Does Austerity Kill?

Writing for the Conversation, Professor Danny Dorling analyses the impacts of austerity cuts on future policy and its impacts on the population. He links austerity to 335,00 excess deaths in the UK since 2010.

The Conversation is fast becoming my go to publication for analysis of what is happening in society. In Professor Dorling's article, he outlines the impacts of austerity policies on the population and how Britain’s ageing population is more vulnerable to the impact of further austerity policies that have been hinted at by, now former chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng.

The figure of 335,00 excess deaths comes from a new study into the population from the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health. What is perhaps surprising about these new findings is that this has disproportionately effected males with twice as many excess deaths of males compared to females each year between 2012 and 2019.

In addition to falling life expectance during the period 2014-2018, Dorling suggests that excess deaths due to austerity are larger than the number of excess deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with many deaths during the pandemic being ascribed to longer waiting times to be seen by an overstretched NHS.