Mark Andrews takes a wry look at the week's news

Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, one of the ringleaders of the doctors' strike, is demanding a 29 per cent pay rise for junior doctors - sorry resident doctors - arguing that is how much their pay has been eroded by inflation since 2008.

Dr Nieuwoudt is 29, so he would have been 12 years old in 2008, when he thought the pay was ok. What was he, Doogie Howser's apprentice?

*****

As someone who owes my life to hospital doctors, it is hard for me to write this. But I really can't muster any sympathy for the action they are taking this weekend.

Last year the Government gave them a 22 per cent pay rise. This year they got 5.4 per cent, which even Dr Nieuwoudt conceded was 'generous' - although he said they should go on strike anyway. A newly qualified doctor gets........

© Shropshire Star