Strike Action

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Wednesday 7th December 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

I thank the noble Baroness for her question. These are the sorts of details that the military, the COBRA unit and the departments that may need help from the military are looking at on a contingency basis. One problem we have is predicting what is going to happen with the strikes; every day there seems to be an announcement of different plans, and we are trying to work to make sure that the strikes do not happen.

[Lord Clarke of Nottingham (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Cashman (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

My Lords, looking at my notes, I see that it is the turn of the Conservative Benches.

[Lord Clarke of Nottingham (Con)]

Noble Lords may recall the long ambulance strike of the 1980s that lasted six months and more. The military actually enjoyed the experience because it had real casualties to deal with instead of the pretend ones used in paramedic training—the military then had more paramedic training than the civilian ambulance drivers in the NHS. Is not our recollection of the 1960s and 1970s that, if the Government intervened in every strike to ensure that some improved offer was made above what the employers wished to make, it made every strike seem successful and encouraged people to vote for more strike action in the succeeding round? Whatever happens this year—and we hope we can resolve these issues—we must not return to the old wage-price spiral that was so destructive in those days.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

I agree with my noble friend, and that is a very good point on which to end this useful exchange.