I’ve been quiet recently, However in my place Peter Stefanovic has been doing a much better job of rallying the troops. Stand together, whither alone.
Strike postponed.
If you read your emails, you’ll have read that Industrial Action has been suspended. That is of course assuming that you’ve updated your BMA contact address.
This is good news. Why? Because you deep down don’t want to strike. In a previous post I made reference to the three acts of dick swinging: Escalation, Phallic Jousting & the Peace. In jousting you don’t want to smack too hard into the opponent, as you might break your own shaft, and knock your self off in the process. A strike is a means to an end, use it to much and it’ll not work, just look at the tube drivers.
Now I notice a number of you are complaining or rage quitting. If you quitting because you want a new career, I salute you. If you are quitting because you feel the BMA made a mistake, less so. Revolutions do not happen over night. Negotiations take time, all the while the creeping death of Divide and conquer stalks. The only thing between you and your goal, is your collective nerve.
I understand that you are frustrated. However these things take time.
ACAS
If you are offered reasonable truce terms in ACAS, you’d be colossal dick bag not to take it. Let us be brutally honest, in this world if you don’t own the press then you are nothing. Just look at Corbyn, he’s offered to literally give everyone hundreds of pounds, better public services and various moons on sticks. However because he, and his press team failed (and continues to fail) to understand that the press only works in 15 second chunks, has has failed. And will be relegated to a foot note in short order.
Why is that relevant? Because right now there is a file on Jeremy Hunt’s desk called “the Mountain of shit” In it is an action plan to find all the cute young blond girls that are in hospital and blame their outcome on the strike. Something along the lines of this from the alton towers crash.
Now, If Mr Hunt had just tried to sack half of you, this would be easy to counter. If however the BMA walks away from talks it requested, its the gulags for you. You must choose your battles wisely.
Let us take stock
Let us evaluate what the majority of doctors want:
- Safe Hours
- Enough Support
- The chance of a Family Life
The only way you are going to get that is to either Collectively negotiate, or collectively quit and become drug dealers/rhinoplasty specialists for the middle east/something else.
Each and everyone of you are grains of sand. If I drop a single grain, it makes a sound so minute that it doesn’t even count. A steady stream makes a “shhhhh”, a cubic meter makes a massive fucking dent in most things. 27,000 of you made a massive fucking dent. Front page news. Something utterly unprecedented until now.
But what are you actually trying to achieve? Is the strike your goal? No. You want a better contract/NHS. The only way that is going to happen is if you sit down and talk. Sounds weak, it really isn’t
Where are we?
You have the department of health where you want them; at ACAS. You have Peter Bone MP (and his wife, the two one and the same) A notorious Euro sceptic and full on Tory effectively offering to help with a cross party effort to sort this mess out. I cannot state how much of a good thing this is. When you look up Tory in the dictionary, there is a picture of him, and Jacob Rees-Mogg Laughing at the poor urchin walking past with rickets. This is progress.
Yes there is a lot of HURAAAH, and Hunt is still talking about excess deaths. Although we do have an admission that actually we need more diagnostics and community care. This is progress, glacial, but progress none the less.
Next steps.
First, stay united. I mean, you can go back you spinning in circles, however I’d like to remind you that you’ve only got this far because ~27,000 voted to strike, together. This is a game of dick swinging, and no one likes a shrivelled winky.
It is actions like meeting your local MP, especially the Tories that make the difference. Face to face, where they can see your tears, anger and joy. A Labour question can be dodged with “LOL UNIONIST BUM LICKER”, not so from the tory back benches. You need to make allies of your Tory MPs.
The meet the doctors initiative is even more powerful. The public knows doctors are real, they also know that politicians are conniving little shits out for a soft job after 5 years of cock suckery. The more public you meet, the better public opinion will be. In this world of politics, public opinion is gold.
I see a number of you saying shit like “BMA membership cancelled, I’m done” Whats your point? Did you think that one strike would make Jeremy Hunt force a blank cheque into your hand and beg you to cash it? The real world is going to be a massive shock for you my friend. I look forward to hearing of your progress.
Is the BMA infallible?
Fuck no. They are at best a collection of amateurs. However they are the only people standing between you and the abyss. More importantly they speak for you, and they represent you. That means YOU need to tell THEM what YOU expect. There is also an implicit deal that you SHOULD FUCKING DO SOME FUCKING RESEARCH. Seriously. Google that shit. The amount of posts saying “can I do x if y” is mind boggling. Most of you have written research papers, do you not understand how google/wikipedia works?
You need to engage if you want to stand any hope of a good deal. The government has a massive organ devoted to swaying public opinion, you need to sway it back. You need to talk to your local rep (If you’ve not met them yet GET OF YOUR FUCKING ARSE) Organise, talk to your local MP, Like a human, not an indignant rage monkey, and talk to the unwashed masses. You never know you might find someone who’ll offer you a better job….
per ardua ad victoriam.