Good morning. It's three minutes after 10. There is, I like these modern phrases that people invent

to describe burgeoning phenomena. I just want compassion fatigue is one of them. But I don't know quite

what the word is for the diminishment of interest in industrial action the longer it goes on.

So they all suffer from it. If they

bed in for a long fight and the government for reasons that often remain quite opaque but are

probably pretty sinister, they lose coverage. I don't know if we lose interest. It depends on

whether you're closely associated with the action, doesn't it?

Whether or not your train journeys are being affected or whether your operations are being postponed.

But the level of interest obviously diminishes the longer the action goes on.

And that is probably why the unprecedented doctor's strike that begins today,

a six-day strike that is obviously going to cause

quite a lot of disruption, although it's important to remember that the NHS now

habitually and routinely has to postpone operations because of 13 years of underfunding and

chronic, chronic staff shortages, not to mention, of course, continuing retention and recruitment issues, all of which constitute reasons why junior doctors are going on strike.

To me, this is not a morning when I remind you that to be in support of every single strike that is ever undertaken is almost as silly

as being opposed to every single strike that is ever undertaken. The diminished, the decline,

the epic decline in the NHS since David Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010 and

embarked upon an ideological programme of stripping public services of support because, well, in short, because

his mates, cronies and supporters didn't make enough money out of the NHS as it was then,

has hobbled a once magnificent institution. That make no doubt about that. I'm also not,

I'm afraid of the view that sustaining it in its current

situation in its current status is absolutely essential, never mind possible. But the ideological move

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