WELL they seem cheery enough as they take to the streets. These mainly female workers are hospital ancillary staff who have staged a one-day strike in December, 1972, to protest at a Tory Government pay freeze which was denying them a £4-a-week pay rise.

Their banners include “Tory Freezes Spread Diseases”. Wonder if the union saved itself a few bob by keeping the placards in a cupboard as they could have brought them back out 40 years later when the current Tory Government was imposing further pay freezes in the National Health Service in England over the past few years.

Clearly I know nothing about economics as the Government believes that allowing company bosses to see their wages soar while hospital staff get nothing is somehow a good thing.

Another placard I see stated “Heath is knocking L out of the health service”. Perhaps that one is a bit too subtle.

Anyway, our sister paper the Evening Times reported that 10,000 non-medical staff in the West of Scotland, including porters and kitchen staff, took part in the stoppage with 2000 attending this march in Glasgow’s city centre which ended with a rally on Glasgow Green.

Administrative staff volunteered to serve food to patients during the stoppage with a hospital spokeman saying the strike was “a nuisance”.