Punish the idle from cradle to the grave

Last month it was confirmed that UK life expectancy has stopped improving for the first time in more than 35 years. Young people are now less likely to live longer than their parents. Health secretary Matt Hancock has managed to be absurdly unoriginal in approaching this. His policy rests substantially on old, failed ideas that personal responsibility and technology can solve the problem. His defence is that Britain has high levels of employment. True, but at what cost to society, when employment cannot support a stable life and healthy living and eating is so expensive?

At the heart of this is the government’s refusal to engage with inequality. This is an error borne out of ideology. We know that children from poorer backgrounds are more affected by the rise in childhood obesity. So why allow the number of children living in poverty to breach five million by 2022, up from around four million at present?

It is because a key belief in free-market societies is that they reward the industrious and punish the idle. In this system, individuals must have the freedom to choose – and with that freedom would come responsibility. The market, in this system, would not only improve British society; it would remoralise it. To have faith in such an unfettered model of capitalism is a political choice. When applied to public health, the appalling price appears to be to stall progress in life expectancy.