Hitchens: If Rishi Sunak had been Mr Prudent during ‘Covid’, he’d have some cash left to pay our nurses (But the plan was to destroy the economy during ‘Covid’ and dismantle the ‘health’ service and transport ongoing – thus you spend to achieve one and don’t spend to achieve the other)

This is not the Winter of Discontent. Mick Lynch is not Arthur Scargill. Rishi Sunak is not Margaret Thatcher. And, I might add, the nurses’ leader Pat Cullen is definitely not Florence Nightingale.

I can tell you most of this because I spent seven gripping years, from 1977 to 1984, writing about strikes, and unions, and pay deals, often in the middle of the night.

I can say this about Pat Cullen because my beloved aunt Ena, the best human being I ever knew, was a dedicated, selfless nurse, who spent a lot of her tiny income on charity to others. I cannot imagine her thinking of striking. Maybe they do not make them like that any more.

But when I encountered Ms Cullen on Question Time on Thursday, I was surprised a nurses’ leader should be so peeved and puzzled by this simple idea: those who give mercy to the suffering should not withdraw their labour. Mind you, she has less than total support from her members, as she well knows.

Read more: Hitchens: If Rishi Sunak had been Mr Prudent during ‘Covid’, he’d have some cash left to pay our nurses (But the plan was to destroy the economy during ‘Covid’ and dismantle the ‘health’ service and transport ongoing – thus you spend to achieve one and don’t spend to achieve the other)