Plague Island’s Chancellor, Rishi Sunak – the main architect of ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ and the one who vetoed a ‘circuit break’ lockdown in September 2020 – unveiled The Budget for 2021 on Wednesday (3rd March). In it, NHS workers have are set to receive an insulting 1% pay rise.
1%.
Let that sink in.
1% equates to a real life rise of, on average, £3.50 per week.
£3.50 per week.
That would not pay for car parking for a single shift at a hospital, let alone anything else.
It doesn’t even meet the ‘Cost of Living’ rise. Staff are effectively on less money than they were last year. It is a pay cut in real terms.
We know that health care workers accept known risks due to their profession and many prefer not to be known as heroes. However, they have gone above and beyond the call of duty during this past year. They have not been adequately protected. They have been taken for granted by government. This extends to every front line worker: porters, cleaners, as well as doctors and nurses. To be blunt, if we didn’t know already, the pandemic has proven what a fundamental role these people play in our society.
Nurses are the ones who are currently rolling out the vaccine programme. You know: the one that Johnson is currently making currency from in the polls.
Let us be as clear as crystal when we say this: Johnson, Hancock, Sunak, Patel, Gove, Rees-Mogg – all of those in current government positions: they are the absolute scum of the earth. The worst of the worst (and we have had some pretty awful governments over the last 40 years).
The reason why they think 1% is acceptable is because it is 1% more than they ever wanted to give.
This news comes as The Death Secretary has awarded the latest big contract to another pal (Byline Times). This time, it is a mere £19 million drop in the ocean compared to the abysmal Track and Trace.
This news also comes as Johnson has broken the law again by misleading Parliament (Good Law Project).
We don’t know how much longer it can go on like this for here: how much more shit we can take? Indeed, how much more shit are we willing to take? Whilst we have the sleepy inclination to keep taking it, they will keep doing it. They have repeatedly shown that they have no morals and no cares; all they think about is filling their grubby little pockets with more and more money for them and their friends.
It looks like we may be in for a year of some serious political action. The disgraced bully we have as Home Secretary has already foreseen this, as Covid laws are likely to remain in place once restrictions are lifted. This is undoubtedly to prevent large demonstrations from taking place (The Guardian). The Cheltenham Festival will probably fine to go ahead, though.
When protests do eventually come, we have to take a stand. That doesn’t have to mean physically being there: pressure your MP, organise online, co-ordinate Twitter Storms. When the BBC and other news outlets peddle falsehoods, complain. When lies are told in Parliament, contact the Speaker of the House, or the Committee on Standards in Public Life. The point is to do whatever you can, but definitely don’t do nothing.
We have to be a constant thorn in their side, for all of our sakes. The one thing that this government has proved is that when serious pressure is on them, they buckle and u-turn. We have to make this happen, and not let up on the pressure.
This isn’t just about single victories. This is about shaping the type of society we want to have when emerging from the pandemic. No more ‘return to normal’ because the old normal was a devastating battle for survival for too many people. No return to austerity and no more disaster capitalism. A good place to start (if you haven’t already) is pushing these corrupt crooks to give our health care workers a decent pay rise.
As someone once said, ‘We are many and they are few.’ Now is the time to get active, get organised and make our numbers count.
A little hope, always.
~ L&A 6.3.21 ~
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/03/rishi-sunak-is-not-your-friend
Notes From Plague Island 
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