An ideologically driven programme of cuts is almost certainly robbing us of life. Consistently rising life expectancy should be something we all take for granted. The UK, after all, is one of the wealthiest societies that has ever existed in human history. There are continuing dramatic improvements in medicine and technology. And yet new research by an ex-government adviser, Sir Michael Marmot, suggests that the rise in life expectancy – a constant trend for a hundred years – has stalled since 2010. What happened that year, exactly? Was that not when David Cameron, George Osborne and their Lib Dem stooges began slashing public services with a false economic pretext?
Bullshit on steroids. Repeat after me; correlation does not equal causation, correlation does not equal causation. And keep repeating it until it enters your dense little skull.
Marmot does not make the claim that cuts are responsible.
Indeed. Correlation does not equal causation.
What he does say is that, in 2010, ministers made a “political decision” to cut spending; and he highlights the “miserly” recent spending on health and social care.
And? Correlation does not equal causation. Unless you have clear evidence that the two are linked, you cannot claim that they are. Correlation does not equal causation.
And, we have not had austerity. We have a government that is pissing away money at a higher rate than its predecessors. Reducing the rate at which they are borrowing is not and never will be “austerity”. Jesus, this hysterical, screeching cack almost fisks itself. Owen Jones really is a congenital idiot.
More likely to be high energy prices due to green policies.
2010 was also the same year that IQs at The Guardian dropped sharply, but as you say correlation does not mean causation. So I’m blaming Brexit :p
“Owen Jones really is a congenital idiot.”
No, he’s a con-man and a thief.
He just has an agenda. Tory cuts = Tory scum. It’s not nice nor is it accurate (ask the Irish in the Republic about real austerity cuts).
Seems he is not an idiot, but a successful propagandist for ideas you do not support. Why on earth would you assume someone publishing something has the goal of accuracy or reason? What could motivate you to think people are like that? Get used to the real world where people concoct things to say to further an agenda, and some are very successful at it. Maybe they get paid a lot to do it…
It’s got fuck all to do with what I support or not. Correlation does not equal causation. It’s pretty basic stuff. Anyone making such a schoolboy error is lacking in basic intelligence, for if they had any, then they would realise that it is so blindingly obvious to anyone prepared to pick apart their drivel. Even those commenting below the line have pointed it out. Undermines the whole argument – indeed, it entirely negates it and makes the writer look a fool. So, yeah, he’s an idiot. If he wasn’t he would at least try to make a convincing argument.
The measurement of lifespans must surely be largely retrospective, in that the young and middle aged people of today have little or no impact on the statistics so far. In recent years we have said goodbye to the generation that was born into the hardscrabble 1920s, endured the depression years of the 1930s, then found themselves confronted with the second world war, air raids, rationing, followed by the post war austerity years. It was their generation that peaked the longevity charts. Perhaps it has something to do with spartan conditions during youth.