A Boris Johnson government would be the most right wing government in our history, far surpassing Thatcher’s governments. His cabinet is full of libertarians and Conservative nationalists. The idea that they are One Nation Tories is nonsense and laughable
The underlying ideology of Johnson and his ERG colleagues is fundamentally Thatcherite in nature. They believe in deregulated free market economics, low taxes, a small state, and erosion of workers rights. All this will be facilitated by a hard #Brexit or no deal Brexit
A deregulated free market society drives wealth inequality, which also creates health inequality and social unrest. The scientific work of Sir Michael Marmot and others has clearly demonstrated this - life expectancy is related to your postcode. Poorer people live shorter lives
The #NHS is fundamentally a collectivist system, built on the idea of “risk pooling” by the state, which is the absolute antithesis of a free market economy. That is why modern conservatives secretly hate the NHS and want to dismantle it.
The NHS has therefore been consistently undermined since the days of Thatcher. However, since the #NHS is so popular with the public, the dismantling has been piecemeal in nature due to the political risks involved. “Full privatisation” was never the plan.
The Tory approach has been to introduce market driven policies into the NHS combined with chronic underfunding and piecemeal privatisations. Examples include the purchaser-provider split, Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTCs), PFI, and new public management.
Tory marketisation of the NHS was expanded under New Labour (who also took a Thatcherite approach to many of their public policies - See “Losing Labour’s Soul” by Prof Eric Shaw). This approach wasted £billlions on administrative costs that should have gone on frontline care
The marketisation was ramped up under Andrew Lansley’s disastrous Health and Social Care Act, which wasted another £4bn, which should have gone on frontline care. His legislation was designed to open up the NHS to more market competition with private companies. A costly disaster.
Tory austerity has been catastrophic for the NHS, because services have been cut, whilst demand has increased due to a rising and more unhealthy population. Healthcare costs grow at 4% per yr, but Tory funding has averaged <2% per yr, creating a massive funding gap
Waiting lists are now at record high levels for acute care, elective care, GP appointments & other healthcare services. Overcrowded A+E Depts create “exit block” which is associated with increased mortality. Cancer care is suffering from unprecedented delays, operations cancelled
The social care system is collapsing. Ordinary people are using their life savings to pay for care. Lack of nursing care & beds in care homes means patients who are medically fit for discharge are left languishing in crowded hospitals, preventing new admissions & elective care
A hard right Tory government led by Johnson and the ERG is only going to make things worse. Yes, New Labour have a lot to answer for and got things wrong, but they did increase investment in public services with improvement in those services.
Please remember that the moderate Tories have left. The bottom line is that Johnson and the current crop of Tories want a low tax economy with a small state, meaning draconian cuts to our public services and increasing marketisation and privatisation.
The Tory manifesto is a word salad of lies. They have no interest in investing in public services. The ERG will ensure we have a hard #Brexit leading to an economic shock that will give them the excuse to inflict their true goal of the UK becoming a deregulated offshore tax haven
