3 - The FragilITY OF THE Neoliberal State

Summary

This chapter looks at why the UK was so lacking in resilience when COVID-19 struck. It will examine the corrosive narrative of neoliberalism, which holds that the state is an unwelcome intrusion into people’s lives and the economy, showing how the resulting deregulation and financialisation of the economy replaced productive value creation with exploitative value extraction.

It will detail the cronyism that built up as a relationship of mutual dependence between politicians and the wealthy developed and describe the lack of transparency as pandemic contracts were let that racked up enormous bills but often failed to deliver, spectacularly so in the case of the £37 billion track and trace system.

It will then examine the public spending cuts and damaging reorganisation of the NHS and public health functions after 2012, which left the sector unable to respond effectively to COVID-19. In the rush to free up beds, 25,000 elderly people were discharged into care homes with instructions that negative COVID-19 tests were ‘not required’. Deaths in care homes in the pandemic became a national scandal, both COVID-19 deaths and many other ‘unexpected’ deaths as a result of what appeared to be a systematic withdrawal of normal medical care.