! This post hasn't been updated in over a year. A lot can change in a year including my opinion and the amount of naughty words I use. There's a good chance that there's something in what's written below that someone will find objectionable. That's fine, if I tried to please everybody all of the time then I'd be a Lib Dem (remember them?) and I'm certainly not one of those. The point is, I'm not the kind of person to try and alter history in case I said something in the past that someone can use against me in the future but just remember that the person I was then isn't the person I am now nor the person I'll be in a year's time.
Edwina Hart, the Health Minister, recently announced that nurses should be made a 2.5% pay increase.
Nurses in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been given their full 2.5% pay increase in one go but nurses in England are to be given theirs staged throughout the year amounting to a net increase of only 1.9%.
They all do the same job – in fact, English nurses have a harder time because there is less money available in the English NHS – so they should all get the same pay and conditions.
Would this happen if an English Executive concerned only with the prosperity and wellbeing of England was in charge of the English health service?
Note: Ms Hart is the Welsh Health Minister. I suspect an English Health Minister would be making similar noises. The nice thing about politicians is that you can get rid of them — unless they not directly elected like President Brown and his predecessor. In my opinion, all elected officials should be paid the average workers wage (boy would they wake up if they had to buy a house with a nurses’ wage) and be subject to a recall election if their constituents find that they do not act in their interest. Blair wouldn’t have lasted ten years…