comment: >
  
  The quote at the end is a gem. The government spokesperson calls on the unions not to strike, conveniently ignoring the fact that the government can end the strike as soon as it wants.
context: the craziest thing in all of this...a nursing union literally offered to postpone a strike if the Minister spoke with them... he refused to hold a simple conversation... so they've gone on strike. 
  ​
  That's how bad it is nowadays >
  
  Surely they can use that 350 Million GBP a week they aren't paying to the EU to employ more nurses /s >
  
  Just let the free market deal with it, eventually nurses will simply do it for the love of saving lives! >
  
  Or maybe every person employed by Rupert Murdoch . All the guys who work at his newspapers can fill in for the nurses . >
  
  Healing the sick with OUTRAGE! >
  
  You will see a General Strike before the government get to implement their anti-strike laws (that enable employers to sack employees striking, and enables employers to sue unions that do not follow the rules they haven't even put into writing when passing this law)
  The law also has a clause in it that enables the government to change it however which way they want without requiring parliamentary scrutiny. 
  The law passed through parliament the other day - tories that don't like it still voted for it anyway - so is now required to get through the Lords before it can be implemented (with the vague wording changed as per the aforementioned clause)
  Not satisfied with costing the nation tens of billions a year with Brexit, more tens of billions in corrupt contracts to their mates and yet more in tax evasion, they've now cost billions more this past year by refusing to talk to any unions. Their own ministers have openly stated that it would have saved money if they had negotiated with the unions. 
  The list of groups that have been on strike/partaken in strike-like actions in the last year:
  
  Postal Workers
  Train Drivers
  Underground workers
  Rail workers
  Bus drivers
  Doctors
  Nurses (first time in their history!)
  Ambulance service
  Emergency Services Call Handlers
  Fire Brigade
  Police (not allowed to strike but a few forces have done equivalents in the last year)
  Bin men
  Barristers and various court staff
  Civil Service generally
  Border Force
  Dock workers
  Teachers
  Care workers
  Airline workers (attendants etc)
  Airport workers (baggage handlers and others)
  Driving examiners
  University Staff - Lecturers, Librarians, admin staff and cleaners.
  Broadband/Telecoms engineers
  National Highways staff
  Rural Payments Agency
  Physiotherapists
  
  Truss branded strikers 'militants' - but I think this covers most of society that have access to a union at this point. Even Army bosses made a thinly veiled statement about using them to plug holes when they themselves haven't seen adequate pay rises and face big problems with treatment of personnel, pretty much stating that they would be striking too if they could.
  So, international viewers, who do you reckon are the problem? This cross-section of society, or the government? >
  
  As an international viewer i think Britain needs to stop voting tory >
  
  If you had a general election right now, Starmer (labour) would win by a landslide of Tony Blair proportions.  
  It’s not that Starmer is anywhere near as popular,‘it’s how badly the Torie a are viewed now.
  I mean when you’ve got people like Rod Stewart who has voted conservative his entire life, calling in to news stations to say it’s time for a labour government, you know the tories are screwed. >
  
  Wow, that would mean 32 more seats than even Blair’s massive landslide victory. 
  You have to go back 100 years to find any such landslide as 450 seats (1929). >
  
  And that majority has come down since Truss's disaster of a premiership. At one point predictions were being made that the SNP (a party that only runs in ~50 seats) would get more seats than the Tories and would be the official opposition. >
  
  Aaa. I remember the 70s strikes.  Good to see history repeating itself.  People get pissed off with everything eventually. >
  
  In Economics I was taught that in the 70s bin men strike was because they'd been given so many pay rises by the Labour government of the day that for the first time ever they could afford to strike.
  Thatcher came in, wiped out the money, and they didn't strike for over a decade.  They couldn't afford the time off any more. >
  
  Partly true, but the ban on secondary picketing and solidarity strikes also had a big effect. Part of the reason why they were so prone to striking in the 60s and 70s was that their absence was extremely visible and very costly. After it was banned, they couldn't cooperate with other trades and strikes in the same way, so their value in labour action dropped. >
  
  How do you make it illegal to strike, or more specifically why would anyone follow that law?
  isn't the "we out number you," civil disobedience the whole point? >
  
  It is illegal for the police, or army, to strike, for example.  They follow the law because they don't want to lose their jobs and have other penalties.
  You make it clear to them when they join the job.  
  Solidarity strikes and secondary picketing is when there is no problem with your job whatsoever, but you strike anyway because some other job doesn't pay enough and your mate Gary does that other job.  
  It's kinda' a 'We'll burn it all to the fucking ground, even companys/areas that have done absolutely 100% nothing wrong, IT'S ALL GOING TO BURN UNLESS YOU HELP OUT GARY' thing. >
  
  Sounds like a better world to live in. >
  
  Unfortunately, we live in a world where people are intimidated into striking because "it's illegal."
  Like, it's illegal for cops to strike... okay... who is going to enforce that?  The cops? >
  
  It's illegal in many countries for police to strike.
  In Ireland, they worked around this by all calling in sick simultaneously. >
  
  There's also soft strikes where they go to work but don't do anything >
  
  And for city services there are paying strikes, where people go to work and provide the regular service but charge no fee for it (such as public transit). >
  
  Imagine having the gall to pick a fight against nurses and teachers claiming it's thuggery months after wiping 30? Billion from the economy. How many controversies have there been with this government now? The OMF put Russia's Growth ahead of the UK today...what a mess. >
  
  I don't think most British people realise how unattractive the pound is and how much deflation the value has had in the last few years. 
  While most of the world is dealing with price inflation. The UK has currency deflation. 
  Every foreign investor with pounds is desperate to get rid of it or just convert it all to property. 
  The UK needs to do something to make people want to buy the pound again. 
  They either need to massively increase interest rates to offset its deflated value or have an amazing growth in the economy. Otherwise they'll end up like Argentina. 
  Honestly they may as well adopt the Euro at this point.  Although I have friends in Croatia and they said it has been a disaster for them. The price of everything went up by 20 to 30% in just a few weeks. >
  
  
  “Of course, the best mitigation would be for union bosses to call off planned strikes, to keep talking and to come to an agreement.”
  
  You could give the union what they ask for.  That would stop the strike. >
  
  If the government ministers agreed to actually talk with the unions then that might happen >
  
  That would require not voting in ministers who's entire political ideology is against the very concept of unions. Its like putting a flat earther in charge of NASA and wondering why they've stopped sending rockets up. >
  
  I don't think the concept of flat Earth interferes with idea of space exploration though. I mean even if flat, it has to reside somewhere.
  I do see your point, I just had this sudden thought. >
  
  Try calculating the reentry trajectory of a ship landing on a flat disk. >
  
  "uh, down obviously"
  
  some nimrod, probably >
  
  Oh right, I forgot atmosphere is a myth >
  
  Also energy is free and fuel is a lie. >
  
  if you attached some magnets to henry dircks and wrapped his coffin in a copper coil you could catch some free energy from him spinning in his grave...