Health, Wealth, and Priorities

Hello, dear readers!

There’s no news like bad news, or so ‘they’ (for any given value of what ‘they’ may or may not be) say.

I suppose in a way it’s true. Bad news does travel faster than good, and in these interesting times we find ourselves in there’s certainly been no shortage of the stuff. In fact, some days you wonder if the news is being shown on repeat as Covid, lockdown, and everything that goes along with it remains front and centre of every single broadcast.

This week, however, there’s been a different story doing the rounds, and I, for one, really wish there wasn’t.

Royal Flush
The story I’m talking about is the interview between Oprah Winfrey and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, otherwise known as Harry and Meghan.

Now, I’m not all that up on the ins and outs of the couples falling out with Meghan’s in-laws. I’m not a man who follows the headlines in the daily papers, nor do I have much interest in the extended familial relationships of one mega-rich family (I have a standing agreement with the Royals. I leave them alone, and they don’t bother me. So far it’s worked a treat). So, I’m sure you’ll pardon me if I don’t give a small sewer-dwelling rodent’s posterior for the current headlines.

That’s not to ignore the obvious racial issues that are possibly at the heart of Harry and Meghan’s decision. It’s not to downplay the reported emotional impact of her potential ostracisation. It’s just that similar issues are being played out the world over on a daily basis, and for some reason, they don’t make the news.

It’s not the only reason I wished this story wasn’t making such apparently huge wave right now, though.

Nurse It Better
The reason I’m particularly put out by this latest spotlight on the cult of personality is that there is, for me, another story which should be front and centre. A story which should excite the public’s interest, passion, and anger. That story is the risible pay raise gifted to one of the pillars of the frontline NHS. Namely, the nurses.

These are the brave ladies and gentlemen (yes, there are male nurses) we went out to our doorsteps and clapped for in the early part of last year. The people who have, over the last year, seen their workload increase, their risk of infection, illness and death increase, and their mental health impacted massively as stress, worry and exhaustion take their toll. These are the people who have been battling the virus in the trenches. Who have saved life after life and done so much to stop the spread of the virus.

As I say, we were encouraged to show our appreciation for these heroes of the NHS. We were asked, every Thursday, to brave the elements and take part in a nationwide display of gratitude for the job they were doing, a job that inspired Captain Sir Tom Moore, a 99-year-old war veteran to walk one hundred lengths of his garden to raise funds to help support them and the wonderful institution they work for. It led to a feeling of togetherness, an almost blitz-like spirit of community and the NHS, and its workers were at the heart of that feeling. Now you almost wonder why we did it.

Money Matters
The NHS has been under-funded for a long time. That’s pretty much a matter of record and is one of the reasons Covid has stretched it to such an extent. Nurses already work a long and difficult shift. Asking them to do more with little in the way of extra resources was asking a lot. Not rewarding them for that work with anything more than a round of applause, well I can understand why that might be interpreted as an insult.

There will be those, I’m sure, who will look at the 1% pay rise awarded, and call the nursing staff lucky. They will point to the fact the nurses are already earning X amount and that their own pay rise hasn’t been as ‘generous’. They will point to the fact other public sector workers have had their pay increases ‘paused’. To them, I’d say you might just be looking at it wrong.

It’s not an ‘either-or’ situation. It’s not a case of ‘we haven’t got more money, so why should they.’ If You’re a private sector worker, then your beef would be with your boss. It would be to them you would have to bring up the increased hours, workload, and risks which deserve a better raise. If you’re a public sector worker, then rather than bemoan others getting rewarded for hard and hazardous work, I’d possibly bring up the huge amount of money which seems to have been handed out to private companies (at least some which have links to the friends and families of government ministers). I’d bring up the reported 37 Billion (That’s 37 thousand millions) paid to Serco for the most-certainly-fit-for-purpose Track and Trace system (To put this in perspective the Perseverance Rover was, this year, put on Mars, an actual different planet, for just 2.7 Billion ).

A Choice Cut
So, yeah. If it were me, I’d look for the government to claw back some of the money it’s potentially wasted on such extravagant contracts, and actually use it to reward the people who have sacrificed so much. It might mean a dip in Conservative party donations, but the next time our alleged Prime Minister ends up in hospital for a few days with Covid like symptoms, it might save him from one or two unnecessary rectal examinations.

I guess it is, like most things, a matter or priorities. Much like the papers and the breakfast news prefer to concentrate on a man and his wife falling out with the family, the government must choose where it spends its money. Of course, in both examples there is another choice, one we can all make, and that’s the choice to support these decisions or not. The first is a matter of voting with your wallet and your attention. The second, well, that’s just a matter of voting.

Sorry for the politics and sorry for the rant. We now return you to our normal service.

Until next time…