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| Britain in 2011 |
2010 was a bad year for me, mainly because I lost one of my closest friends to a nasty cancer at a young age (56). This has overshadowed everything over the last few weeks. It has stopped me doing everything at the moment except coping with the day-to-day work of UK General Practice.
However, there is much to reflect on, and another excellent post from Dr Grumble has reminded me of the fact that politics marches on.
My view is that we are in an era of unprecedented attack on public services, all bought about by an incessant policy of neo-conservative privatisation followed slavishly over the last 30 years by all Governments (both Tory and "Labour"). Grumble worries about the effects on health and education (as do I); I also worry about the effect on other public services - social work, for example.
My daughter has retrained as a social worker. She qualified in the summer, and since then has been working as a care assistant in a residential home for adults with mental health problems, and being paid the minimum wage. She has applied for the only jobs available, but the only interview she had, the post was given to a more experienced person.
There are no jobs out there, so she is an unemployed social worker: councils have put an embargo on recruiting for all sectors except children's social work (Daughter Number 1 wishes to work with learning difficulties or mental health).
This vignette (writ small) is one example of this going on up and down the land. 500,000 jobs to disappear - or just not be created. This is Mr Cameron's "Big Society".
You will see cuts all the time. The NHS will be stretched as never before, Schools will be at risk and many public services will disappear.
The current joke is going the rounds: What is the difference between the Big Issue and the Big Society? At least someone buys the Big Issue.
