The exact social consequences of these cuts were spelled out last week in Michael Marmot’s report for the Institute of Health Equity: for the first time in a century, life expectancy has stopped growing and for women in poor areas actually fallen. Ukip leader Nigel Farage said that he could not stand a man who feels superior, while he continues to criticize his fellow Britons, referring to the archbishop. His shop seemed the perfect spot, near where the council was building a velodrome. Copyright © 2020 Christian Daily.   Pub closures – premises were down from 52,500 in 2001 to 38,000 by 2020 – were another loss of sociability. This was the seventh of these havens for older adults to close in the town since 2010. Critics, however, called out the archbishop for failing to recognize the vote of the majority on Brexit. Learn more. For a . My country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was broke and virtually in ruins, writes Geoffrey White. Although the efforts of Angelica and Tyrone (a young McDonalds worker) to unionise and fight for better conditions are shown, the documentary itself doesn’t offer any solutions to these appalling situations either. A Dartmoor sheep farmer and a Hastings fisherman stayed believers, despite not expecting Brexit to do them much good. Demonstrators calling for an end to the cuts gather in London in January 2019. In many ways, it provides crucial documentation of the savage effects of austerity and the crisis of capitalism which are so often glossed over by the mainstream media. The chief constable, Jon Boutcher, had just written to his MP recounting a typical night of rapes, stabbings and a lethal traffic accident involving young children. Still, other critics dug through Welby's personal assets and properties, where he apparently owned a six-bedroom villa in France. "Brexit has divided the country and we now need a new narrative," Welby wrote. Child poverty soared to its highest level since before the second world war. A new book by Harvard economist Alberto Alesina, and Carlo Favero and Francesco Giavazzi, both of the University Bocconi, addresses these issues. The lost decade was a Tory decade and perhaps the next one will be, too. Welby, who voted to Remain during the EU referendum, likened the country's departure from the European Union as similar to the challenges the British faced during World War II. The recent BBC documentary "Broke" provides a sober reflection on the savage effects of auserity, introducing us to hard working people struggling to get by. For example, the series shows issues such as stagnant wages, the exploitation of insecure and vulnerable workers, rising debt, and the effect of financial struggles on relationships. For a new investigation, to assess the extent of the past decade’s damage, we went back to the people we talked to then to see how they have fared since and the hidden ways that austerity has affected their lives. Now the country’s creeping in the wrong direction.” So he is emigrating to the US, a young remainer despairing of Britain. “Overnight, people became very, very careful with their money,” he said. Terms of Use. Never mind expert reckoning that the Brexit vote was losing Britain £700m a week; taking back control stirred feelings more ineffable than money. This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy, Please enable the javascript to submit this form, English, French, and American Revolutions, Broke: Documenting austerity's savage effects. But everywhere decaying high streets were a metaphor for national malaise, as internet retail sucked the life out of bricks-and-mortar shops, its US owners paying negligible tax to compensate. In the summer, the only holiday they could afford was camping in the grounds of the school where Rob was caretaker. Social care was a can kicked down the road; as a result, 1.5 million frail old people get no care at all: at the end of the decade, the Johnson government’s response was to deny visas to care staff from abroad, as they earn too little to reach a new £25,600 threshold. The Conservatives’ pitch in 2010 had been repairing “broken Britain”, but its cracks were widened by an austerity that was neither necessary nor inevitable but resulted from ideological choices. www.execreview.com I'm Broken, Britain: One tribunal meeting decides my austerity fate Impossible choices as the austerity system cuts home. Privacy: Your personal information will be kept private and held securely. In so far as "austerity" means "the government operating a long-run balanced budget" then this isn't so much a criticism of austerity as it is a criticism of bad austerity. “I was so uplifted by the 2012 Olympics. austerity definition: 1. the condition of living without unnecessary things and without comfort, with limited money or…. They were sometimes living without a functioning boiler all winter long. “Before the referendum, we’d been selling two bikes a week, but now it was down to two a month.” He went bust, his company filing for insolvency. Cuts to social care and welfare are not the only visible marks of the lost decade. Home alone, the statistics showed that many more would arrive in A&E malnourished or dehydrated. The lost decade: the hidden story of how austerity broke Britain. • The Lost Decade 2010-2020 and What Lies Ahead for Britain, by Polly Toynbee and David Walker, is published by Faber on 5 March, £10.99 rrp. Please click here to learn how. Time and again, in one field after another, we found the covert fraying of the fabric of a civilisation we take for granted. Spending time with the chief executive of Ipswich hospital, we watched as he begged a senior nurse not to leave. Going hungry: inside a food bank in South Shields. Broke also examines landlordism, homelessness, and the high cost of vital services such as public transport. David Cameron’s Conservatives, only just victorious in the 2010 election, sold austerity as a necessary response to the 2008 financial crash. By doing such measures, Welby hopes that there will finally be healing in Britain. As GDP and pay growth both slowed, profits rose. He also implored on the readers of his piece to embrace the migrants who want to build their lives in England as they offer diversity and new freedom that comes with welcoming ethnic minorities. 