Those hoping that the government will somehow save them from inconvenience (or worse) this Christmas will be disappointed. The government appears to have no answers and not even much seasonal goodwill.
The health secretary, Steve Barclay, continues to snub talks with the Royal College of Nursing or Unison, so hospitals and paramedic services will soon be under even more pressure – with an undoubted impact on patients. The transport secretary, Mark Harper, displays more common sense and imagination but the RMT union remains unimpressed and unmoved.
Home secretary Suella Braverman, always ready with an outrageous quote, suggests that travellers scrap their holidays because of industrial action by Border Force staff: “I really want to urge people who have got plans to travel abroad to think carefully about their plans because they may well be impacted.”
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