Ed Kiely · Unfair Judgments: Lethal Cuts at the DWP
Pring’s account reveals something of the character of austerity: it isn’t so much that the state withdraws from an involvement in people’s lives, but that its contact with them is degraded. Many of the people Pring writes about were in touch with an array of government agencies until they died. But these encounters were characterised by indifference, hostility and suspicion. [emphasis added]
The quote comes from a review of a book by John Pring on the crimes perpetrated against the sick by the UK government in the name of hunting out those malingerers who sponge off the state. But the language and sentiment seems apposite to describe much of the NHS.