Opinion: Providing the necessities of life

She was forced to remove three of her own teeth. Teeth are like plumbing only in this way: generally speaking, you don’t think about them until they go wrong, then they become all you can think about.

I sincerely hope she gets the care she needs; she stated she had called 49 dentists and the best she could hope for was an appointment in 18 months. Surely we can do better than this?

Her case was yet another example of the terrible effects of underfunding the NHS; we are facing into a backlog for vital procedures. Spending simply hasn’t kept up with demographic changes. The Tories have not protected the service.

I am sure that some in the Tory government would like to privatise the lot and be rid of the problem; this fits with their constant mantra about rolling back the state. However, they forget: a lot of services, including the NHS, didn’t just fall from the sky, nor were concocted as part of some socialist plot. Rather, they were a response to a genuine need. Prior to the NHS, access to medical care depended upon your financial situation. Your right to life was impacted by how much money you or your family had. This didn’t sit well with the World War 2 generation, particularly since everyone was doing their bit, and everyone was equal when the bombs fell.

We seem to have forgotten this. More and more services have been cut and the delicate fabric which holds society together has become ever more frayed: when the Tories cut police funding, it’s not usually the wealthy who are worse off. They can fit expensive security systems, lock themselves behind iron gates. It is those in poorer communities who feel the lack of justice most keenly.

The same holds true for any other public service which is cut, which were put in place by well-meaning individuals who wanted to make life bearable. They echoed Edmund Burke’s dictum that “to make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely”.

The Tories have replaced this idea with a sort of mortal combat, survival of the fittest concept. Their policies seek to strip what remains of the common good in the name of profit, The divide between those who can’t get access to services and those who can afford it on their own grows ever wider.

This situation is extremely dangerous. Widening inequality does have a breaking point. There was a time when a sheltered, wealthy elite neglected to pay its taxes while the poor suffered. A distant government cared little for the disadvantaged, no matter how hard they worked. I am talking about France in 1789. While we are very far from those turbulent, awful days, nevertheless, imagine the disruption that would occur due to people not paying their utility bills en masse. This wouldn’t be because they are protesting, it’s merely because they couldn’t afford it. Then what happens?

We need the state, and we need public services. We need them more than the Tories would like to admit. But if we admit this then we can progress; we can assess what they should be doing and fund them adequately. We can stop adhering to the dogma that the market can sort it all out, which in light of recent events sounds like a bit of a cop-out. We can ensure that everyone gets the necessities of life.