Denouncing ten years of conservative austerity and the damage it has caused in British society: Labor has made it the heart of their fight – with little success so far, given their historic defeat in the general elections December 2019.
Beyond partisan speeches, a large independent study, published on February 25, however, establishes a direct link between the budget cuts decided by the government of David Cameron (2010-2016), continued until today, and the deterioration the health of the British.
Led by Sir Michael Marmot, renowned epidemiologist, professor at University College London, the study "Health Equity in England", published on February 25, shows that for the first time in a century, life expectancy has leveled off in the country. Unprecedented observation: it has even declined for women from the most disadvantaged areas, especially those in the north-east of England. "Since the beginning of the XXe century, it has experienced continuous improvements, but since 2011, these have slowed considerably and have almost stopped. It's shocking ", say the authors in the preamble to the study.
This report paints a rather bleak picture of England (55 million people, 85% of the population of the United Kingdom), which deserves to be dissected at the dawn of a historic turning point. Brexit has been effective since January 31, and at the end of the transition period, on December 31, the United Kingdom will be definitively released from its European obligations. He will finally be able to reform, attract the best, become a champion of high-tech, assure the Brexiters. On the contrary, it is condemned to an inexorable economic and geopolitical weakening, fear the pro-Europeans.
Child poverty
In 2008, the government Gordon Brown’s Labor Party had called for a first “Marmot” report from the professor of the same name, worried about an increasingly unequal society. Rendered in early 2010, just before the formation of the first Cameron government (a conservative-liberal-democratic coalition), it recommended an approach "Universalist" though "Proportionate" : all strata of the population need public assistance for their health, but the most disadvantaged require more than others.
Ten years later, Mr. Marmot's observation remains the same, only worse. Let's go back to the life expectancy of the British. In 2010, it was 78.7 years for men at birth, and 82.6 years for women. In 2018, it increased to 79.6 and 83.2 years respectively. Or increases of only 0.9 and 0.6 years. By way of comparison, between 2000 and 2008, the increases had been 2.2 years for men and 1.5 years for women.
