If resident doctors thought that their 15 years of pay cuts could be restored in a single year I’m not sure what to say.

Maybe start by showing some support.

Did they not get an immediate raise last year?

You're not understanding the situation, Andy. Underpaid, having to pay for 4 years of a degree (when it should be free for medicine degrees), unable to afford to live close to the hospitals you work in, in many cases. So few people train, the NHS is constantly poaching staff from other countries.

The only way to reverse this is to *pay doctors what they are worth*. And nurses. And care workers. This used to be the case - what's changed to make the situation so bad now?

14 years of Tory cuts cannot be reversed in a year. If resident doctors haven’t had their pay restored by 2032 I’ll be with them on the barricades. But it’s naive to expect everything to be put right in year one.

As you say, they had a raise last year, so it isn't year 1 :) I get your point but they have to be consistently hefty raises, over the rate of inflation. Ultimately, it fails because global economics has moved in to the 'reduce workers' wages' phase of an inevitable downward spiral.

Without a decent factory reset rebalancing wealth gaps, etc, the worth of *everyone*'s wages is going to continue to reduce, thus actually destroying the principles of the economies we live in. Which is all very jolly. Anyway, Dr's, nurses & care workers need more money so they can pay their rent.

The only reason they want to rebalance to 2008 is that they had enjoyed several years of real terms increases under [checks notes] a Labour government.

Parroting pro-austerity talking points as gospel doesn't make you the serious grown-up in the room, it just makes you a pompous cunt.

Ross, chill out. Debate is possible. Don't make this like the other place. Anyway, get me talking economics, and I'm sure *I'm* a pompous cunt, as are you and everybody with an opinion :)

Until you see me posting swastikas or some such thing, you can't accuse me of making it like 'the other place'. Yes, debate is possible, and that's what we've been doing. That doesn't mean we have to treat one another with kid gloves or respect despicable opinions.

Well I save the C terminology for the real fuckers, or else it loses its value. But, I also swear like a trooper so 🤷

I don’t think that wanting to avoid a Reform Ltd government is a despicable opinion. You may disagree - after all, Jeremy Corbyn has managed to deliver us Brexit, Boris Johnson and now he’s going for the hat trick of working to bring us Nigel Farage.

I’m a realist. If you think that a Reform Ltd government would be better for resident doctors than go ahead and undermine Labour to your heart’s content.

That’s right. The choice next election is Starmer or Farage. A vote against Starmer is a vote for Farage.

Not enough to make up for 15 years of cuts. So to your previous point, no, they aren't expecting full pay restoration in 1 year; only the remaining balance.

They need to understand that most of the workforce is also earning less in real terms than in 2008.

So what? That's not the fault of resident doctors. Other sectors should take inspiration from the BMA and fight to recover their pay too.

Great way to spook the markets and cause a run on the pound.

Like all this AI bollocks isn’t going to end up doing that anyway.