footballers donating money to nurses

[atila the gooner]

Whilst I realise that Premiership footballers earn an obscene amount of money, I'm a little concerned that something which is a politcal issue has been laid at the door of football by the SUN. I know we should expect no better from such a rag, but this really is sensationalism gone mad. It is not the fault of football or footballers, or any other sportsman or woman for that matter, that the nursing profession is so badly paid. Such stories simply deflect the heat from the real culprits. It is the powers that be, namely our goverment.

[Jah Lush]

The Daily Mirror ran the story weeks and weeks ago but didn't feel the need to sensationalise it by putting it on their front page.

The nurses have a very tough job to do and deserve a massive pay rise in my opinion. Funny though how it's the three riches clubs in the country if not the world with some of the highest wages going to their players that have been such skinflints though.

[atila the gooner]

I hear what you are saying Jah Lush, but surely this a political problem?

[Jah Lush]

Deffo!

[Brendan]

Why don?t we just alleviate all the unfair pressure we put on the great people of our government and pay all the providers of public services ourselves? That way they can be free to use our taxes to line their pockets and warmonger around the world.

These people have enough stress as it is without the pesky population nagging about having things like ?adequate, clean, environments? to give birth, ?access to decent housing? and ?safe environments? in which to live.

So dig into your pockets people and let us take the pressure off. And remember when their soldiers come back from doing their bidding we must support them too.

[Keef]

The BBC website ran this story too. I think the reason it wasn't front page news weeks ago is that it was all going well then and people were agreeing to it. Now however, the story is that players who pledged haven't paid up. I agree that it is not the responsibility of the players to sort out the issue, but on their money they can afford to keep a promise!

[downsouth]

Two options would 1. double taxes or 2. privatise the health service so that there was competition and you paid for the level of service etc...

Neither are acceptable in the country so nurses suffer.

[atila the gooner]

Keef, I agree a promise should be kept, and I've always felt footballers are paid disgusting amounts bordering on the obscene. However, my understanding is that the admin behind the collection of these monies is at fault. Is that not the case??

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

Downsouth - or 3. stop letting the theiving politicians squander the taxes they do collect on stuff that keeps the elite happy and screws the rest of us!

[downsouth]

CWALD - yes there's a lot of waste, but not that much! Perish the thought.

[Jessie]

Radio 4 ran the story this morning on the Today show news round-up as well. Must have been a good press release. Personally I don't mind it being headline news, but then I'm a bit of a leftie...

[spadetownboy]

well i personally think its a fucking disgrace that some trumped up american thinks that our nurses are so hard up that she has to try and name and shame premiership footballers in to giving a days wages for a nurses hardship fund. what i want to know is were any nurses consulted about this, because i bloody wasnt.as a registered nurse and therefore public sector worker i feel very strongly about this that i am seen as needing some sort of charitable help to help me survive. well bollocks to that i say. i also dont need to be patronised by the fact that im a nurse and i do a wonderful job etc,etc and dont get paid enough, the fact is i am quite well paid as are my colleagues and any friends i know who also work in the profession. if they want to start hardship funds why not start one for the people who are up at all hours in all sorts of weather sweeping the roads and cleaning out bogs etc for a minimum wage,sometimes doing several jobs a day to survive, because they are the ones who in my opinion have a hard job.

when this whole mayday for nurses first came out it made me wonder whats in it for her, and i still hav,nt changed my opinion on that,time will tell.

[Keef]

What sort of nurse are you?

I have a couple of CPN friends who earn bloody loads, which I have to admit pi$$es me off. Not because I don't think they should be earning what they earn, but because a lot of very comparable jobs (including mine) don't get so well paid.

What is the average wage of a hospital ward nurse?

[spadetownboy]

im general trained but i left the nhs several yrs ago i do a lot of stuff involving coroners and post mortums etc, so i dont even get backchat from my patients, i do 3 x 12hr shifts per week any 3 days mon-fri, so im laughing really. on the wards i,ve no idea what the wages are now, but i think the most junior just starting out is about 21-22k pa, and thats before you start to add in unsocial hours payments etc, a sister could expect in the region of approx 35k pa. so its not peanuts. psychiatric nurses get even more as they also get psychiatric lead,which is basically danger money, althought whats dangerous about sitting around all day drinking tea and reading papers i dont know.

[AnotherPaul]

it seems Gareth Southgate agrees with you.

my initial reaction was that the footballers were being stingy but having heard what you're saying stb i agree with you.

[buggie]

As a nurse too this "Mayday fund" raises my suspicion meter too - while much talk has been made about getting donations, nothing has been said about why or how this would be passed onto nurses plus the only person I've seen talking about it has been this american woman - nothing backed up by some examples of the nurses in need. After reading the Gareth Southgate article above, looks like even the RCN is trying to distance its self.

I think I'm fairly lucky, although for the responsibility/work I do, I'm paid double what my parents are paid in their respective jobs - I also joke that my other half is my key worker scheme!!