Editorial: Reward for past strikes made new ones inevitable

Junior doctors are on strike in England, as doctors have been on strike at various times across the UK.

Resident doctors began a five-day walkout on Friday after relations between the UK government and British Medical Association (BMA) soured over a pay dispute.

The action has been criticised by the Health Secretary, West Streeting, who said the union cannot “hold the country to ransom” after a 28.9% pay award over the last three years, the highest in the public sector. Also by the Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, who has pledged to ban doctors’ strikes if the Tories retake power.

The main political parties, in Westminster and locally at Stormont, have supported or rewarded past strike action by public sector workers. An older child would understand that this will lead to more strikes yet our political leaders don’t. A wave of strikes before the last general election were met largely with silence from the then Conservative government, and with support from Labour and the NI parties.

Labour and some NI parties were coy about their support and you might even at times have found that they opposed some industrial action if you closely studied their statements. But all parties, even to an extent the Tories, gave public sector workers moral support. After Stormont returned last year and Sir Keir Starmer was elected, strikers across the UK got pay rewards.

One day, perhaps in near the future, this will lead to a crisis, with an ever higher proportion of government expenditure spent on wages at a time of already big public sector debt. It is why we do not have enough police, can’t repair potholes, etc. Another little mentioned aspect to this is the very generous public sector pensions that doctors and a wave of other state employees enjoy. Yet weak politicians will not spell out the value of such perks, and won’t condemn the unjustified nature of the strikes.