Look behind the headlines

All public sector workers deserve a raise including teachers, NHS, etc. To me that is beyond doubt and over due. But, reading around the headlines you can see the political context and what the government are thinking.

First of all the rises are to come out of existing budgets. Therefore schools etc will not get any 'new' money to cover this, rather they will need to find the money within their existing and already stretched budgets. What this will mean is support staff likely losing their jobs, bugger class sizes and a negative impact upon grades.

NHS staff missing out on the pay rise means that the government don't want to further stretch the money within the trusts. The media are now reporting the payrises and are focusing on the fact that the NHS miss out again which conveniently papers over the reality that there is no additional funding for any of this. The pressure will further mount on the government to give the NHS a raise and they will probably give a token gesture in the coming weeks (probably already planned).

Meanwhile the good and bad headlines around this will go some way to push down the impact of the Russia report.

Posted By: Danny, Jul 21, 19:45:24