Led by a New Orleans-style marching band complete with oompahing sousaphone, the predominantly female marchers sang, swayed and shimmied from Blythswood Square to George Square for a rally.

At the square a trio of nurses dressed as a rabbit, panda and Bo-Peep brought the many children in the audience to the front and serenaded them with a selection of cheery songs. Industrial action was never like this.

Carol Ball, who chairs Unison’s national nursery nurse workig party, ended her speech by reciting an ode penned by a frustrated but not yet totally despairing nursery nurse. A flavour: The pay is not outstanding but the recognition’s worse, It feels like yur invisible and really have no worth.

I want to be acknowledged for the expertise I’ve got, Not downgraded and just overlooked, which seems to be my lot.

If it wasn’t for the children and the joy their progress brings, I’d just throw in the towel and look for better things.

But this isn’t just a job, it is vocation at its best, And the only way to cope is to get it off your chest.