Looking Back On 14 Years Of Austerity - For What?

The Tories have ensured that the generation coming through will have no teeth by the time they are 40, no homes to call their own, soul destroying zero contract jobs and terrifying hospital waiting lists.

They will have no free movement in Europe and should they wish to start a small business trading with Europe they will suffer extra costs and red tape which will negate the whole point. The Tories have not been caretakers of the country's future on any level.

This is in contrast to the inherited wealth and privilege (George Osborne, Jacob Rees Mogg, David Cameron for example) that many of them enjoy, safe in the knowledge that their children and grandchildren will live life with impunity at the very top of society.

They should hang their heads in shame.

"14 bitter years of cuts and more cuts and all we've got to show for it is a shattered health system, wall to wall foodbanks and local councils up and down the country going bankrupt."

mae13 it makes my head spin, could never have imagined such things even becoming possible let alone usual. Heart breaking.

The NHS was recognised throughout the world as the best health system in the world in 2010.

Austerity and the Tories mismanagement has brought it to its knees.

Austerity and Brexit crippled growth in the economy which meant we were in a poor place to deal with covid.

Are you really talking about drug dealing and muggings?

I'm not even sure that the UK has a high level of "street crime". It's a very loose term anyway - do you mean crime in a public place? Such as taking people's phones, selling drugs outside? Breaking into parked cars in public places?

Not sure where your info came from.
Please could you post a link? Thank you.

The NHS can’t decide whether it’s providing a service or running a business.

I don't think the health service was intended for...providing basic health care for the poorer in society - it was intended for everyone.

The problem with the NHS is poor management. If the health service stuck to what it was intended for...providing basic health care for the poorer in society....perhaps there wouldn't be a problem with finances.
One of the problems with the austerity cuts is that there is an increase in street crime. At least, that seems to be the case where I live. The streets are poorly lit in the evenings, so the area is rife with drug dealers and muggings. Any money saved on lighting is now being diverted to dealing with criminals.

Whatever hope that the austerity policy was going to be beneficial evaporated in 2016 when the Brexit vote was lost, since then it’s been crisis management the whole time.
If we can have a period of stability the economy will improve, maybe this time next year we can have some optimism, it’s not likely before.

Calendargirl

Covid didn’t exactly help though, did it?

Put it this way - we’d have coped a lot better with Covid if the NHS was still as it was in 2010 when it struck. Services had been seriously run down by 2020, and Major Incident planning had taken a back seat, that’s why so much of the PPE was out of date.

Covid didn’t exactly help though, did it?

Well said, mae13.

I'll be interested in the answers.