Saturday, 30 March 2024

 

Policing & NHS suffer the same problems; everything is dealt with retrospectively & after the fact

With public health being such a low priority, so much poor housing, high levels of poverty, poor diets etc. the have not’s are too often getting ill or becoming unhealthy when they should not need to be. In turn this creates problems for the NHS in terms of costs and capacity.

Yes, of course an aging population is also a big issue for the NHS, but that’s been predicted for many, many years yet not properly prepared for by government.

And yes, I’m sure the NHS will have management issues leading to poor, slow and wrong decision making. But again this is not a new issue and governments of all colours, despite much hand-wringing and many reorganisations, has failed to sort it out. What’s the betting yet another NHS reorganisation is on some political cards in this an election year.

Instead of pushing hard for healthier lifestyles, healthier eating, secure and well maintained social housing (and enough of it), exercise, more cycling and walking and less use of vehicles our society and government seems to have settled for not seriously addressing such matters so leaving the NHS to pick up the consequential poor health and too much pressure due to unavoidable illness.

Then look at policing. It is now all but dealt with as a retrospectively by tackling the end result of crime rather than seriously bearing down on anti-social behaviour and wider criminal activity. Burglaries seem now to be an issue between householders and insurance companies with the police taking little if any interest, likewise, vehicle crime.

Community/Neighbourhood policing has been so hollowed out for it to be something in name only. This leads to few coppers knowing communities really well, intelligence not being picked up, anti-social behaviour/ lower levels of crime just everyday occurrences that are rarely identified never mind dealt with. Indeed, how much is not reported because folks know it won’t be addressed?

So the police end up dealing with matters that have developed because at community level there’s no intervention except when things get seriously out of hand. In turn this means those inclined to get involved in unacceptable activities realise that it’s unlikely they’ll run into any police enforcement.

Of course, the lack of enforcement is the big reason why our roads are at Wacky Races levels of danger. Why not drive mad when everyone else seems to be doing because there’s no enforcement. And even if drivers are ‘unfortunate’ enough to get caught by a mobile police speed trap, that’s just unlucky, take the hit and go back to what you were doing before ‘the police victimised a poor unfortunate motorist when they should be catching criminals’.

Austerity (a hobbyhorse of mine) is of course a big underlying issue for the NHS and Policing but our political classes are not really keen to do much about it. Yes, they’ll finger point at each other and engage in political mudslinging but will they actually do anything?

So the NHS has to deal with ill health caused by preventable issues that governments don’t wish to address and pro-active policing (except for organised crime and terrorism) is a thing of the past leaving our coppers to chase criminals after the fact; that’s when they’re chased at all, of course. 

It’s as though we don’t know how to run a healthy and law abiding society, yet of course we do but we keep electing politicians who don’t give a damn about decent public services.

Sunday, 24 March 2024

 

Should austerity play a part in the next General Election?

It should in my view, as we are still suffering from and because of it. Services provided by local councils of all political colours have been cut to the bone so we have limited care for children in need and the elderly, more potholes than you can shake a stick at, less libraries etc. etc.

Austerity actually started under Gordon Brown when he cut spending after the 2007 financial crash, it then became the big issue during the 2010 General Election when most politicians and many ordinary folk accepted that it should happen. In fact all 3 major parties went into that election pledging cuts to public finances, yes even Labour! In fact they pledged to make £1b in extra cuts in the 2010 Parliament than the rather disliked Coalition Government actually did make. Not my ‘facts’ look at this:-

 Of course when the Conservatives took absolute control in 2015 they put their foot to the boards in terms of austerity and across much of the public sector it continues to this very day, with effectively only one-off injections of cash when services start to fall apart big time.

Present day austerity has little to do with 2007 and something to do with funding Ukraine, Covid and of course Brexit. However, it is also a political doctrine very much loved by those who want a public sector as small as possible. 2007, Ukraine, Covid and Brexit have just been useful things to enable those who actually are wholly committed to austerity in whatever economic circumstances.

Will it continue? Almost certainly, both under the Conservatives (if they retain power) and indeed Labour. You only have to listen to Starmer or Reeves to realise they’re planning few changes that will change the austerity era. However, they’ll blame things beyond their control and problems they inherited which actually is only partly true in my view. Labour could be offering hope that things can be better but they are too afraid of doing so.

I’ve said before that austerity should only have lasted 2 or maybe 3 years into the 2010 Parliament, that it continued and indeed deepened made us all the more unprepared for Covid, a financially suicidal Brexit and the war in Ukraine. When you’ve cut back on pretty much everything don’t be surprised when you can’t react properly to significant events.

The 2007 financial crash panicked our political class across the board giving rise to the pledges at the 2010 GE. However, it also played into the hands of the small state politicians who grasped austerity tightly and made it, so far, a 14 year and counting era!

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