Nurses in the food bank queue: why has it come to this?

Despite being underpaid, most nurses still have salaries at or above the national average and yet some are forced to resort to handouts

Thunk! The ball went straight into the back of the net.

When former prime minister Gordon Brown talked about nurses having to rely on food banks at RCN congress in June, he was facing an open goal, and he went for it.

Nurses are underpaid for the work they do

The issue of nurses and food banks is a great crowd-stirrer, and Mr Brown had the audience in the palm of his hand.

But what did he do for nurses when he was in power? Er… exactly. Nevertheless, it was one–nil