DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Show unions who's really in charge, Rishi

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Show unions who’s really in charge, Rishi

Anyone travelling to Britain this Christmas could feel they have arrived in a country where the entire infrastructure has broken down.

During what promises to be a chaotic festive period, nurses, postmen, railway workers, Border Force staff – even driving examiners – will all down tools and head for the picket line in pursuit of stratospheric and wholly unrealistic pay increases.

For hundreds of shopkeepers and hospitality firms still recovering from the ravages of lockdown, these strikes will be nothing short of ruinous.

They are also grossly irresponsible. Next Wednesday’s proposed ambulance workers’ strike is particularly frightening, especially for the sick and elderly.

RMT union strikers at Manchester Piccadilly station Picket Line on Friday, December 16

More than 100,000 postmen walked out on Wednesday and Thursday leaving thousands of households without their deliveries 

It is clear these carefully orchestrated walkouts are just going to go on and on. Which is why Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must step out and show he is taking personal charge of the crisis.

He needs to articulate both the anger and despair being felt by the public as their Christmas plans are (once again) thrown into turmoil.

He must spell out neatly how these double-digit pay rises workers are demanding are not only unaffordable but would also be damaging to the economy while the Bank of England struggles to keep inflation under control.

It is clear these carefully orchestrated walkouts are just going to go on and on. Which is why Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must step out and show he is taking personal charge of the crisis

Most of all, he must confront bully-boy union bosses such as the RMT’s Trotskyite dinosaur Mick Lynch and demonstrate that their selfish actions have nothing to do with securing better pay for their members (many of whom we show today enjoy salaries over £100,000) and everything to do with toppling the Conservatives and replacing them with a Labour government likely to give their union paymasters whatever they want.

Finally, the PM should fulfil his party’s 2019 manifesto pledge and pass tough new anti-strike laws, just as Margaret Thatcher did when she faced down the unions in the 1980s and rescued this country from financial oblivion.

Mr Sunak likes to present himself as the Iron Lady’s rightful heir. Time he proved it.

When Mr Sunak announced his plan to tackle the Channel migrants crisis this week the Mail welcomed his proposals.

His bold, five-point strategy includes a sensible pledge to appoint more caseworkers to clear most of the vast backlog of asylum applications by 2024.

Under the current system, asylum seekers can spend years here waiting for their cases to be processed while the taxpayer picks up the bill for their support.

But it is surely troubling that one way the Government is speeding up the process, as we reveal today, is to create what critics have described as an ‘amnesty in all but name’ for certain groups.

Of course, many of these people will have fled from terrible hardships. But effectively waving them though by nationality will only encourage more from those countries to make the journey here illegally.

That means more boats, more disasters at sea – and more money into the pockets of the ruthless smuggling gangs getting rich on other people’s misery.

Shameless Sussexes

Amid all the attention-seeking claims made in Harry and Meghan’s six-hour Netflix whinge-athon, one fact was resolutely clear: They genuinely despise our monarchy. So why do they cling to their royal titles?

Having demonstrated such obvious contempt for his family and his country, surely the best thing would be for Harry to renounce the couple’s titles voluntarily

Having demonstrated such obvious contempt for his family and his country, surely the best thing would be for Harry to renounce the couple’s titles voluntarily.

Some 98 per cent of Mail+ readers believe they should. The Sussexes have an opportunity to finally do something we could all get behind.

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