Can I imagine you sucking up? Haha. Not really. I just went on a walk and was thinking... My employment at the university ended prior to 2010 - maybe 2009 - so the raise would have been before the pay freeze you mentioned. By 2010, I was covering maternity leave with the council and I wasn't there long enough to get a raise, even if such things had been offered.

Ahh yes, those extra expenses do add up. I don't think they should have ever started charging nurses for training. Every time I hear of someone struggling financially, there's debt. Governments should not have made nurses take out loans to get trained for the job, especially as there was a recruitment problem even then. They could tie conditions to to any bursary - must work for NHS for X years to be eligible for 100% bursary, for example.

I'm not qualified to comment on warfare, but as long as we're not left up the creek without a paddle!