It was with dismay and anger – though not surprise, given Wes Streeting’s lack of support for a publicly provided NHS – to see that the new hospital programme initiated under the Tories will not go ahead (Half of new hospitals promised by Boris Johnson will not be built for years, 17 January). My local district hospital, the most remote in mainland England, serves a population of about 170,000 (which can more than double in the summer) scattered across a wide rural area and there are plans to bring it up to modern standards. Some of the work has started, but now it seems its future is uncertain.
And all because Streeting and his fellow ministers are still in thrall to the economic orthodoxy of the last 40 years – an orthodoxy which has seen the impoverishment of our society, a massive increase in inequality, a massive increase in poverty and homelessness, and a massive sell-off of public assets and services. In 1942 John Maynard Keynes said: “Anything we can actually do, we can afford.” Margaret Thatcher turned that on its head, and we have Rachel Reeves channelling her handbag economics with: “We can only do what we can afford.” Why can our politicians not learn from history? It is an absolute truth that the government is only constrained in its spending by the actual resources available, and as sovereign issuer of currency, it is not limited in its spending by taxes or issuing bonds.
