Austerity is back, and the budget cut to the NHS is a warning to Devon
Rishi Sunak’s budget envisages reductions in spending for public services, including the NHS, over the next few years, as well a return later in the year to the lower level of Universal Credit. By not raising tax thresholds, he increasing the real levels of income tax for most people, and by not addressing social care funding he is forcing councils to raise Council Tax by 5 per cent.
It’s clear that this is an austerity budget for public services and the living standards of all except the rich – he failed to introduce any new taxes on wealth, and by extending the stamp duty holiday is pushing house prices ever higher, putting house purchase further out of reach for young people.
Obviously Mr Sunak – who was behind the disastrous early lifting of pandemic restrictions last summer and the failure to lock down in September, which has cost tens of thousands of lives – has learned nothing from the last year. He is not interested in ensuring that the NHS is able to cope with the next pandemic. As far as Devon is concerned, this probably means that NHS managers will be looking for cuts again soon, and there could be new threats to our community hospitals round the corner.
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 
March 9, 2021 at 3:01 pm
2008 all over again. I’m not surprised by any of this. It’s expected at this point. The 2008 recession resulted in bailouts for the banks and therefore resulting in cuts to public services (mainly health and social care). The lockdown and furloughing was going to result in the inevitable rise in taxes for the commoners and cuts to services. If you want public services to be up to stratch after a recession then taxes would have to be raised at a massive rate that would be very unpopular and would leave millions in poverty (Poll tax 1990 anyone?)
Unfortunately people forgot about the past recession and what it did to us and will continue to let this happen as their heads are shoved up their arses. The government is essentially at fault and to blame, but where were/are the protests against cutting the NHS? It’s usually from NHS workers and not the masses. People will continue to let this happen until something dramatically changes in the way we run our government and society.
We are constantly seeing every year cuts made to health and social care but again no one cares. At this point people are only thinking about their finanical worries and not much else. The rise in taxes is more of a worry than cuts to their health care (since it’s free to use).
Social care is mostly priviate and that’s what the government wants. They see old people as a burden and wish them to be dead so they can collect their pension savings. Councils can’t afford to fund social care since the government won’t give them the funds. As we have seen in lockdown the elderly in care homes were screwed over and left to die due to staffing issues with staff having to isolate from a postive pcr test of sars-cov-2 and resulting in residents being negelected (dying of thirst, not being cleaned and changed reguarly, etc…). I worked in a care home during the lockdown and believe me it wasn’t covid killing them (as the media would have you believe) but the neglect and not being able to see loved ones which caused them to become withdrawn and deteoriate quciker than they normally would. Lockdown made it worse.
You mention sunak was a part of us not locking down in september resulting in thousands of lives being lost. Last year deaths were way below the normal and most of the covid recorded deaths by pcr were due to people dying as a result of lack of healthcare as the hospitals weren’t allowing non covid patients to enter hospitals.
Interesting you mention the stamp duty. Home prices were already rising anyway before stamp duty. The increase of house prices from removing stamp duty is enticing people to buy a house since they don’t have to pay it and see it as a good oppurtunity to get on the property ladder. Plus since the rise of working from home is causing people to sell their homes in the cities and move to smaller towns and the country. This new influx of buying is what is causing house prices to go up. House prices go up when demand is low and more people are buying. That is always the case. Removing stamp duty doesn’t just mean house prices just simply rise. House prices are based on the current state of the housing market. However I believe there will be a housing market crash soon since all of these new home buyers will suffer in the coming reccession and be unable to pay of their mortgage and have to go into default. Young people (like myself) can’t afford a house due to the rigged game that is the housing market. The resultin crash that i predict will draw house prices down (espcially in cities like london since there has a been a mass exodus due to people losing their jobs or moving elsewhere since they can work from home).
Again all this was to be expected but unless the masses wake up and protest then the government will continue to hold us down and make us suffer.
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