I thought this Tweet and the comment from Sir Michael Marmot a fascinating summary of yesterday's evidence at the Covid inquiry, and especially the view presented by George Osborne that might be summarised as 'if GDP falls, people must die'. It was as brutal as that.
Sir Michael Marmot asserts that the Tory government's austerity policy “fits with hypothesis of malicious harm.” ie government was deliberately trying to destroy the NHS
Approximately 300,000 excess deaths since 2010 attributed to austerity. @AndrewMarr9 pic.twitter.com/ISiJ5KHCZJ https://t.co/1sqUz0zwi3— Peter Kay (@theonlypeterkay) June 20, 2023
Sir Michael's evidence is calm, rational and brutally observational. Following the style of James Baldwin, he says, "I hear what you say, but then I note what you did, and it's what you did that persuades me that you had intent to do harm" (I stress, I paraphrase).
I think he's right. Of course, George Osborne intended to cause harm to the NHS, and in turn to all of us.
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In defense of Gidiot, I suspect he did not think it through, neither did he question the memes that he believed in (maxed out credit card). He has a degree in history and could be described as very modestly numerate. Gidiot’s “thinking” is analogous to Iain Dale’s and “we don’t need railway station staff”, prior to Dale’s broken hip/problem knee – when suddely – he realised “oh you do”. But Gidiot is insulated (via wealth) from the NHS and indeed the problems experienced by swathes of the Uk population – thus there was never any prospect of him personally being confronted by the results of his actions/lack thereof. None of his family would die due to austerity.
One route forward is that all politicians from a town councillor through to the PM (& the totality of the civil service) are only allowed to use the NHS. No queue-jumping, stuck on a trolley in A&E for 24 hrs? – “oh dear – that’s because of your budget cuts – luv”. This will not bring back 300,000 dead people due to Cam-moron & Gidiot but it might focus minds.. “oh dear, it could be me on that trolley” and generate some empathy, conspicuously (congenitally?) missing from Gidiot and his ilk.
Any chance of Starmer telling us his thinking on whether there’s a connection between an Austerity policy and this causing thousands of unnecessary deaths? I think not!
House of Lords report 6 January, 2023:
“A recent study argued there have been over 300,000 excess deaths during this period, when comparing trends in life expectancy with those from before 2011. The authors of the study argue this is a result of austerity policies pursued by the government.”
Source: https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/mortality-rates-among-men-and-women-impact-of-austerity/
Yesterday I quoted Lord Sikka.
I just looked at your link
Lord Sikka (Labour) to ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the paper by the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health ‘Bearing the burden of austerity: How do changing mortality rates in the UK compare between men and women?
If Starmer reforms the Lords, I hope he and others of his way of thinking, continues to serve.
So, now we know that the Thatcherite credo that the Government has no money of its own actually kills people!
That’s what her half-arsed bollocks has come down to. Even Oliver Letwin – more of a human being perhaps that either Cameron and Osbourne in his testimony – believed this.
Might this be the end of received wisdom in politics?
Great post.
“So, now we know that the Thatcherite credo that the Government has no money of its own actually kills people!”
We also know that many of our politicians are therefore effectively war criminals technically for not taking the trouble to understand the basics of money creation!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiCs_YHlKSI
I also watched Osborne’s smooth, polished, confident, deeply-dishonest “evidence”. Like PSR (yesterday), I believe he knows the reality of the financial system perfectly well, and cynically used the ignorance of the public and political class to engineer the economy for the benefit of the elites. Osborne is no better than a war criminal, really.
And I have been thinking for a couple of weeks that you, Richard, absolutely should be giving evidence on the pernicious effects of austerity policy on pandemic preparedness to the Inquiry, Perhaps along with Mssrs Blanchflower and Sikka. Is there any way?
I am not sure…
Speaking of smooth & polished, Sometime you need art, slightly re-expressed to frame, in this case, the in-your-face mendacity by Gidiot.
Strumming their pain with his fingers
Singing their livies with his words
Killing them softly with his song
Killing them softly with his song
Telling their whole lives with his words
Killing them softly with his song
We heard he sang a good song
We heard he had a style
And so we came to see him
To listen for a while
And there he was this tory boy
A stranger to our eyes
He sang as if he knew us
In all our dark despair
And then he looked right through us
As if were weren’t there
And he just kept on singing
Singing clear and strong
🙂
His statement to the inquiry to the effect that a contingency plan is useless if you can’t pay for it continues to disturb me. The point of a risk register is to identify proximate and remote risks on the assumption that you can better manage the future if you do so, this in itself is a useful exercise. In a company setting it may tell you that you should cease trading because you do not have the funds to continue.
In a public authority setting you can’t stop governing the country. Identified existential risks that do not have a funding solution cannot be put in the too difficult drawer. The Treasury did not seem to have a whole system failure contingency plan – I suspect because that would require it to question the definition of money and our dependency upon financial markets.
Well said
Last night I was on a call with the National Health Action Party, with Mark Thomas as speaker. Masses of charts and graphs. Many of them showed that the UK spends less on healthcare than all other G10 countries
Michael Marmot was mentioned in it, talking about the social determinants of ill health, and the poverty loop which cannot be ignored.
Mark Thomas wrote a book about the 99%.
https://99-percent.org/the-book/
On 4th July, the 75th anniversary of the NHS, he is holding a meeting in parliament on The Rational Policyholder’s guide to the NHS.
I asked if they were talking to the labour party about it, and he said Richard Burgon was onboard.
Apparently this meeting on 4th July will be in a room that can only hold 30 people, which shows how important the government thinks of the NHS. One member of NHAP can go, but that’s okay as there were only 30 participants in the meeting last night.
I like the NHAP crowd
Mark Thomas has got your list of fascism in the government. He’s right about the first title of that book. I have a feeling that people could have bought it for their young kids, without realising what it was.
Might it be that failure to connect actual consequence with (stated) purpose is not only unwise but also an abuse of (allegedly) democratic power?
Might it be that the consequences of H M G’s (alleged) economic policy is to make increasing numbers of people, including up to 30% of our children, chronically/permanently hungry and ever more in danger of homelessness?
Might it be kinder, more accurate and more real(life)istic to publish data on food banks and homelessness along with the usual “ economic” data?
Richard, about 2 or 3 years ago, you put up a video (by Helen I think) showing Ben Bernanke spelling out very clearly that ” US tax dollars do NOT fund Goverment expenditure. I merely ring up the Fed and ask them to make the necessary funds available”
Any chance of re-showing that video again?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiCs_YHlKSI
Whatever did happen to Helen? Her knowledge of Keynes was extraordinary and I loved that there was always something relevant to add from his works to almost every post. I wish she would return!