The health and social care bill has been sabotaged by government ideologues still in thrall to privatisation
A screeching U-turn to save northern homeowners’ inheritances, or plunging his bulldozer through his own “red wall” seats? Regardless of the vote on how much people will pay for the government’s social care reforms, Boris Johnson has never had a plan to rescue England’s stricken social care system itself. After this vote, not a penny extra will be put towards helping the 2,000 frail people whose requests for care are refused every day. Nor is there any strategy to integrate social care with the NHS. That great opportunity has been blown away.
Indeed, the health and social care bill stumbling through the Commons this week seems curiously irrelevant to the oncoming NHS crisis. With the whole system sinking fast, the bill puts the health service through yet another re-disorganisation, while social care slides into collapse. Deckchair-shifting on the Titanic comes to mind.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
