“Overall our public services are in good shape”, according to Conservative Party chair, Greg Hands. “Are you joking?” was the retort from LBC radio presenter Andrew Castle.
In figures released recently, one patient waited 65 hours for an ambulance after a category 3 ‘urgent’ call. Once inside the hospital, over 3 in 10 of those visiting A&E in one east London trust waited more than 12 hours to be seen in February.
Another Tory, prime minister Rishi Sunak, was forced to accept there aren’t enough Maths teachers to enable his plans to keep all students studying the subject to age 18.
There are 165,000 vacancies in social care and over 1.5 million people have unmet care needs.
Across public services, workers are being forced to strike – for a pay rise to keep up with the rising cost of living, and for the funding needed to save our services from collapse.
Greg wasn’t joking. He must be deluded!
We need a party that backs workers on strike defending their pay and our services. Asked by Laura Kuenssberg whether he backs nurses’ strikes, Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting responded: “How could I?”
In the next general election we need candidates fighting our corner, for fully funded, inflation-proof pay rises. That’s why the Socialist Party is campaigning for a trade union-backed workers’ list to stand.
