Stuff The George Cross - PAY UP

Sometimes, just sometimes, the steaming hypocrisy of our free and fearless press, coupled with their total lack of self-awareness and detachment from the real world, causes them to publish material which anyone with brain plugged in and a hole in their backside would not have entertained under any circumstances. So it is this morning with the Murdoch goons at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun.

Today’s Sun tells readers “We Say Give NHS Heroes The George Cross For Gallantry … BLUE GRIT”, a headline likely to provoke projectile vomiting among many who know just what the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker really think about all those low-paid but essential workers who are, in many cases, giving their lives to save ours.

After all, it was the Sun that infamously told its readers “Sack The Docs” when junior doctors had the audacity to ask to be paid half decently. It was the Sun that shamelessly backed the Tories, even when they cheered at winning a Commons vote ensuring that those same workers would remain subject to a 1% ceiling on any pay rises.

But today, there is the same paper proclaiming in its editorial “A FEW in the NHS will rightly be honoured in the end for their heroism in battling Covid-19. The vast majority won’t. Yet the entire staff’s courage in risking their health on every shift must not be forgotten when the disease is defeated … NHS staff, of course, really only want the right equipment to save lives and stay healthy themselves [no further mention of that]. But we back Lord Ashcroft’s idea to give the entire service the George Cross”.

One hates to resort to what the official BBC announcer would have called “Strong language from the start”, but what fucking use is a medal when you have rent or a mortgage to pay, a car to run, a family to clothe and food to put on the table? Seriously, what substitute is a gong for being paid half decently for putting yourself in harm’s way?

Only yesterday we learnt the heart-rending story of nurse Mary Agyapong, who died with Covid-19 just after her baby was delivered by Caesarian Section. She was only 28 years old. The number of NHS workers and carers who have now died after becoming infected with the virus is in the high 40s and rising. Decent Personal Protective Equipment could have saved many of them. A medal would not.

The desperation of the Murdoch press to deflect from a litany of failure by the Government is palpable. After all, they are fully invested in The Adoration Of The Boris, and to admit the Tories messed up big time by delaying lockdown until after Johnson was leaned on by other leaders, notably Président Macron, would never do. Hence the deflection.

It is to the credit of papers like the Mirror that they have gone after the likes of clueless Health Secretary Matt Hancock for offering a “badge of honour” to care workers - rather than expedite the supply of PPE. And once again, they should be paid half-decently. This is not hard to understand. It’s just that the Tories and their press pals don’t want to go there. They already have one eye on post-lockdown penny-pinching austerity.

The Sun can take its George Cross and shove it. PAY NHS WORKERS PROPERLY.

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