'premature' and 'disappointing that the ballot for strike action is going out before they've received their pay offer'. Mr Streeting also said more disruption would keep the NHS in a state of 'jeopardy' and urged doctors to work with him rather than play into the hands of political opponents. 'Hold your horses' When asked what he would say to the doctors considering industrial action, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'We haven't made the pay offer yet, so I would just say to the BMA, hold your horses for a moment, wait until you get the pay offer. 'We know that the NHS is in jeopardy, not just because of the scale of the crisis we inherited, but because we have political opponents in Reform and the Conservative Party who do not even believe in the NHS. ' Nigel Farage said very clearly during the election campaign, he does not believe in a taxpayer-funded NHS.' He urged doctors to 'work with the party of the NHS to help us fix the NHS' and said this would happen 'if doctors are on the front line, not the picket line'. He noted during an interview with Times Radio that the resident doctors were asking for a pay rise of '8 or 9 per cent', plus inflation, which is currently at 2.6 per cent. The Health Secretary added: 'I can't honestly say we'll be able to deliver that year-on-year.' Mr Streeting added that when the doctors 'receive their pay offer, they will see this is a Government that is moving their pay, their conditions and their career progression in the right direction'. On Friday, the BMA said three weeks had passed since it warned the Government of the 'consequences of the absence of a reasonable, timely pay offer' for 2025-26. Its ballot for industrial action will open on May 27 and close on July 7.
