Why NHS staff should #DitchTheDeal & reject the government pay offer

This article was originally published on OurNHS/OpenDemocracy during the 2018 pay dispute.

The government is offering NHS staff a 6.5% pay rise, after almost a decade of pay freezes and 1% pay rises. With an NHS in almost permanent crisis and near collapse, this appears like a good thing, but when compared with the reality of the present state of the NHS, it’s a poisoned chalice that union members should reject.

Thoughts on the RCN Safestaffing campaign

On April 18th I attended the London Region conference for the RCN safe staffing campaign. I was surprised at how small the conference was, with only 30-40 spaces for members to attend when RCN London's membership is well over 60,000.

Still it was a promising initiative that showed the RCN leadership is trying to do things differently and move away from the top down approach of running things that has exemplified their campaigns for the last several years.

Disaster Postponed - Labour and the Brexit Crisis

The “flextension” granted to the UK government has brought a temporary reprieve from the Brexit crisis. The government and opposition now have until October 31st to find a Brexit agreement which can be agreed by the European Union, or find another way to resolve the crisis, either by holding a referendum on the deal or revoking Article 50. However the problems which created the crisis remain, and there are many obstacles to a parliamentary resolution.