As junior doctors – now known as resident doctors – prepare for strike action over pay, the whole of the capitalist establishment is trying to whip up public mood against them.
Labour health secretary Wes Streeting heads the charge, calling resident doctors ‘unconscionable’. He is backed up by the Daily Mail ranting about ‘irresponsible’ doctors hindering care for the sickest. The real hindrance is the fact that the NHS it is on its knees, following decades of privatisation, underfunding and understaffing.
The Tory Telegraph spits bile about ‘hospital pizza parties’ and alleged £100,000 pay cheques. Resident doctors’ pay actually ranges from £28,808 per year to £56,077 for those on specialty training – the example the Telegraph claims to have found is obviously working a lot of hours.
Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has shown that nurses are £8,000 worse off than they would be if pay rises were in line with inflation – yet Starmer’s Labour has only offered them 3.6%.
The BBC Today programme interviewer Nick Robinson happily joined in the attacks on Monday morning 14 July, challenging both nurses and resident doctors for using the higher RPI measure of inflation instead of the ‘official’ lower CPI measure. The nurse pointed out that CPI doesn’t include housing costs. But he scored an own goal when accusing the resident doctor of using RPI “when it suits you”. She replied, “So does the government when it suits them” (for example for calculating student loan repayments). Robinson let the cat out the bag: “Yes, but not for pay”. Exactly!
The latest poll shows 36% public support despite the barrage of propaganda – considerably more than the 20% of the electorate who voted for Starmer’s government!
If the doctors don’t achieve what they need through negotiation, Socialist Party members will be supporting them on the picket lines from 25 July. And we’ll be supporting nurses and other health workers who decide they need to take strike action too.
