Politics

A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay

I LISTENED with interest to the words of our current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, this week and one statement more than any other stuck out like a sore thumb and made me question the credibility of his speech.

“…If you work hard and play by the rules you should be rewarded…”

It is hard to know where to begin with this topic but I’ll have a go.

Have nurses not been working hard enough? Have they broken too many rules? It makes the words uttered by our PM appear resoundingly hollow when thousands of over-worked and disillusioned nurses have already left the profession and there are currently 50,000 vacancies in the UK.

It demonstrates staggering hypocrisy to broadcast such a statement to the nation, when nurses, resorting for the first time in the 106 year history of the profession to reluctantly take strike action, were not shown sufficient respect by the government to even discuss an appropriate ‘reward’ for ‘working hard and playing by the rules’.

Hard on the heels of Rishi’s speech, The Independent reported, “Top bosses set to surpass annual pay of average worker in just five days…”

The article revealed the bosses of the largest companies in the UK will have earned more money in the first five days of 2023 than an average worker in the country does over the entire year.

Since January 2022, median pay levels for CEOs have risen by 39% while median worker’s pay has risen by 6% (Office for National Statistics).

We do not need Rishi’s extra maths lessons to work out that 39% of a CEOs salary adds up to an awful lot more cash in the pocket than 6% of the average worker’s salary. I am sure some CEOs work very hard to warrant high salaries, but not necessarily harder than anybody else.

For some hard-working employees, the reward for their labours includes a weekly trip to the local foodbank.

The speech delivered on 4th January was intended to set out Rishi Sunak’s vision for the future but it lacked substance.

Making fair pay a priority would be a great place to start. We do not need another PM telling us what, as a nation, we need.

Halving Inflation, growing the economy, ensuring our national debt is failing, cutting

NHS waiting lists and controlling immigration have been on the agenda for some time.

His speech revealed an alarming lack of commitment toward accelerating the growth of renewable energy that will deliver the long-term the economic security and stability upon which the resolution of so many of the aforementioned issues, to a large extent, depend.

Once again we have a Conservative PM making promises of short-term gains and limited ambition. Twelve years in office and still the Conservative government does not have a plan.

The slick final words of his speech were summed up perfectly by James Dunn (New Statesmen, 5th January 2023), “… Sunak ended his speech by telling the public to judge him on his actions: “I will only promise what I can deliver and I will deliver what I promise.” Since he promised very little, we should expect little delivery…”

Cllr John Wells Labour Chair of Environment and Climate Committee (Salisbury City Council)

Double whammy is hitting the NHS

FIRSTLY, I wish a happy and healthy New Year to all readers.

These are challenging times around the world, but I enter 2023 filled with resolve and optimism that better times are on the horizon.

My first act of the working year was to hold an advice surgery in Salisbury, then I headed to London for meetings.

Urgent casework never stops, whatever the season but, from my inbox over Christmas, it is apparent that the exceptional winter pressures on the NHS are concerning a great many people.

There is no doubt that the double whammy of winter infections on top of the continuing backlog of routine procedures due to Covid has created a perfect storm.

The Government is providing

John Glen MP Conservative MP for Salisbury

real terms every year since 2010.

And the Chancellor recently made a number of additional spending commitments, making available £8 billion of extra funding for the NHS and adult social care in England.

But, in making sure that taxpayers’ money does the most possible good on the front line, there is much to learn from the examples of those health trusts that have come up with innovative ways of working and have done brilliantly at clearing their pandemic backlogs.

Where some NHS hospitals are faring significantly better than most through the onslaught of winter bugs, their success is clearly not down to funding alone.

Examples of best practice need to be shared and adopted with an open mind as a matter of urgency in order to make possible rapid action to improve emergency, elective treatment and primary care performance.

The Government will also make available up to £4.7 billion in 2024-25 to put the adult social care system in England on a stronger financial footing and improve care for many of the most vulnerable in our society.

This includes £1 billion to directly support discharges from hospital into the community, to support the NHS.

It is clear that we need the NHS more than ever, and I believe the Government is committed to doing whatever it takes to invest in our health and public services.