As The Guardian has noted this morning:
Life expectancy has stalled for the first time in more than 100 years and even reversed for the most deprived women in society, according to a landmark review which shows the gap in health inequalities is yawning even wider than it did a decade ago, in large part due to the impact of cuts linked to the government's austerity policies.
This is not the first time the link between austerity and life expectancy has been made, of course. Prof Danny Dorling's work suggested that more than 100,000 deaths per annum might be linked to the impact of austerity in recent years. But as the Guardian also notes:
Sir Michael Marmot's review, 10 years after he warned that growing inequalities in society would lead to worse health, reveals a shocking picture across England, which he says is no different to the rest of the UK and could have been prevented.
And it is not just deaths that matter:
The government has not taken the opportunity to improve people's lives and life chances over the last 10 years, the report says. Real cuts to people's incomes are damaging the nation's health for the long term. Not only are lifespans stalling, but people are living for more years in poor health.
I think the following quotes from Sir Michael also worth noting:
“This damage to the nation's health need not have happened. It is shocking.”
“The UK has been seen as a world leader in identifying and addressing health inequalities but something dramatic is happening. This report is concerned with England, but in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the damage to health and wellbeing is similarly unprecedented.
“Austerity has taken a significant toll on equity and health, and it is likely to continue to do so. If you ask me if that is the reason for the worsening health picture, I'd say it is highly likely that is responsible for the life expectancy flat-lining, people's health deteriorating and the widening of health inequalities.
“Poverty has a grip on our nation's health — it limits the options families have available to live a healthy life. Government health policies that focus on individual behaviours are not effective. Something has gone badly wrong.”
I have blogged throughout the austerity years and made the NHS such an issue at one point that I think I was noted as the fourth most active social media campaigner against the 2012 NHS reforms that increased the impact of market forces upon it.
Those reforms have failed. A healthcare system that was intended to, and did, deliver worse health outcomes in a political environment of hostility towards large parts of the UK population is indicative of a chronic political malaise within government during this period.
Of course Brexit was the logical consequence.
And now populism builds on that to make people believe that their condition is the fault of ‘others' - most especially in and from the EU when it is in fact entirely explained by Conservative economic policy of the last decade.
Labour, meanwhile, is fighting itself.
I hate to use the word revolution: it has connotations I do not like in terms of potential harms done. But we need nothing less now. The culture of obsequiousness to finance that has inculcated this country for four decades needs to be swept away. People are dying because of it. That has to end. We must have the public services we need. And we can afford them - because with the right policies there are the people to deliver them and no shortage of funds.
But is there, even now, the will?
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I blame neoliberalism. It’s thatchers fault
Yes, appalling isn’t it? And yet, the party responsible for this has just won its fourth GE victory in a row. What does that tell you about contemporary UK (Scotland excepted) politics? And some of the people who vote for them are the ones suffering the effects of their policies.
“indicative of a chronic political malaise”.
Is it not possibly more indicative of a deliberate strategy?
Maybe
But that still leads to my conclusion
well at least it’s finally being acknowledged,
it’s more pronounced in the USA, I’ve seen parallels drawn with Russia during the collapse of the Soviet Union,
broadly speaking this isn’t just politics, it’s a civilisation under stress, expect this to get worse before it gets better.
It is obviously the case that it will get worse before it gets better as it is a ‘lagging indicator’. What is not discussed is the level of morbidity which is a consequence of continuing lower levels of incomes as individuals have to make choices as to the quality of food and lifestyle etc they are able to purchase which will then impact on life expectancies in the future.
The sad reality to my mind is that the decision makers in this country who govern us have no comprehension of the reality that exists for so many people is as they do not evaluate the consequences of their policies, have no empathy with those people, understand the heat or eat mentality, the budgeting skills that would test the expertise of Rishan Sunak and therefore they will never serve or understand those who suffer from the policy of austerity and because of that those people that should, but do not receive the appropriate support, will continue to suffer. Sadly the election, well 43 percent anyway, proved that lack of compassion and comprehension do exist with the electorate as well but then it was first past the post so winners take all and losers just, well, die.
How can the National Conservative government not accept the review’s evidence based policies (see Appendices in Marmot review). Ough, I forgot they rely on weirdo [anti-social-policy] super-forecasters.
In fact, each of the Policy Objectives could be prefaced with “The Conservative Government failed …. [insert objective here]”, as oppositional statements to this National Conservative hegemony.
Richard, thanks for alerting us to this review – very refreshing and well laid out. I have just glanced through it; a substantial work by an eminent group of informed professionals.
Enemies of the state, you mean?
There most certainly isn’t a will in my view.
The aim seems to be, as you’ve pointed out many times, to create a space for a tax haven to blossom in England, and meanwhile, for show, to publicise loudly some vanity projects such as HS2 , pretending to want to ‘level up’ the divide.
By the way (feminist hat on here, be warned), for the first time, poorer women’s health has deteriorated faster than men’s.
I didn’t mean to mention the Waspi campaign here, as the blog’s comments mostly come from men, but I will.
Since we started in 2015, about 80 000 women aged btw 60 and 65 have died without a penny of their pension.
Many had started work at 15, contributed NI over 40 yrs, lived off the few savings they had, then benefits once those had gone, for the last few years of their life in poor health, so unemployable.
When they started work back in the day, they weren’t allowed to join a company pension. They didn’t have equal pay. And when they finished, in poor health, they had nothing still.
I know of 4 women in my campaign group in the county. And I’m angry.
As a side note Scotland has spent more on its population per head than the rest of the UK, it also also has the ability to spend more on the NHS, yet the SNP government has repeatedly failed to do so. Why ? The same as happened in Wales, though their funding arrangement is rather different and have limited funding to play with, ie 20% available to use but of course not all that goes on the NHS, indeed it has cut services just like in Scotland.
The problem of course the SNP has not chosen despite its powers to raise taxes not to increase funding for the NHS , it has also refused to raise benefit levels as well. I know people love to pump to up nationalism of the smaller nations but sneer at the nationalism growing in England. This sneering has led to rather a lot of people being alienated in England and we have Brexit and the election of johnson as a result.
Let me be clear Johnson is a part time prime minister who does not give a fig about the people of these islands, he certainly does not give a second thought about people in England et al. The coronavirus looks like it’s going to be left alone as it enters the mainstream population.
Along with Austerity being continued, poor health spending and the new virus sweeping the nation, and being deliberately left to run its course. The anger it will produce will the immense and could see the end of Johnson and co, then of course we have a hard brexit having an impact on the nation’s finances. Johnson seems to want a lot of businesses to go to the wall and does not give a fig about them doing so.
So we have three events taking place which could unhinge the government and force the establishment to act. They do not like their profits to the attacked and certainly do not like the civil unrest of austerity/breixt/coronavirus to affect them.
I think you rather over estimate the taxing powers Scotland has in the current environment