Never get used to the damage done to this country

Everywhere you look in Britain today you see the results of 13 years of Conservative-led austerity - but this should never be considered normal, writes Liam Thorp

We should never get used to the damage done to this country

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Earlier this year I started writing my new Sunday political column for the Liverpool Echo.

I wanted to use the column to discuss, analyse and share my thoughts on big issues affecting this region and this country. From transport to healthcare to how our institutions are ran on our behalf.

One of the early columns that garnered the biggest response was my take on the state of the nation. It ran with a fairly unambiguous headline of 'Britain is broken in every direction and we all know who to blame' and I laid out my feelings on the damage that has been done to this nation after 13 years of Conservative rule.

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As we continue through the winter months, that damage and destruction feels more acute than ever. This is particularly evident in our hospitals, where desperate, exhausted healthcare staff are going through yet another traumatic winter in which they know they will be unable to provide the level of care that they want to ailing patients.

Where frustrated paramedics are sat for hours in queues outside A&E departments, unable to leave the people in their care and head to others who need them because of huge log-jams in the system. And where hundreds of medically fit people are unable to leave hospitals because of a never-ending crisis in social care.

An ECHO story published earlier this month heard from doctors who were treating patients in chairs or trolleys in corridors and from patients witnessing scenes of chaos during endless waits in A&E. This is not something anyone should have to get used to.

Elsewhere, we see a devastating explosion in homelessness and rough sleeping that shames this supposedly wealthy nation. This newspaper has reported extensively on the crisis in this city, with a huge rise in rough sleepers and hundreds of families in cramped, temporary accommodation, terrified that they will soon join those on the streets.

Walk through Liverpool city centre right now and you will be met with a crushing scene of tents and rough sleepers on every corner. This is not something anyone should get used to.

For many who are just about managing to keep a roof over their heads, things are still incredibly difficult. Have a read of this piece by Paddy Edrich, who joined a large queue of struggling people as they waited for help from a foodbank in Anfield. One of many such facilities across this region and across the nation. This is not something anyone should get used to.

I repeat that line because I think it is important. We should never become inured to these images, we should never just accept this as the norm. Make no mistake about it, this level of suffering, this level of hardship did not just happen by chance, it was and remains, a political choice.

My entire journalistic career has played out since the coalition government came to power in 2010 and launched its austerity agenda that has continued and done so much damage to the fabric of our communities. Many people have only really known what life is like in this society where nothing really works, where the support services that should be there to catch people when they fall simply no longer exist.

Whether it is the NHS and social care, local councils, youth services, benefits, libraries, homelessness services or social care - our country feels like it has had some of its most important roots pulled up and left in tatters on the increasingly crumbling road surface.

We probably have got used to this, but we shouldn't ever do. With a General Election drawing ever closer, maybe we won't have to be used to it for much longer.

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