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Despite its powerful message, however, it provides no solution to the crisis of austerity. Meanwhile, the UK got older, with no plan for the decade’s 25% rise in those aged over 65. The problem is that, for all the Conservatives talked about austerity, they never really enacted it. In Hastings, East Sussex, we watched the closure of another day centre, the building sold by the cash-strapped council. Tweet In our 2010 book The Verdict, we evaluated the Blair-Brown era, years of marked social progress. Barring an occasional criticism of austerity by one of the workers, there is no real attempt to explain why, for instance, Kevin has to work 100 hours a week. Despite cuts to subsidies, renewable energy outdid expectations. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, claims that Brexit and the austerity measures from the government have broken Britain. The small businesspeople we spoke to were often pro-Brexit, refusing to see any bigger picture. All Rights Reserved. The cuts that broke the justice system Grants to arts organisations fell by a third, funding for national galleries and museums by a half. The Thomas Coram Research Institute collected children’s own accounts: “I was so hungry, it was like I got hit in my belly, like I got stabbed with a knife,” 14-year-old Emmanuel told it. The lost decade: the hidden story of how austerity broke Britain Public sector cuts In our book The Verdict, we evaluated the Blair-Brown era, years of marked social progress. In Knowsley, on Merseyside, a food bank organiser collecting donations was asked: “Is this for English people?” He replied: “It’s for hungry people.”. We want children, but we don’t want to bring them up here any more, not in this atmosphere.”. “I’ve been offered something in sports science in the US. We followed the fortunes of Emma Percy, in Folkestone, Kent. Then came the referendum, so many political lies. It is a perverse society that chooses to harm its youngest most, but years of frozen benefits left families thousands of pounds short, while the old saw their triple-locked pensions rise. British cinemas fear ruin without latest James Bond film, James Packer to appear at NSW inquiry into Crown casino from luxury super yacht, Cineworld considering temporary closure of all its UK and US venues, ‘This is the Everest of zero carbon’ – inside York’s green home revolution. As packing cases were being filled with pictures from the walls, we talked to Rose, Mary and Sal, old friends sitting together as they always did, but now for the last time. One service always in the public eye was the NHS. The gap between rich and poor has widened; the young are now worse off than their parents at their age; home ownership has declined steeply – families are stuck in life-long and precarious private renting. A steel stockholder in Derby and a high-street butcher saw turnover drop but stayed true to the faith. Mental health and domestic violence dominated the calls. With her husband, Rob, and three children, the family moved from one rented home to another, changing the children’s schools as rents rose, roofs leaked. Britain hasn’t endured austerity to the same degree as Greece, where cutbacks were swift and draconian. Work is the best route out of poverty - it's a slogan popular with politicians both left and right for the past two decades. As the public realm shrank, so did social capital, found the ONS, with less trust and neighbours not talking to one another. We should never stop reminding ourselves just what an astonishing decade we have lived through. "Austerity is crushing the weak, the sick and many others," Archbishop Welby further wrote in his piece. Broke does a tremendous job of illustrating the tough realities of life for the working class, whilst not demeaning or patronising those featured – we are reminded that “being broke doesn’t mean being broken”. "One that is rooted in all that is best in our history -- solidarity, courage, aspiration, resilience and care for each other.". The anonymous blog on Britain's arcane disability benefit system continues, as the tribunal hearing finally arrives. Archbishop Justin Welby blamed Brexit as the reason for the divide in England. A third of the UK’s billionaires kept their money in tax havens: the May government backed off from forcing transparency on crown dependencies and, coincidentally, tax exiles donated handsomely to the Conservative party’s 2017 election costs. But, taking a deep breath, she told him: “I just can’t keep going.” She would join the nursing bank for occasional shifts, but her departure would add to the 41,000 nurse vacancies.