A potentially unpopular opinion (is it unpopular? I don't know actually. let's find out!) but I'm really wary of this kind of militarisation of our acknowledgement of frontline service workers https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1248521288571912192

They absolutely *are* heroes, but this kind of wartime rhetoric runs the risk of dangerously distorting things in the wrong hands. Like happens when 'heroes' refuse to work, actually, like what happens when they strike? Do they stop being 'brave' then?

I don't think it takes a huge leap to see how using the language of heroes, medals, etc to describe the work of frontline staff leads us down a path where being overworked and underpaid is equated with a kind of valor, and complaining about it equated with a kind of cowardice.

They are heroes, they are brave, they are the best of us and all our lives depend on them, in crisis or not. So simply pay them more, give them better working conditions, and fund the services they work within.