Like so much else, the NHS crisis is a symptom of our broken economy.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine believes that as many as 500 people could be dying each week because of delays to emergency care.
NHS waiting lists are at an all-time high. The number of NHS beds are at an all-time low, and the service is now on its knees.
This is just a snapshot of the crisis within our NHS.
But these facts also tell the story of a wider sickness at the heart of our politics. One that has helped create an economy that is fundamentally broken.
Because the question of who pays, who profits, and how those choices are made, remain the big issues of our day.
And will continue to be at the centre of the debate as we look to the next general election.
Does our economy work for us? Or, is it rigged against ordinary people?
If our system worked then surely our NHS would not be in crisis? The country would not be facing a national pay cut after a decade of standing still, and firms would not be profiteering at our expense.
And certainly giving bigger bonuses to City bankers would not be any kind of priority.
But that’s the trouble. Many of our politicians want to be tribute acts to bygone eras. Whether that’s Thatcher and her attacks on workers’ rights, or the timid middle management of a latter- day Blair.
Westminster does not have the answers. It is like a doctor in search of a cure to an illness they don’t understand. Looking back, not forward.
Times have changed and people are struggling. Tinkering won’t do and different choices can be made.
There is an alternative. One where those that profit do actually pay and where ordinary people, not the financial markets or the elite, are at the top of the agenda.
The nonsense we hear from our political class can be as breathtaking as it is cynical. They now tell us we need to cut services to fill a giant black hole. But it only exists because of rules they imposed on themselves!
Meanwhile, despite the profit margins of Britain’s biggest firms going up by 89% since before the pandemic, we continue to be warmed up for yet more austerity. No money without growth they all tell us. Like a bad song on repeat.
But what about the winners? Those that exploit crisis to make excessive profits? Don’t tell us there is no money. That workers have to pay.
With every crisis, big corporations with huge power make tons of money. Not just energy firms. Many involved in food, logistics and banking have seen profits soar. So why shouldn’t we take a piece of their pie to help fund our NHS?
It’s about time that those who profit pay to clean up the mess, not the workers who got us through Covid.
