Our NHS and care workers deserve more than a weekly clap

Predictable virtue signalling from Plaid. Let us not forget that it is Plaid - ostensibly the opposition party for large chunks of the last 20 yrs - are the party that have, time and time again, supported the Labour government's budget. This has been a bewildering strategy, that highlights more than anything else - and there's stiff competition - just how naive, spineless and incompetent Plaid have been for so long. We live in a one party state with supine opposition. It's depressing. So be gone with your platitudes, Rhun. You supported this mess year after year.

All this is fine, as far as it goes, (and who would deny that our health and social care workers don't deserve a LOT better than they are getting at the moment) but it's hard to separate this call for supporting vital workers from a cynical attempt at electioneering. We have the Senedd election next May and Plaid naively believes it's in with a chance of forming the next Welsh government. All I can say is that I'll believe it when I see it! I used to be a Plaid voter, more out of sheer desperation than anything else, but their complicity in colluding with Labour in failing Wales over the past 21 years has made it ever increasingly difficult for me to vote Plaid in place of spoiling my ballot. Labour is rightly blamed for the failures in so many different areas, but it's hard to avoid questions about where effective opposition has been. Plaid should have been going for Labour's jugular all the time rather than cosying up to them! Effective opposition, constant challenges of Labour's' poor performance would not only have shown that Plaid were an effective opposition in touch with the everyday concerns of ordinary Welsh voters, but also bolstered support for the party - but instead Plaid has instead mainstreamed issues that are, whilst important, peripheral to the lived experience of voters in Wales. Of course it's only correct to draw attention to the shortcomings of the Thursday evening claps, (which I personally find absolutely cringeworthy on several levels) and to highlight the plight of social care workers, but these issues have been ongoing for many years. But Plaid hasn't constantly made an issue of this plight so that it's dealt with by the government of the day as a priority, but cynically now is trying to exploit the dire situation for political gain. All in vain, as I suspect that a significant proportion of those currently clapping will vote Tory anyway! This concern for health and social care workers also leavers out vast swathes of other essential workers who have also been on the front line, and who have been totally devalued over the years and yet have faced hardship and risk since the Covid 19 pandemic became a reality. I'm talking about retail and distributive workers. Male workers in retail are twice as likely to die from Covid 19 than the general population. Retail workers are also amongst the lowest paid workers in the land, and who often also work under appalling conditions with employers making unreasonable demands on them. In recent times there has been some talk about the 'Foundational Economy' which I find very interesting, but so much of this has been just so much hot air. We, as a society need to consider this part of the economy and also decide who forms part of it, Surely retail and distributive workers should be considered as a core part of the Foundational Economy along with healthcare, social care and education workers? For removal of doubt a simple question suffices: which workers are needed to prevent society from crumbling? Any rational answer would see those workers we rely on the most elevated, and those we don't really need sink to the bottom of the pile. This would highlight, much as the Winter of Discontent did way back in the late 70s, which workers our society really needs as opposed to those who are more or less parasites, (bankers, aristocracy, royalty, capitalists etc). So, at the risk of damning with faint praise, we do need to acknowledge the contribution of health and social care workers and strive to offer those workers, along with all others we decide as a society belong to the Foundational Economy a better deal, better working conditions, better pay and yes, a better work/life balance. Flexible working to allow those with children is a step in the right direction, but how about offering the state provided and financed preschool childcare that the former Communist Bloc countries did so well, (along with genuinely affordable housing and public transport) or, alternatively, offering the role of parent as a viable and financially rewarded career option? Healthcare workers are just the tip of the iceberg, and they do warrant special consideration, but so do those who work in supermarkets and in distribution and those who empty our bins or clean the streets or who bury the dead.

The French prime minister pledged yesterday to raise the levels of pay throughout the frence health system. We will see.

No appreciation here that the Welsh Govt/NHS negligently sacrificed the care sector - in devoting all resources to "Save the NHS" like in England. Brent council had no care home deaths - through spending £1.5m on PPE in February and ensuring elderly patients discharged from hospital were quarantined for 14 days in a separate care facility. Our Emergency/Resilience committee could have been instructed and funded to do likewise. Suddenly discharging from hospitals untested vulnerable patients to care-homes and social care with no preparations like Brent's was criminally negligant. The Older Persons' Commissioner is taking it as violation of Human Rights and Equality Act discrimination, but should be going much further. That this statement from Plaid ignores her and the policy that created many deaths of staff as well as elderly people surely stems from their political positioning as friends to Labour.