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austerity, benefit, benefits, Conservative, cut, death, government, health, housing, inequality, Margaret Thatcher, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, people, policies, policy, politics, poverty, premature, sick, social, social security, Tories, Tory, unemployment, unnecessary, Vox Political, welfare
The following may be old news to some of you but it just got to me, so I’m publicising it:
“Public health experts from Durham University have denounced the impact of Margaret Thatcher’s policies on the wellbeing of the British public in new research which examines social inequality in the 1980s.
“The study, which looked at over 70 existing research papers, concludes that as a result of unnecessary unemployment, welfare cuts and damaging housing policies, the former prime minister’s legacy includes the unnecessary and unjust premature death of many British citizens, together with a substantial and continuing burden of suffering and loss of well-being.
“The research shows that there was a massive increase in income inequality under Baroness Thatcher – the richest 0.01 per cent of society had 28 times the mean national average income in 1978 but 70 times the average in 1990, and UK poverty rates went up from 6.7 per cent in 1975 to 12 per cent in 1985.
“Baroness Thatcher’s governments wilfully engineered an economic catastrophe across large parts of Britain by dismantling traditional industries such as coal and steel in order to undermine the power of working class organisations, say the researchers. They suggest this ultimately fed through into growing regional disparities in health standards and life expectancy, as well as greatly increased inequalities between the richest and poorest in society.
“Co-author Professor Clare Bambra from the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing at Durham University, commented: ‘Our paper shows the importance of politics and of the decisions of governments and politicians in driving health inequalities and population health. Advancements in public health will be limited if governments continue to pursue neoliberal economic policies – such as the current welfare state cuts being carried out under the guise of austerity.'”
Read the full article on the Durham University website.
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Reblogged this on sdbast.
Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
Owen Jones goes into the massive economic damage caused by Thatcher and the effect it has had on those affected in his book, ‘Chavs’. He also believes that this was deliberate, as does the Guardian columnist, Seumas Milne, in his collection of pieces ‘The Revenge of History’. Unfortunately, this report will in all probably simply be dismissed by the very people, who should read it. The Tories and their counterparts across the Atlantic have an active hostility to academics, and will no doubt present this as an other example of the entrenched interests of Left-wing academics disconnected from reality and pretending to know better than good, right-thinking Tories. Such as Daily Mail and Telegraph columnists.
Reblogged this on kickingthecat.
…and her protogee, Cameroon and his chums, are continuing her vile work of killing British people.
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Reblogged this on amnesiaclinic and commented:
Very useful reminder of just how brutal Thatcher’s policies were and are…..
If that was the case then, how far worse things are now after Blair, Brown and most worstly Cameron, who beyond belief is in some ways even far worse than Thatcher. I would guess the disparity between richest and poorest incomes is now of the order of several hundred fold and worsening by the day with very rich employees or company directors doubling their income in less than every 3 years, while poorer incomes are going down drastically year after year with pay freezes or extremely small cost of living increases, while essentials increase in price very extortionately. History will show the VERY extreme damage caused by Cameron.to people’s lives in our TENS of MILLIONS. The ball (Roller Ball?) may have been started rolling by Thatcher, but Cameron’s legacy is to privatize the Public sector en masse, putting profits before people, remove decades of very hard negotiated work terms and conditions and to decimate people’s rights. Goodness and God help us, with over a year til we rid our once great nation of the whole damned for all time lot of them.
Thatcher once said that her greatest success was Tony Blair. We must reclaim the ground vacated by politicians since the 1980’s. We need to make Labour listen to the people it owes it existence to, and to whom it remains in debt.
Michael Meachers blog from 2 days ago covers this in much better terms than I can, and illustrates that not all the parliamentary Labour party are still in thrall to Bliar.
http://www.michaelmeacher.info/weblog/
Agreed – I’ve read it.
God dont i just agree. This lot are so evil incarnate,life must have been better under any other vile regime you can think of. I wish young Tony Benn were still around. He wouldnt have sat on his arse and done nothing, like this lily livered labour party we have now.
Thank you so much for raising this. It is very important to have as many intellectuals and studies illustrating the raw truth of what has been and is happening not only in this country but the entire world.
As you so rightly say it’s great having an intellectual study like this and being commented on here. Sadly, how do we get its conclusions out to the general public especially with our rabid right wing media?
Reblogged this on stewilko's Blog.