Pandemic`s message

Jason Cowley`s question about the "lasting social, economic, cultural and political consequences" invites one obvious response (Editor`s Note, 29 January). The pandemic has revealed the penalty the whole population pays when the public health infrastructure of a nation is neglected, so never again can a British government or political party get away with underfunding the NHS. Ten years of unnecessary Tory austerity measures led to massive under-investment in health and social care, with the obvious consequence of unpreparedness for a busy winter period, let alone one with the added problems caused by a pandemic. The worst example of this disregard for the security and welfare of the British people came after Operation Cygnus, a government simulation of a flu outbreak, in 2016 ; the Cygnus report stressed how the UK`s preparedness was "currently not sufficient to cope" with a pandemic`s demands. The exercise had shown how important it was to have sufficient PPE for all doctors and nurses, and ventilators and critical care beds for the patients, and we all remember what was in such short supply last February! Ideologically driven austerity must never be allowed to cost a nation so dear again! Never again can the British public be tricked into agreeing with Thatcherite nonsensical economic theory about a country`s debt being akin to that of a household, with repayment being more important than investment in both infrastructure and key workers` pay. No chancellor should be contemplating cost-cutting at a time when interest rates are so low, and quantitative easing available. What the pandemic has proved is that this country can never again risk having a government which has decreasing investment and taxation as its core objectives.