Doctor Strike Saga
Plus: No growth & the upcoming budget
In today’s newsletter:
Why are doctors striking again?
BBC chaos
The GDP fallout
Britain’s war on landlords
Despite the exasperated pleas of Wes Streeting, the ‘resident’ doctors – now all grown-up and no longer ‘junior’ – have gone ahead with their latest five-day strike. This is their 13th bout of ‘industrial action’ since 2023. Despite hefty pay increases granted by the incoming Labour government, way ahead of most other NHS workers, these doctors are self-prescribing further regular injections of cash into their bank accounts. They are also resisting even the most modest reforms: they have registered a dispute over government attempts to ensure that all GPs offer online booking, for example.
I can’t see, given the farcical uncertainty over the budget, that Mr Streeting can quickly conjure up anything more than his current offer to pay membership and exam fees. So this weekend’s action will no doubt be followed by several more such episodes. With flu cases rising sharply at the moment, it is hoped that shortages of doctors won’t lead to any preventable deaths. But with 1500 NHS hospitals and tens of thousands of vulnerable patients in the community, BMA leaders cannot say for certain that nobody will peg out prematurely as a consequence. And in any case, there will be huge frustration amongst patients - and their families - about delays to diagnosis and treatment at a time when people naturally feel apprehensive about their medical condition.
The Employment Rights Bill, now nearing its final stages in the amendment ping-pong between Lords and Commons, will make it easier for doctors and other public sector workers to organise strike action. Perhaps it is beginning to dawn on the Health Secretary and his colleagues that this might not be quite the good idea it seemed when Labour was in carefree opposition.
Over the summer, Kemi Badenoch made a small ripple by announcing that if she were in charge, the Conservatives would ban strikes by doctors. She is not currently in a position to do anything, of course, and as things stand, she may never be. It would be nice if Wes Streeting could persuade his colleagues to follow Ms Badenoch’s line, which (for the benefit of Keir Starmer, Lord Harmer, and other prissy lawyers) is perfectly compatible with our commitments to the International Labor Organization. However, that possibility seems remote.
Marginally more plausible would be decisive action to break up the monolithic structure of the NHS, something Mr Streeting has hinted at in the past. This might have the side-effect of introducing a genuine market for the services of doctors rather than the current bilateral monopoly, which produces depressing stalemates such as the current strike. Again, though, I haven’t seen squadrons of pigs overhead.
Len Shackleton
Editorial & Research Fellow
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Growth fizzles out as the Budget looms
Commenting on today’s GDP figures, Julian Jessop, Economics Fellow at the free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:
“The latest news on the UK economy confirms that the apparently strong growth in the first half of the year has already fizzled out. The monthly data are not very reliable, but it is still striking that GDP fell (before rounding) in every month of the third quarter.
“The 0.1% monthly fall in UK GDP in September was due in part to the disruption at Jaguar Land Rover – if manufacturing of motor vehicles had been flat rather than slumped by 28.6%, GDP would have risen by 0.1%. However, that would still have been a feeble rate.
“More timely business surveys suggest that manufacturing recovered in October, led by the restart at JLR. But overall GDP growth is still likely to have been subdued, mainly due to pre-Budget uncertainty.
“It is still possible that the Budget itself is not as bad as feared, or at least that uncertainty eases sufficiently to allow some hiring and investment to resume. The reaction in the bond markets will also be crucial.
“For now, though, everything appears to be on hold.”
News and Views
There’s no less deserving group in Britain than the Waspis, Public Policy Fellow Matthew Lesh, The Telegraph
Nobody has or ever should be entitled to compensation because they failed to take responsibility for understanding the rules that govern benefits. The state cannot be expected to indemnify individuals for inattention or failure to plan; doing so would undermine fairness to those who took the time to prepare and respect the system as intended. It would also set a terrible precedent for future reforms.
