For all those who support the strikes

[chopc]

Where do you think the money will come from for all the pay rises? Are you personally willing to pay more tax?
We all saw during the pandemic it is the poorly paid essential workers that kept the country going and they totally deserve more money than the claps they got. However will YOU be prepared to contribute to the pot ?

If not where do you think the govn will find more money from?

I don't believe they don't have the money. The Govt just don't want to spend it.
During covid, they had plenty to give out to bale out companies and people with furlough. I just don't buy it anymore.

They found the funds at least initially.

Yes would much rather pay more tax.

As PP have already pointed out, the so called private sector is heavily subsidised by Government.

UC / Benefits keep wages artificially low. Taxpayer and student (future employee) funding for schools and then degrees means they don’t have to pay as much to train their workforce.
The NHS means they’re not obliged to offer the kind of health insurance cover that US firms do.

And that’s before we get into the heavy bungs coming for the so-called ‘free trade’ ports, the existing wedge for R&D, the outright croneyism of PPE, the dodgy dealings within the MoD etc etc.

The Tories won’t give HC workers a decent payrise purely because they’re ideologically opposed to it, not because the money couldn’t be found for it.

Yes. I would gladly pay more tax if it meant a fairer distribution of income.

The Tories have cost us billions by crashing the pound and giving huge handouts to their mates for PPE contracts, among other things. I think you should be asking where they thought the money would come from to pay for all of that, rather than querying whether highly skilled essential workers deserve enough pay to meet their basic living costs. One is corruption and greed, the other is a reasonable demand. Where will the NHS be if we lose a few thousand underpaid nurses to better paid sectors?

Well - they could claw back all of the wasted BILLIONS fraudulently appropriated by firms who were supposedly providing PPE, Trace and Trace etc

You know . . . all of those contracts awarded to their mates . . .

Do you mean the ineffective AZ vaccine and extra billions spent trying to get mRNA ones that we didn't order enough of, so played catch up once AZ was found to be dangerous...

..that one?

Or do you mean the highest overall death toll in Europe?

And remember - that when hospitals are short of nurses, they have to employ agency staff. These staff are paid more than the regular nurses, and the agency added a 20-30% fee ON TOP of these higher wages . . . surely it would be better to have more, better paid, less stressed staff in the first place.

This...

Plus... The govt needs to stop being so fraudulent (allegedly) with its spending.....

That alone would vier many many nurses salary increases.

No, I can't afford more tax. They can take money for the rise from the pot they took from for all the bonuses for parasites in parliament. Oh and from the pot that Carrie took money from to renovate No 10.

Yes I am personally willing to pay more tax. I believe tax rises should be focused on the rich, but people who are comfortable enough like me should also make a contribution.

Fundamentally though, the government budget doesn’t work like a household budget. There’s plenty of evidence that increasing pay would help the economy and therefore government tax take.

Where has @chopc gone? Do you not have anything to say to all these reasonable and sensible answers to your question?

There is money, it’s always found when they want to help their mates. But yeah I’d also pay a bit more tax.

The money spent on those things wouldn’t fund much pay rise at all. Not saying they were right to do it, of course not, but significantly more money will be needed to give NHS staff a large pay rise. We will all have to pay higher tax if we want public sector workers to be paid more.

If we don't invest in our defunded NHS now, we won't have it in years to come. It's very short sighted not to invest in the health of the workforce, and that means both paying key workers a decent wage in order to heat their homes and eat a decent diet, and investing in training and retaining health care workers. It's ridiculously short sighted to defund the health of our workforce, and to essentially defund our public services. We keep not learning the lessons of the past. Austerity needs to go, we need proper investment in our infrastructure and our workers, and our children as well, their health and wellbeing and education. They are our future. I don't begrudge paying fair taxes, and if I'm ever in the privileged position of being in the higher tax band then I will be happy to pay accordingly.

Do you have a link? Thanks

In 2015 they had a 10% pay rise (while public sector workers got 1%).

I support the nurses and Royal mail. Corporate tax could be increased especially a windfall tax from companies that profited extraordinarily from covid.

As a PP said they got significant pay rises around that time as they had their pensions significantly cut.

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/16/tax-dodging-and-non-compliance-during-pandemic-cost-uk-9bn-nao There you go, I just found £9 billion in tax dodging during the pandemic

Brexit bus?

I hear you, I worked for charities for years and it is very poorly paid. I'm actually a nurse now and the pay, holidays and benefits are so much better in comparison. However conditions are pretty awful in hospitals and I've no idea what the solution is :(

If this government can find the money to give massive backhanders to their dodgy mates they can afford to pay people enough to live on. Yes, I’d pay more tax, of course I would. Our public services are being bled dry by these greedy truth twisters.

Yes, I will. I've donated as best I can now to the RCN strike funds and am happy to continue to pay more so that the people who are treating me and my family are warm, fed, not distracted by anxiety of how they'll pay their bills or care for their own family.