The King’s Fund report confirms what we have known for a long time – that governments have become very resistant to funding basic services, resulting in serious harm to their delivery (Decade of neglect means NHS unable to tackle care backlog, report says, 12 December).
The question is why some governments have become so callous, when the damage they were doing to the caring infrastructure of our society was obvious? Why have they given up on the post-second world war dream of creating a better world for all? Part of the reason seems to be that they are driven by the economics of ideology and privilege, not science.
The science and evidence has been clear for decades – that in order for us to create a caring, sharing world, especially with an ageing population, we will need to fund services appropriately. There is no evidence whatsoever that tax cuts create fairer and more caring societies – quite the opposite.
The Guardian has also drawn attention to the huge amounts of money that privatised services have funnelled to shareholders with no evidence that they are more efficient than publicly owned and run services – again, quite the opposite.
We are waking up to the fact that we have created a frightening society – frightened to get ill, frightened to get old, frightened of the cold, frightened of the future. Any other profession that did not follow its basic ethical principles, and caused the damage, suffering, fear and harm of the last 10 years would face consequences – possibly criminal charges.
Politics is the only profession where you can dump the science, cause considerable harm and get away with it – and even make a fortune from it.
Prof Paul Gilbert
University of Derby
• I read with great interest your article about the government-commissioned King’s Fund report. Remind me: who was the secretary of state for health and social care from 2012 to 2018? Oh yes! It was Jeremy Hunt. And now, fresh from several years as chair of the Commons health committee (where, in one of the most cynical self-rehabilitation programmes imaginable, he persistently attacked the very policies for which he had been responsible), here he is as chancellor of the exchequer, free to deploy his experience and predilections across the full range of public services. Oh joy.
Marcia Saunders
Retired NHS board chair
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