The Guardian view on ending austerity: it needs to happen | Editorial
When a headteacher pops up on the nation's flagship radio news programme to say that cuts have left her scrubbing school toilets and serving lunch to pupils, ministers ought to be in listening mode. That is especially the case since the complaint is echoed by 7,000 headteachers in England who say they are facing a funding crisis. One would imagine a forum being convened in Whitehall to address such a serious charge. Not at all. Instead the education secretary has his fingers in his ears and his diary full. There is a depressingly familiar ring to this ministerial response. This week the prime minister denied the possibility that cuts to the police contributed to a rise in crime, despite Home Office research to the contrary. Similarly, ministers decry any suggestion that austerity played a part in the biggest fall in British adults' life expectancy, when it seems obvious to many experts that it does.
There is a reasonable argument to be had about the size of the state, the level of taxation that a society thinks is fair, and how large a deficit the Treasury ought to run. It's just that the United Kingdom is not having such a conversation. Instead this nation's politics is dominated by factional fights in Westminster about this country's departure from the European Union, an issue that seems far removed from people's lives, however essential it is. As Britain's former chief negotiator on Europe, Ivan Rogers, pointed out, this is just the beginning. The next phase of the process will be about defining a new relationship with the EU, and promises to be much more difficult and wide-ranging than our attempts to leave the European bloc.
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