In 2020 people stood outside their houses on a Thursday and clap for the NHS. A pathetic, performative gesture that did nothing to help nurses going to work every day with inadequate PPE to treat people and watch people die for 12 hours a day.
In 2022 the media keeps parroting the point that by striking, the unions that represent people who work for royal mail, on the railways, and for the NHS, are 'holding the country to ransom' at Christmas.
Going from 'key workers' to 'shut up' in such a short time just for asking for a a fairer wage.
Royal Mail and British Rail were been sold off to to funnel profits into private companies while still have dreadful and expensive service. It's hard watching the NHS heading the same way; the government will use the terrible performance as justification for taking it private despite it all happening because it's been stripped to the bone and neglected.
In her tiny stint as prime minister, Truss blew a £30BN hole in the economy. The pay demands for striking workers would cost around £10BN. The government can find money when it suits them.
No essential services - transport, energy, healthcare - should ever be run for profit.