I Believed Starmer And Reeves Were Too Smart To Repeat Austerity. It Appears I Was Wrong | David Blanchflower

New governments usually come into power offering hope and a break with the past. This one is squandering the opportunity for a fresh start

All is not well in Britain. Last week the Children’s Society reported the results of a study of 15-year-olds’ life satisfaction, which has steadily declined over the past decade. The findings showed that British 15-year-olds had the lowest life satisfaction levels of 27 European countries.

In a 2023 report on global mental health, the UK ranked the second worst of 71 countries, with only Uzbekistan scoring lower. My own research also makes for grim reading: my co-author and I found a collapse in the mental health of the young, and especially young women, in the UK. Scotland looks especially bad. Meanwhile, there are millions of people of all ages on waiting lists for surgeries, GP services are in decline, dentists are scarce and social care is in disarray.

David Blanchflower is a professor of economics at Dartmouth College. He was a member of the Bank of England monetary policy committee from 2006 to 2009