Tag Archives: Winter of Discontent

The army should not be called in as strike breakers

By Andy Boddington | Mon 12th December 2022 - 3:26 pm

The government is mobilising the army to deal with civil problems. It is not the first time. Think back to the London Olympics. And the army’s Green Goddesses that were used in the fire strikes of 1977 and 2002.

Armed forces were also used during the epidemic, but that was a national emergency and all hands were needed. But we are not now facing a national emergency. We are facing strike action because the Conservatives have been in power too long. They have lost what little understanding they had with the gritty realities of life for many people. They have lost any sympathy for health workers who have to use a food bank or are stressed out about paying the rent or the mortgage. They have lost have empathy with paramedics whose working conditions have become intolerable.

Cobra meets this afternoon to discuss the wave of forthcoming strikes. The meeting of the government’s emergency committee is to be chaired by Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden, not the prime minister. There are echoes of Boris Johnson here, who failed to attend five Cobra meetings at the start of the pandemic.

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