I AM a nurse with 24 years service, and I am disgusted with plans to cut £20bn from the NHS and sell off large parts to be run for profit.

That is why, next Saturday, I will be one of the 500-plus people travelling on the Oxfordshire trade union transport to join hundreds of thousands to march against the worst attacks on working people since the end of the Second World War. We are all being told pay, job and service cuts are unavoidable, yet health bosses get £10,000 pay rises.

The Government say cuts have only just started and we are told there is no alternative – yet bankers get massive bonuses and top bosses get pay rises it would take decades for the rest of us to earn. Tax dodgers squirrel away thousands of billions of pounds in tax havens while calling for harsher cuts for the rest of us.

The safety net in our society that protects us when the system fails to provide jobs, or when we get ill or old, is being taken away.

Our unions have identified policies that could protect jobs and public services – but it is up to us to make governments listen. Without huge pressure, they will carry on steamrollering working people and the vulnerable.

When we are asked by our children and grandchildren: “What did you do in the great war on jobs and welfare?” I will be proud to answer: “We fought for a future with hope for everyone and not just the dreams of the super wealthy.”

IAN McKENDRICK, Salesian Gardens, Oxford