"Remember when teachers, nurses, doctors, police, firefighters, ambulance personnel and all our soldiers crashed the stock market, wiped out banks, took billions in bonuses and paid no tax? No, me neither. Please show your support for the public sector strikers"

I am alive today because of the talent, passion and dedication of hundreds of medical professionals who have saved my life on a number of occasions and improved my life on countless others. I’m educated enough to write this because of an incredibly committed learning support assistant and a team of fantastic teachers who never allowed me to give up no matter how hard living with my disability sometimes was.

On Wednesday thousands of public sector workers will go on strike. MPs and journalists will condemn them and call for you to do the same.  If, like the media you are unwilling to give them your support this is why you should at least give them your respect.

Presumably when people go to hospital, send their kids to school, or call out the emergency services to attend to the crisis they or their loved ones are in the midst of, they would like qualified, conscientious, hardworking individuals, with talent and dedication to their profession to turn up. It's quite straight forward if the government keep moving the goal posts for public sector workers - nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, ambulance personnel, the police force, fire fighters and teachers, the quality of service you get from those people will drop rapidly.

Sure there are some council workers, some headteachers, some people at the very top of the education authority for instance who are picking up massive wages and who have for years been able to look forward to very generous pensions at the end of their careers at huge expense to the taxpayer. These reforms however will not hit those people anyway near as hard as it will young people entering those professions now, people who have happily accepted a two year pay freeze and accept that they are unlikely to earn anymore than 25k a year, no matter how many years they stay dedicated to the job, even after taking on extra responsibility and shouldering the kind of stress most averagely paid private sector workers can't begin to comprehend. 

For years teachers have had to put up with the government telling them how and what to teach, constantly restricting the freedom they have to god forbid work out what the kids they teach need for themselves. Nurses are constantly harangued in the media when mistakes are made and bad care provided but when do our national newspapers celebrate the incredible commitment and hard work of those who are saving and improving lives on a daily basis? Last weekend we were told that the government have decided that GPs are no longer responsible enough to honestly assess the condition of their patients in regards to their ability to work. Knowing your patients well is a problem according to this government. I’m sure I’ll have no problem summarising 18 years of medical history and the impact of over 50 operations I’ve had to a government official who knows nothing about me. I can imagine those suffering acute stress or depression will be relishing the opportunity to discuss in depth the painful and traumatic experiences that prevent them from functioning properly with well, Tom, Dick or Harry.     

Undermined, disrespected, patronised and criticised, these people just have to get on with it, we expect them to, we demand that they do, we take for granted that they will.

There are no bonuses per 100 lives these people save, or per 100 children a teacher brings from below the national average to above it. Teachers spend hours after the working day planning, marking and assessing having spent all day providing a safe, secure, educational and enriching environment for 10 times the amount of kids the average parent has to contend with at the weekend. Those in the NHS go home regularly knowing that no matter how hard they work, they may be unable to help a patient improve their quality of life or prevent them losing their lives, having spent the day on their feet knowing one small mistake on their part, regardless of however many lives they have improved or saved could result in a patient's death and utter devastation for their family. 

Yes they choose these professions, but they have partners and children themselves which should always come first and the government are making it harder and harder for such people to justify the long, stressful hours they work to the families who hardly see them. The pension schemes went a long way to doing that, parents knowing they wouldn't burden their kids in the future when they reach old age, knowing they would have money and time to support their offspring and grandchildren in later life making up for the time they had to spend away from them in their childhood.

What incentive would a caring, hardworking young woman have to become an NHS nurse now, 3 years of university required to earn 20k a year, wiping bums, cleaning up blood, urine, vomit, tolerating abuse from grief stricken relatives and watching people die instead of going to work in the private sector, knowing her hard work will be recognised and rewarded with bonuses, increased holiday allowances and where extra responsibility will equal greater career progression and salary increase? 

We are always hearing how the private sector and its workers are so important as they’re what drive the economy and increase the country’s wealth. That is all that is important of course and keeping people alive, safe and educated well enough to work doesn’t really matter that much.

  When hospitals are staffed purely by the immigrant workers already frequently abused for their trouble, who are qualified but struggle with the language required to provide the most effective service for patients. When your kid's learning disability goes unnoticed or ignored by numerous of teachers only willing to do the bare minimum they are paid to do. When you call an ambulance out for your elderly parent struggling to breathe and get a man in a green uniform turn up, shrug his shoulders and tell you he's only qualified to drive the white vans. Then will you tell the completely selfless few who have tolerated this slap in the face from the government to stay in the public sector, to simply pack it in if they're not happy? 

In other countries those who save lives, care for the sick and educate our children are valued and respected, in ours they are told to stop whinging and get used to the real world! Lets hope those from other countries flock to Britain to come save our public services because in a few years your children and grandchildren will depend on them.

I completely accept and understand that the state of the economy dictates money has to be saved and public spending decreased. I'd wholeheartedly back the introduction on salary caps and pension caps on those in bureaucratic roles being grossly overpaid for the work they do.  Once again the government have shirked from addressing the areas where that small minority are benefiting hugely and unjustly from the system, instead to create a proposal that indiscriminately targets and punishes those far from living a life of luxury (sound familiar?). A lazy, badly thought through decision which causes unfair detriment to the over worked, undervalued key public sector workers, getting their hands dirty on a daily basis, for modest reward and recognition. Something of which our politicians should be utterly ashamed.

Of course they won't be, the majority, having only ever enjoyed private health care and private education, will have no concept of the incredible work these people do and the invaluable benefit it has to those less privileged who rely on them.

As our public services are obliterated by our government, talented professionals driven out of the NHS and state school jobs they were previously steadfastly committed to, we as patients, pupils and general members of the public will suffer from a dearth of people who care. Those who can afford the luxury of private health care and private education will be benefitting directly from the surge of fantastic people still dedicated to improving lives but desperately seeking some respect flocking to work in private hospitals and private schools.

If you don’t believe that that is fair, please support our public sector workers strike action on Wednesday and make the title of this post your Facebook status. They aren’t just fighting for their pensions, they are fighting for their respect and your right to be treated and educated by those who care the most.