Streeting wants you to think striking doctors are greedy. Here's the reality

This week our Health Secretary – and possible next prime minister – Wes Streeting described the union behind NHS doctors who are currently on a five-day strike as behaving like a “cartel”.

What does that word, “cartel”, suggest to you? Politicians or businesspeople binding together to artificially reduce competition? Or, perhaps, independent South American drug lords cooperating with each other to control the illegal drug trade?

But no: Streeting is talking about healthcare professionals. Why would Streeting use such emotive language which, as an English teacher, I would mark down as “inappropriate to the context”?

The Government is skewing the debate around the latest resident doctors’ strike. Though it might point to the British Medical Association’s rejection of a government offer tw