Hello and welcome to The Rundown, a weekly podcast from Politics Home.

I'm your host, Alan Tollas, with me this week to talk about the ongoing strikes in the NHS and the impact the industrial action could have on upcoming local elections.

I'm delighted to say I'm joined by Steve Bryan, chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, and host of the Prevention is the New Cure podcast, as well as Daisy Cooper,

deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, and the party spokesperson for health, well-being and social

care. Steve, I'll start with you. You said you let out a deep sigh when the RCN announced

news strike action after rejecting the government's

payoff. It's a few days on from that now. What do you kind of make of where the situation is

currently? Well, it's still a deep sigh and it's probably deeper. We had a statement or an urgent

question in the House on Monday, which I know Daisy was at as well. And, you know, I don't

think it provided much hope. I mean, I was uncharacteristically hopeful and optimistic

that when the agenda for change deal of which the nurses are obviously the largest cohort

was reached, subject to union approval, I sort of hoped that spirit of harmony, if you like,

would infect across the rest, whereas what has actually happened is the reverse,

where the sort of spirit of disharmony and activism, if you like,

has sort of put the brakes on peace.

You know, reported last weekend,

you know, you've got the deputy chair of council of BMA saying to teachers

to tell the unions to sort of stick together, strike together and win together.

I think we are in a bad place.

I said on the media last weekend, what we need is for somebody to take a leap of faith

and to put themselves out there and take a chance because Georgia is always better than

war war.

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