The bright prospect of care for all “from the cradle to the grave”, held out by Winston Churchill in March 1943, has 80 years later not been fulfilled.
The anger and disillusion with politicians which are so widely expressed in this election spring in part from a feeling that the state has failed in its duty to look after people.
The Conservatives attract the greatest blame for this, because they have been in office for the last 14 years, but no great faith is placed in any other party to put matters right.
These reflections are prompted by conversations on Tuesday with voters beside the River Tamar, on the western edge of Plymouth Moor View, a seat currently held by Johnny Mercer for the Conservatives with a majority of 12,897.
The sun shone, the air was soft, and above us rose the majestic Royal Albert Bridge (pictured over this article), erected in 1859 to a brilliant design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and accompanied since 1961 by a suspension bridge for road traffic.
“Well I’ve always voted Conservative, though I think it’s a waste of time,” an 84-year-old man tending a fine display of roses said.
He was bleeding profusely from a small cut on his forearm, because he is on blood thinners, and had to use a frame to rise to his feet, but his demeanour bespoke a man determined to carry on whatever the difficulties.
“I think it’s the worst government we’ve had in power for many years,” he said.
“My wife died two and a half years ago. She was badly disabled and it ended up I couldn’t even get her in and out of bed. Not a sausage of help from the NHS.
“The district nurse came every other day. It should have been every day. Then my wife had to go into hospital.”
There was no more the hospital could do for her, she was desperate to come home, and he promised to get her home.
A young physiotherapist told him he could not do this, as he would be unable to look after her.
He was infuriated by this edict – “I thought it was disgusting” – and told the physiotherapist: “Well I’ve done it for the last 20 or 30 years.”
“Well you’re in your eighties,” the physiotherapist said. “I’ll stop you. I’ll put an order on you.”
“I’m going to bring her home,” he replied.
His wife had bad legs, but “was ready at 9.30 in the morning, all dressed and in her wheelchair,” and her hopes rose every time someone entered the ward who looked as if her or she might have the authority to discharge her, yet she was not allowed to leave until 9.30 in the evening, when she was sent home in an ambulance.
“By the time she got home she was traumatised. ‘You must not let them take me back into hospital,’ she said. ‘I’m never going back into hospital.’”
In the end she died at home, as she wished. Her husband considers that immigration is one reason why the NHS is over-burdened.
“I’ve gone through quite a few Prime Ministers,” he remarked. “The promise was that we’ll look after you from the cradle to the grave.”
Despite his disgust with the present Government, he has already cast a postal vote for the Conservatives: “We’ve got Johnny Mercer. I think as an MP he’s very good with the veterans.”
At The Ferry House Inn, which has a fine view of the bridge, a 56-year-old woman who had come over the river from Saltash, on the Cornish side, said she was fed up with the Conservatives: “Basically I feel they’re promising a lot now they could have done over the last 14 years.
“And it would be nice to get Sheryll Murray [her local Conservative MP] replaced. I just feel we’ve been let down with so many things, partygate and now the betting thing.”
She works part-time at Rowe’s Cornish Bakers selling pasties, and has been told that in order to go on getting Universal Credit she must work two hours more a week: “They basically want everyone to go full-time and not everyone’s is a position to do this.
“You’ve got a lot of people not working because of mental health problems. I think you’re going to get a lot more illnesses because people are working longer.”
A retired chef, a woman, explained with anger that her Personal Independence Payment is being reduced, declared she will vote for Nigel Farage, and said she has “had enough” and intends to emigrate.
An 82-year-old woman, who used to work as a civil servant for the Ministry of Defence in Plymouth, said of politicians in general: “I think they’re a bunch of liars. You never get a direct, honest answer, like a Yes or No.
“They can put the income tax up as long as you get better services. I think it’s the fairest way.
“I think Jeremy Corbyn’s the best Prime Minister we never had. He wanted to nationalise the water and the trains.
“I’m not a lover of Keir Starmer. Why? I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it. He doesn’t give me that confidence.”
On Wednesday of last week, a dustman, seeing her struggling to put her bin back, said she should apply to the council for assisted collection.
She tried to ring the council, got no reply, “so I decided I’d go on the Debt Collecting Line and they’d certainly speak to me then, which they did, and told me to go online.
“I said, ‘I’m sorry, I haven’t got that facility.’ So they said I could write to the council, but I mustn’t forget my proof of disability.
“I knew that meant ringing the doctor at eight in the morning and waiting in a queue of 20 or 30 people, and getting an appointment in eight days’ time, so I said, ‘Why don’t I come in and see you and you’ll see I’m disabled?’
“And she said, ‘Oh you can’t do that. I’m working from home.’
“At the beginning of the call you’re warned not to be rude to the staff, but by the end of the call I felt like saying ‘f— off’.”
A retired man who used to work in local government and has voted both Labour and Conservative, “probably more often Labour”, said: “I think it’s time for a change whatever happens. Mercer’s been a good MP, I don’t think there’s any question of that, but I think the Conservatives have had a fair crack of the whip.
“I don’t think our Prime Minister has been strong enough with this latest thing with the betting stuff.
“I had an interesting flyer pushed under my front door, it said ‘a vote for Reform lets Labour in’. If you’ve got a message put your message across. The fact is that as the Conservative Party you seem to be scared of the Reform Party – Farage is a joke, just an opportunist.
“Rishi leaving the D-Day stuff early, that resonated with a lot of people. Have you ever been over there? It’s extremely moving.”
“I am 79 years of age,” another man said, “and the reason that I’ve never voted is because I do not believe any politicians are telling the truth. End of conversation.” He spoke for several other lifelong non-voters.
A man of 57 who works in a convenience store said of Mercer: “He’s all right. He’s just like a normal person, He asked where I lived and said ‘If you have any problems just contact me.’”
This man has “never voted Labour”, and will vote for Mercer, but said: “I don’t think he’s going to win. I think it’s going to be a Labour landslide, to be honest with you, I’m just going by what’s on the TV.
“I’m just worried Labour are going to tax us too much, especially if you’ve got savings. To be honest, I don’t think Keir Starmer’s strong enough. You need a bit more backbone. I just think he needs to man up a bit.
“And I think Rishi’s not strong enough. And Boris was good, but he was let down by his MPs. There’d be a possibility of getting the Tories back in if Boris came back as leader.”
A 19-year-old woman who hopes to start an engineering apprenticeship said: “I’m not sure how I’ll vote. I haven’t been keeping tabs on it. I know my Dad said he might not vote this time because he hasn’t got any idea what’s best.”
Indecision and disillusion were so often expressed in these conversations that it was impossible to tell whether Mercer will retain his seat.
But it did become clear that many people with disabilities consider the care provided by the NHS towards the end of their lives to be quite inadequate. Nor does any party except for Reform seem to have admitted this.
The post Vox pub: Failure to provide ‘cradle to grave’ care turns voters in Plymouth against politicians appeared first on Conservative Home.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Andrew Gimson
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, http://www.conservativehome.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.