Similarly, what kind of society are we living in when the requirements of children with special needs, and the help that their families may need, cannot properly be met?
Moreover, it is not just these services where there are significant shortfalls – I think, for instance, of health services, caring services (all the more so when the ageing of the large post-war boomer generation could be anticipated for decades), schools, infrastructure, affordable housing, and defence.
I think it a fair question to ask why, when most of us will say that we want all of these and more services properly to be available, that we are not prepared properly to fund them. I can understand why politicians shy away from this dilemma, as a manifesto promising rising taxes is hardly a vote winner, but I would suggest that an honest society ought to face up to this.
I know that it will be argued that much can be solved by less waste and more efficiency – but if this is that obvious, why has it not been achieved, for instance over the last fourteen years?
John Newman
Maplehurst Road
Chichester