Give Everyone on the Front Line a F***ing Payrise Already!

You can tell everything about a society based on how it treats its most vulnerable

I support the nurse’s strike one thousand per cent. Give them what they want, and then give them what they need. They work damned hard in a thankless job and seem to be forever getting the shaft at every turn. And I know that the same is true for all frontline workers. This foul-mouthed rant is brought to you today by the letter P for paramedics.

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, it was windy, at least. It’s always windy in Blackpool. Which, despite my long hair, I like. I find it bracing. It was also pissing down with rain, which I also like. My husband thinks it’s weird that I like bad weather so much, but I think it’s soothing. It makes me happy.

I had walked to meet him from the train station, and as we were walking back, we were stopped by a couple of paramedics. They asked if we knew where the nearest paypoint was. I had done a little more wandering around than Charlie (my husband), so I knew where things were. Turn him around twice, and he’s lost. Luckily, they had picked a place I knew. I told them it was about a five-minute walk and we were going that way if they wanted to follow us. In the back streets of Blackpool, it’s far easier to drive than walk. So they locked up the ambulance and agreed to follow us.

As we walked, they explained that they had just dropped someone off from the hospital who had recovered from pneumonia. She was 90 years old and registered blind. They had noticed she only had a pound on her electric meter. And anyone who has ever had an electric meter will know that one pound will not last you very long. And with energy prices as high as they are, her heating would have been on for half an hour at best before it ran out.

They were sorting out what cash they had on them between them and worked out they had just over a tenner. The paramedics were putting their own money on her electric meter because she didn’t have enough.

So not only was there no proper care in place for her, but she didn’t have any money to put on her electric meter. She had to rely on the kindness of strangers because she had no other choice!

The fact that the government even questions whether or not to give frontline workers fair pay is ludicrous. They put themselves out there. And in situations like this, they show that they are worth a million politicians. Rishi Sunak (the prime minister) has a net worth double that of King Charles. He is richer than the king of England, and I bet he wouldn’t have put his hand in his pocket for that woman. So how dare he imply that they are not worth it when they are worth more than he will ever be.