T HE THREAT by lower paid workers to withdraw their labour at North Devon District Hospital is a shot across the bows of local management. But it's also a symptom of our nation's health and if we're not careful it could turn septic.

We can imagine the effect if a strike were to go ahead and the hospital had no one to clean the wards, the corridors, the offices and presumably the operating theatres. Or if there were no-one in the kitchen to provide hundreds of patients with something to eat. Or no-one to help the complex logistics operation that keeps a hospital going.

Nurses, we understand, are already under pressure without piling onto them the management of full wards abandoned by their non-nursing colleagues.

And so this dispute begs many questions. Like why have managers allowed it to get this far? And how are cleaners, porters and caterers going to stay motivated if they work alongside better paid public employees who enjoy more comfortable conditions? The likelihood is that they won't be motivated.

Certainly the loyalty of the support staff has been tested by the way managers of Sodexho and the North Devon Healthcare Trust are handling their claims. The only way we outsiders can judge the dispute is from the remarks, reported in the

Journal

, made by the spokespeople for Unison and for the international services company, Sodexho, which employs ancillary staff, and the apparent silence from the Healthcare Trust.

We gather there's a two-tier system in which, for instance, the non-NHS staff don't receive sick pay but NHS staff do, with an implication that pay and other conditions are also unequal. "So what?" some readers might say, "there's always been a reward differential between workers in this country." The answer is that there's never been such a big difference.

Wherever we look in the world of business and employment we're stunned by the degree of inequality between those at the top and the rest. And by comparing those enjoying state-funded benefits, pay and pensions, and those struggling on minimum wages in the private sector. This dangerous example is set at senior level of management in Britain. It's only because the dirty work is done cheaply by some that there's the cash to pay high wages to others.

We hear of it among managers in the health and civil services, the BBC and quasi-governmental organisations who claim they must have such rewards because people in the private sector earn big money. I don't accept the argument. So if they insist that they can earn more elsewhere I'd like them to go and do it.

We're going to see more disputes unless and until restraint and service to the public become the example. Strangely enough we might soon see this example set by an unlikely bunch — our MPs. If the Kelly report is finally implemented we'll see our members managing on a reasonable wage package, albeit much smaller than they'd got used to. If the majority of MPs decide to take it on the chin they'll be much better placed to lead the nation into a period of economic stability and unity the like of which we've not known for decades.

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THE CHRISTMAS decorations we are treated to every year tend to cause a stir because they never please everyone. I had a good look last Sunday at the new set adorning Barnstaple, officially switched on during an interesting occasion on the Square ( more on that next week). And my judgement of the High Street is that the lights are simple but striking and enough to work up a bit of seasonal enthusiasm.

The Square is a different matter, boasting "the blue look" that has been fashionable for several years. Now at this point I'm straying into the world of taste. And a particular world it is, I increasingly discover when listening to the views of 'Er Who Knows a Thing or Two. She has strong opinions about the blue look, mainly as it applies to the lights of South Molton, where she was born and raised.

Those who have arranged them this year might like to know that, in the language of Ofsted, they've failed, for the second year running, to reach "satisfactory". That means they should be in special measures requiring a complete review.

In general 'er laments that the display looks careless and unloved. In particular the lights shrouding the main tree make it look more like an "Easter Egg", the blue trim to the neighbouring trees appears to have been "thrown up", linking each tree in a chain gang (easily avoided by removing the intervening bulbs) and the nice East Street trees resemble a tangle of "electric worms".

She has a good word only for the simple Christmas greeting outside the old post office building. I think the view is that it would be better to have nothing than the blues. Let's hope Santa brings the committee some new decorations, or a short lesson in décor, for next year. Otherwise I'm in for another seminar about colour and composition in the festive season.