Obviously it's an ideological choice. It happened in the 90s, Labour built it back up 1997 on, now it's happening again in spades. I'm not convinced that Labour share the same ideology.Yes, but the real point is that it is an ideological choice to run down the NHS, not economic necessity. The sad thing is that Labour is making the same ideological choices.
The "we can't afford it" mantra is one that I hear constantly at work. Of course departmental heads have restricted budgets, so I hear it constantly. However if I can persuade the real decision makers that for want of £250k now we risk losing a line into Tesco that's worth £300k a year, then miraculously the money appears. The same goes for the billions that we are giving to Ukraine. We can't afford to pay nurses, but suddenly there's a massive burning platform on the edge of Europe and we'll throw billioons at it. We need to afford that.
The conservatives are running this country like a corner shop. They always have. They are supported by people who believe that economics works like a household budget. I don't know what we need to do to change this. They should teach politics and economics in schools. Oh, hang on. They do.