Today's discussion about the news

The general view is that the raises are above inflation, for example:

Also please explain why, if inflation is good, the BoE has a mandate to keep it down to a certain level.

Not for me to say. But it does help you get a better feel for the reality of options outside of what you are used to.

Did you only read the headline?

Seems like you've been taking lessons in being patronising from Rick again.

The outgoing railway minister stated this. Cost to the rail industry was £25m per strike weekday and £15m per weekend day. Estimates vary from £1bn to £5bn for total cost of strikes.

Also, just from the hospitality industry.

If you make yourself the only employer of an understaffed workforce, which takes a long time to train what do you think is going to happen? I don't think the government should have anything to do with setting pay for train drivers, but that's where we've been for the last two years.

And I thought that you were a good free market capitalist. Inflation is almost a necessity to maintain capitalism, it supports investment, thereby supporting spending and growth. Negative inflation means a shrinking economy. Obviously excessive inflation is also a bad thing, which is why the BOE have a mandate to keep it under control.

It's not a situation that I am happy with, continued expansion of the world economies can only really happen with a continued increase in the use and abuse of our natural resources. I think someone needs to come up with a plan to shrink economies without causing too much pain fairly soon or else the Earth is fooked.

Since I am in the minority on Israel / Gaza in that although I think it is an enormous strategic mistake, I believe the way the IDF conducts itself on the whole (with some obvious exceptions) to be rational and sensible in the context of where and how the enemy fights, here is someone who agrees with me who has much more authority on the issue - Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (I seem to be able to read this one)

In general it's a refrain you hear often from military types with experience of urban warfare. They're obviously not commenting on the strategic value of the military action, but they do all seem to converge on the idea that the IDF is waging it in a reasonable way.

To be fair, I'm not a fan of the triple lock and it's one area where I have some sympathy for Rick. The cost of the state pension is enormous and needs to be managed. That and gold plated public sector pensions.

As I've said before, I don't object to anyone trying to maximise their pay. What I do object to is the methods they use to do that. Also the expectation that the extra pay should not be linked to any improvement in productivity, increase in hours etc is pretty selfish and in most other workplaces, unrealistic.

If they're not happy with their lot, they can resign and get better pay elsewhere. If they can...

In a more open sector, if you don't like the pay and terms you can ask for a pay rise and if still not forthcoming, hand your notice in and try somewhere else. That opportunity doesn't exist in the rail industry. If you are a train driver there is effectively one employer for passenger services. You will inevitably end up with a union or something similar to counterbalance that single employer. Same goes for any sector with a small number of massive employers. It's a major weakness of big businesses.

Funnily enough a handful of people at a friend's friend's practice tried to go on strike. It didn't work. Clients went elsewhere. People were made redundant.

It's no more extortion than the only employer unilaterally dictating terms.

NHS provides the training for most of those private healthcare professionals, and plenty work in both. Regardless there is still one massive employer setting the benchmark for the entire profession. That makes strikes more likely - because to a large degree, your only other option is to leave the profession altogether. And people are leaving all of those professions for better terms and conditions, which tells you the employer is not offering enough.

As for vet salaries, that's a whole thread in itself. The architectural profession is having a similar crisis of confidence with various commentators bemoaning the poor pay and gradual erosion of position in the construction industry. All while cutting each other's throat's with fee bids. Thankfully, PE doesn't seem too interested in architects, but I've seen them ruin a couple of good structural engineers.

Bottom line is it's got very little to do with how qualified you are and much more to do with how valuable the role is. If 'we' want clients to pay more for a discretionary service that's for us to solve. I do think a lot of the professional degrees would benefit from more attention on the reality of running a small business as that is the predominant model for a lot of consulting professionals.

Sounds like she needs a union.