A 10% pay rise in the entire public sector would cost £23 billion, while even before the pandemic, the government was spending £54 billion more than it earns.

This is how screwed the UK economy is when restricted solely to funding actually essential services from a captive market, and facing claims that public sector workers have been treat like shit since 2010.

The free market really won't treat drivers any better than nurses, for good reason, and you can see fine well that the public finances need the pay demands of Sunderland drivers like a hole in the head.

If there is a third model that works here, I've never heard of it.