The Guardian reported yesterday that:
British adults' life expectancy has been cut by six months in the biggest reduction in official longevity forecasts.
The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, which calculates life expectancy on behalf of the UK pension industry, declined to speculate on why longevity is deteriorating for men and women in England and Wales. Some analysts, however, blame austerity and cuts in NHS spending, others point to worsening obesity, dementia and diabetes.
They may not speculate. I will. Danny Dorling Has suggested that:
On Thursday 16th November 2017 the Journal BMJ Open published an article which concluded that severe public spending cuts in the UK had contributed to causing 120,000 additional premature deaths between 2010 and 2017. The article was put together by ten researchers who worked at Kings College, UCL and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; at the Medical sciences division in Oxford, at the University of Cambridge and in the Philippines.
He continued:
We had known for some time that austerity was bringing deaths forward, but not that the rate of death associated with the cuts was rising so rapidly. The large majority of deaths associated with austerity had taken place in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Only a third had occurred between 2012 and 2014 and almost none in 2010 or 2011 when austerity was just beginning.
Is some, and maybe a large part, of that fall in life expectancy due to austerity then? I very strongly suggest that it is.
And much of the rest may be down to the lifestyle promoted by neoliberalism, with excessive consumption of inappropriate foods at the heart of that.
My conclusion: neoliberalism kills.
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It does seem very obvious that austerity has played a major, if not complete, explanation for the reduction in life expectancy in the UK. The statistics you quote seem pretty sound. Doubtless more detailed studies will throw up more evidence as time goes by.
There has been and continues to be more pollution of the air we breathe, over use of chemicals in farming and food additives. Still high sugar, salt and fat levels in processed foods.
Stress levels at work and home are increasing due to “financial constraints” and over micro management in the work place and the horrendous social security provision such as Universal Credit (where in one case a man was informed by the DWP he was fit for work after being dead for 8 months!) There is uncertainty politically, socially and economically which adds to background stress whatever one’s personal circumstances are. Reduction of basic services such as health, education, housing, youth service, legal aid etc is affecting a larger proportion of people “at the bottom end” of society. The sooner this suicidal austerity policy is abandoned, the better.
My assessment is much harsher.
It is the Tory party that has killed these people in my opinion.
I’ve seen the misery they have created and continue to create on a daily basis in the public sector.
They’ve gone too far, and I feel compelled to go too far myself in response. Purely by the way in self defence.
Yes, I believe Neo-liberalism does kill. It’s an ideology that favours the sociopath – that individual that cannot feel altruism or any sense of community, and any society that is wholly made up of sociopaths would die out. Austerity is just part of it, the whole culture behind neo-liberalism (I see it as the closest you can practically get to capitalism without everyone being a clone or robot), is to everyone’s detriment; it is just that the people that gain material wealth have convinced themselves they are benefitting, while society crumbles around them.
Another hilarious (sarcasm) thing about Brexit is those brexiteers that complain about the EUs neoliberal attitudes – so they want to isolate us in the country that invented it and and does it on skates. I’m sure the uk government is going to bring back a feudal system, this voting thing just isn’t working out for them. That’ll put neo-liberalism on the back-burner.
Contrary
I’ve mulled over this issue for some time and I think that you’ve mulled over it better than me – thanks!
Ah Richard, dire as the effect on physical well being has been I think the mental damage, individually and collectively, is far worse. The zeitgeist has been shifted too such a nasty place and so much of it deliberate.
I suppose the Tory rationale is that it is an effective way to reduce future state pension liabilities. 🙁
Bill Hughes,
“… suicidal austerity policy….”
Shouldn’t that be, homicidal? Or perhaps both?
Thank you for drawing my attention to the BMJ Open study. Two other studies may be of interest:
1. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsofhomelesspeopleinenglandandwales/localauthorityestimates2013to2017
– where point 6 of the Summary says
“Local areas in England witht the highest deprivation had around nine times more deaths of homeless people relative to their population than the least disadvantaged areas.”
2. https//www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/oct/30/north-south-divide-in-early-deaths-deepening-study-finds
where part of the effect is attributed to socioeconomic deprivation. (The full study is in the Lancet Public Health medical journal, to which I do not have access. I hope I have copied the Guardian link correctly)
I agree with Bill Hughes and Contrary above.
Who woul;d have thought there might be a link between deprivation and deaths?
“Who would have thought there might be a link between deprivation and deaths?”
Anybody who noticed how (f**king) long Royals last ? If Charles ever gets to throne he’ll be senile….starting from a base which may make it difficult to diagnose. 🙂
And it’s not just the dear old Queens…..The queer old deans don’t make a practice of dying young.
Probably best to ask Theresa May she’s apparently an expert on the statistics of direct causal relationships…… and she’s well outlived her usefulness.