Whether you're waiting for a hip operation, a new passport, wondering what you're going to do with your children when their teachers are on the picket line, or are a university lecturer worried about losing pay when you protest, walkouts aren't anywhere close to coming to an end. The nurses’ union leader told her members a 5% pay rise and a one-off payment of at least £1,655 was worth accepting. But they disagreed. So strikes continue, with staff being withdrawn from emergency departments for the first time. Junior doctors are set for further industrial action and could end up on strike at the same time as nurses in England. Civil servants are likely to walk out too, having missed out on a one-off payment for 2022/3, which other workers had been granted. Dave Penman, leader of the FDA civil service union, warns the consequence will be a ‘prolonged and damaging dispute’.