Hypocrisy of medics' union makes me sick

IT WOULD take a heart of stone not to laugh at the double standards within the British Medical Association, Britain's most militant trade union.

- Leo McKinstry

At the very moment it is staging an explosively controver sial strike by doctors in support of its demand for a whopping 26% pay rise, its shrill, self-righteous leadership is denounced for treating its own staff badly.

According to its angry critics, the association is guilty of promoting exactly the same kind of injustice that led to this week's walkout across the NHS.

The GMB trade union, which represents 75% of workers at BMA's offices, says the association is "nothing short of hypocritical" for its derisory offer of just 2% to its own staff. If a "credible offer" is not put forward, says the GMB, members will be balloted for industrial action.

The BMA has brought this crisis on itself. Bent on confrontation with the government, its bosses have created a culture of self-indulgent entitlement, reckless greed and contrived victimhood.

With a brazen contempt for both decency and professional oaths, the strikers have timed their stoppage to maximise the risks to patients.