Building Brexit: Inside Vote Leave with Campaign Director Lord Matthew Elliott, Lord Syed Kamall interviews Lord Matthew Elliot, IEA YouTube
Britain’s War on Landlords, Head of Media Reem Ibrahim writes for FEE
The Renters’ Rights Act is not a victory for tenants. It is an act of economic vandalism that will wreck the housing market and hurt the very people it claims to protect.
Britain Has Changed Forever: Lessons from 1945 | Kit Kowol | IEA Live, Managing Editor Daniel Freeman interviews Dr. Kit Kowol, IEA YouTube
Tax treachery will cost us ft. Reem Ibrahim | The Capitalist, Head of Media Reem Ibrahim’s article in The Capitalist
How to fix the BBC, the IEA was quoted in Rod Liddle’s article in the Spectator
Then in 2018 the Institute for Economic Affairs examined a perceived lack of balance regarding Brexit on the BBC’s Question Time and Any Questions? and concluded: ‘The imbalance on the two programmes is substantial, consistent and at odds with public opinion.’ Have you noticed, following that report, a sea change in the way the Beeb goes about reporting the ramifications of Brexit?
The UK Budget 2025: Are Old Economic Orthodoxies Dooming Britain?, Head of Media Reem Ibrahim joined Douglas Carswell and Jason McKenna, Left, Right and Reasonable Podcast
2025 Policy Conference
We are delighted to invite you to the IEA-Vinson Centre Annual Policy Conference, taking place on Friday, 28 November 2025, at the Vinson Building Auditorium, University of Buckingham. This gathering of leading economists, academics, and policy experts will examine the state of free-market and classical liberal thinking today, with the goal of producing…
INVITATION: After the Budget - Where Will the Growth Come From?
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Great précis Len. The problem with the NHS is a direct result of underfunding over decades. We all know, the cost is the cost! It’s no wonder trying to do more for less only leads one way, down! Personally I feel if we train doctors a football style transfer fee should be placed on their ‘transfer’ out. But in any case, pay must reflect the work. The basis of pay is a ‘fair exchange’ by way of money for the work done. A table of wages across different skills is I think a necessary realisation. Is a footballer worth 200 times a nurses salary for example? We need a proper pay for a proper job. And until then we will see unhappiness on pay and strikes. Now the question must be how do we get an economy that can afford such pay, Len? Not by cuts! That’s for sure. An accountant style balance the books by cuts is not vision Len. It’s an exercise and not a plan. We need a vision Len and a plan to get there. Not an accountants boring view that books must balance from cuts. Instead of balancing the books from growth. Accountants are not normally associated with vision yet, we assume they answer to be a plan, why? Is it because the accountant can’t think of anything else Len? Is that good enough to run a country dnd its economy.Len? Unless you gave the problem head on with vision and a plan you will never see beyond the accountants response however that may make sense. Balancing the books is not confined to just cuts. You can’t ignore it can be attained by growth which is in most respects the better outcome Len! Ignoring that is non sensical Len. Yet all at the IEA seem to fall short of vision so revert to the obvious of cuts. My view is Len that’s, not good enough. Stopping short of the holy grail just to balance the books means in real terms a worse situation. More unemployment. More stagnation more pain. Just to balance the books. The government has skin in the game to create more wealth. So they need it. But, they are referee of their rules and in charge of rewriting the rules yet, they can’t see it! And yet they look to you and us all for a way to go. Now is not the time to fall short of ideas Len. Now is the time to point out they can change the system and framework to improve our combined lot. So why are the IEA not thinking of growth? Snd the support of growth. Instead of more pain and suffering from a theme of less I’d more. Mire is more Len. Yes we need changes to quangos and the blob! But that’s not going to fix the economy. It helps the balance sheet. We need more of our money being SPENT in our economy not less. We need those holding our money out of our reach, other than by borrowing, to be freely spent back into our pot not held for ever out of our reach Len. And we need a cycle of that money to perpetuate flow in full weight of money from free spending. Not free keeping of money. It’s the lack of money revolving freely that’s the cause of our problems not more damming of money that’s the path to recovery .