Tag Archives: four

Junior doctors are to go on a new four-day strike. Here are their reasons

Junior doctors: this is not the first time they’ve had to strike for better pay. The Tories in government tend to consider that people in the medical profession are hostages to fortune because any strike action can always be slanted as harming patients. Meanwhile the quality of healthcare plummets anyway, as staff quit to get away from the pressure.

In the face of continued government intransigence over pay and conditions, junior doctors have had no choice but to announce another four-day strike, running between April 11-14.

Here’s Taj Ali with the press release from the British Medical Association:

The government is – of course – lying about junior doctors’ reasons for going on strike. The most common claim is that they already have a pay rise of 8.4 per cent agreed – but this was to be phased in over four years, meaning it’s actually only a two per cent rise per year. With inflation at more than 10 per cent, it is in fact an enormous pay cut.

Junior doctors have faced pay cuts totalling 35 per cent over the last 15 years – and let’s bear in mind that the Tory ministers who are imposing those cuts have not had any appreciable cut in their own salaries, while their expenses claims seem to cover anything they fancy.

All they want is a return to parity with what they were earning in 2008, which should not be an impossible task if MPs have it. Here’s Peter Stefanovic to explain:

And let’s remember that, behind all this, prime minister Rishi Sunak is planning to strip junior doctors of their right to strike, in the name of basic standards that he cannot even be bothered to provide now:

The entire attitude of the Tory government is nothing but a tissue of lies and intimidation. This Writer says: support the doctors.

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Will Tories rebel against extension of English lockdown to July 19?

Staying closed: many businesses may be forced to remain closed for a further four weeks – unless Tory backbenchers ruin Boris Johnson’s plans. But will he welcome that?

Well, there it is.

Boris Johnson is expected to announce an extension to the English lockdown, meaning most remaining restrictions won’t be lifted until July 19.

There are good grounds to do so:

Many scientists have called for the reopening to be delayed to enable more people to be vaccinated and receive second doses, amid rising cases of the Delta variant.

A delay would also allow more work to be done on whether vaccines are breaking, or simply weakening, the link between infections and hospitalisations.

But it is possible that the plan will face resistance – from Conservative backbenchers who are sick of the demand that we all wear masks when we go out, observe social distancing and keep some businesses closed, harming the economy.

On the last point, the BBC provides these examples:

If the lifting of restrictions is pushed back, the UK Weddings Taskforce – an industry group – estimates that 50,000 weddings planned in the four weeks from 21 June could be cancelled, with the industry losing £325m for every week of delay.

UKHospitality, which represents pubs, bars and restaurants, said businesses faced losing £3bn in sales if the relaxation of restrictions is delayed by a month.

The Night Time Industries Association said businesses such as nightclubs had already spent millions preparing to reopen, and the association will legally challenge any delay to reopening.

But the BBC also reports that projections based on the current trend show that if the current rate of increase continues, there could be 15,000 new cases per day – at least – by June 21. That’s double the number on June 13.

Ignoring that could be a public relations disaster for Johnson, who has been vilified as a dimwit for failing to acknowledge the warnings and delaying previous lockdowns, thereby assuring the deaths of thousands of people who might otherwise have avoided infection.

Still, collective responsibility for such recklessness is better for Johnson than having the blame piled on his shoulders alone, so he may welcome a vote that defeats his extension plan.

After all, how many of you will remember if your MP votes to end lockdown too soon? How many of you will even check what your MP does?

Source: Covid: Lockdown easing in England to be delayed by four weeks – BBC News

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Prolonging the agony: Johnson to delay lifting lockdown for four weeks

Closed (still): lockdown restrictions are likely to continue beyond June 21 for another four weeks. Let’s hope Boris Johnson’s stupidity doesn’t force another extension after that.

‘Freedom Day’ – the moment when the UK is set to be free of all Covid-19-related lockdown restrictions – is to be delayed until July 19 because of Johnson’s failure to keep the delta variant out.

The new date happens to be This Writer’s birthday. Happy birthday to me!

