IS IT just me or is there any correlation between large corporations using rather interesting methods to calculate and contribute their fair share of tax and that of junior doctors, teachers, etc feeling the need to voice their disquiet at the working conditions and remuneration package that it seems they are forced to accept, in order that they perform a much needed and socially valued role?

That they feel compelled to further their case by striking, should tell us all how badly let down they are. They have been mismanaged, under-appreciated and their compassion and vocation-like dedication has been taken for granted for too long by a succession of misguided and misrepresenting governments.

They, along with the countless Sure Start programmes and children’s centres that have been closed down, indicate just how far removed the political class really is.

It seems apparent that by attributing the hole in our country’s finances to the financial sector, we are not only going to be left short in financial terms but massively in deficit in respect of social equity and compassion. What will it take for the tables to turn and the ruling classes to come to the realisation that the majority are not going to take it any more. History shows us that in the years after the first world war there was masses of social change in British society, with regard to voting, unions, working conditions, social mobility etc. These rights were hard come by and it is no coincidence I’m sure, that when the fighting stopped in Europe the returning, battle-hardened ex-soldiers who had witnessed the worst that humanity had to offer, came with the smell of blood in their nostrils and a determination to receive a bigger slice of the pie that they had fought and sacrificed so much to protect.

Surely, in these supposedly enlightened times, the ruling classes should perhaps consider the consequences of greater sections of the populous feeling disenfranchised and, by degrees, demoralised by the constant reduction in quality of life, whilst the rich grow richer and unaffected by the corrupt and exploitative system that continues to benefit their self interest.

It’s bad enough that our society appears to value financial services over more fundamental services such as health and education, but that it makes cuts to the essentials and allows the fat cats the cream is morally reprehensible. Is it any wonder that all forms of resistance, on ideological, religious, moral and ethical grounds are appearing in so many parts of the world, some armed with guns and bombs, the rest armed merely with the truth and a moral compass?

The best the west can seem to offer as a testament to its money-based philosophy is unacceptable levels of poverty, inequality and Donald Trump. When the next big black hole appears in the worldwide economy, brought about no doubt by the implosion of the Chinese boom economy, will the powers that be finally hold their hands up and admit, hopefully on moral grounds, that capitalism/exploitation isn’t what’s going to get us through.

A society that builds its foundations on money and financial services is a society much like the “little pig that builds his house of straw”, it is prone to the ever-changing winds of greed blown by the ever-hungry wolf, and nobody wants the wolf at the door.

How long will it be before we realise our collective power and withdraw input, from whatever sectors we represent, until we all get a fair share of the pie?