I have just come back from Madeira. That island shares with its mother country, Portugal, an obvious civic pride expressed through its public parks and gardens - indeed in Portugal it seems all parks are also gardens. They are well laid-out and meticulously maintained. Of course, we couldn't afford that in Britain. We couldn't pay the wages of gardening staff or buy plants and fertilizer. Local authorities around the country are cutting their parks budgets; Newcastle is the worst with 97% cuts over the last 5 years. Our parks are poorly maintained and are deteriorating - encouraging litter and vandalism. But of course we have to save money; we can't afford to have pleasant public parks and gardens any more. We're only the fifth wealthiest country in the world, doncha know.
We can't afford to fund our national health service properly. We can't afford to support our education service in the way needed. We can't afford to keep police officer levels up. And we seem to have abandoned the prison service. Things are falling apart all around us. But cuts must have priority. If we didn't have cuts how could we afford to lower income tax for millionaires; how could we afford to bribe Japanese companies to stay in the UK post-Brexit; how could we afford shiny new Trident missile submarines; how could we afford HS2 to bring even more wealth into London?
So Britain today has sunk into the morass that J.K.Galbraith long ago described as "an atmosphere of private opulence and public squalor" (The Affluent Society, 1958).