I’m thinking of having a big party where everyone who knows me can come and do all the things we’ve all been banned from doing for the previous 16 months…

The number of infections has increased again. On Friday (June 11) there was an increase of 8,125 – up 30 per cent on the previous Friday’s 6,238 new cases, themselves a 49 per cent increase on the Friday before.

A further 17 deaths (within 28 days of a positive Covid diagnosis) were recorded – which is massively up from the zero deaths of Bank Holiday Monday (obviously).

Conspiracy theorists will be delighted because it gives them a chance to claim that the government simply doesn’t want to lift restrictions on our freedoms.

Some of them will be saying the Tories are looking for a new illness to keep us isolated. Well, it won’t be monkeypox (I hope); Hancock has reported an outbreak but it’s only two cases, isolated in North Wales.

And after all the traumatic experiences we’ve had since March 2020, our politicians would have to be really bad – a danger to the public – to let this one run as badly out of control as Covid.

Oh dear.

I suppose you’d better all prepare for the worst.

Source: June Freedom Day ‘delayed until July 19’ – but social distancing may end earlier – Mirror Online

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Do you believe this ‘four-day working week to create half a million jobs’ bunkum?

Commuters: to many of them, the idea of a four-day working week may seem highly attractive – but not on these ‘castle in the air’ terms.

Someone’s trying to lead us up the garden path:

The public sector should switch to a four-day week to create 500,000 jobs and help ease a predicted spike in unemployment following the coronavirus outbreak, according to a report.

The Autonomy think tank said “the time has come” for a shorter working week as the end of the government’s furlough scheme in October is expected to cause an unemployment crisis.

Research by the thinktank suggests public sector workers could move to a 32-hour week without any loss in wages at a cost of up to £9bn a year.

This figure, according to Autonomy, represents 6 per cent of the public sector salary bill and costs the same amount as the furlough employment scheme brought in to save jobs during the peak of the pandemic.

Who says any government is going to give public sector workers a cut in their working hours while keeping their wages the same (that’s a massive real-terms raise) – especially a Tory government? They imposed a public sector pay freeze for years!

And the claim that it would cost up to £9 billion a year – the same as Rishi Sunak’s furlough scheme – is just more evidence that it wouldn’t work. Sunak is scrapping the furlough scheme on grounds that it is too expensive to continue indefinitely.

Not realistic.

Source: Four-day working week in public sector could create 500,000 jobs, says thinktank report | The Independent | Independent

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Tories refuse to help Universal Credit claimants left dangling due to coronavirus

Thousands upon thousands of formerly-working people are learning the realities of the UK benefit system, after being told by the Tories to wait months before their first benefit payment.

If they hoped the Tories would speed up the four-week assessment period for Universal Credit – because of the coronavirus crisis and the cash crisis it has created for millions – they thought wrong.

And they need to remember that they won’t get paid until a week after the assessment period ends; it’s a five-week total wait.

The Tories could make the wait shorter – but they won’t.

The usual excuse is that UC is supposed to mimic the salary system in which people get paid once a month (except of course we know that many people are paid weekly, or fortnightly).

The current excuse, sported by UC director general Neil Couling is “If you play about with the architecture of Universal Credit you won’t be able to pay the vast millions we have to pay every month.”

Nonsense.

It’s an automatic system. If you qualify, you qualify – and it can pay you straight away.

It doesn’t, because the Tory system is to make you wait; to push you far enough to take out an advance loan that will take months to pay off; to push you into permanent debt.

It seems the coronavirus is a perfect opportunity to get 1.4 million people (at current count) servicing a needless debt for months to come.

Hopes new Universal Credit payments could be made faster have been dashed after the Government said the four-week assessment period was ‘integral’ to the benefits system.

Many campaign groups had been hoping for an accelerated process to help alleviate the pressure families found themselves under after the coronavirus outbreak forced businesses to close and people to stay at home as part of the lockdown.

Speaking at a press briefing, Universal Credit director general Neil Couling said: ‘If you play about with the architecture of Universal Credit you won’t be able to pay the vast millions we have to pay every month.’

Source: ‘No chance’ wait for Universal Credit payments can be shortened | Metro News

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