Is some, and maybe a large part, of that fall in life expectancy due to austerity then? I very strongly suggest that it is.
And much of the rest may be down to the lifestyle promoted by neoliberalism, with excessive consumption of inappropriate foods at the heart of that.
My conclusion: neoliberalism kills.
Neoliberalism promotes that extra pizza apparently. Is there nothing that can’t be blamed upon it?
What he doesn’t say is that “neoliberalism” (or capitalism, to give it the old name) is the only system which provides sufficient food for even the poorest to gorge themselves on.
Unless he believes that life expectancy will continue to grow ever upwards and that humans will eventually live forever, at some point it had to plateau or even decline slightly.
Who knows what the reasons are? You can bet he doesn’t.
It’s only excessive if you don’t exercise enough to burn it… Surely it’s that schools don’t teach people about nutrition and balanced eating habits?
Add to that most people, I know at least, are too busy to get a sensible amount of exercise…
maybe we can just ban central heating and double glazing and everyone will burn way more calories just staying alive?? That way we will need that excessive inappropriate food?
So neoliberalism has made Murphy the fat fuck he is today….
“with excessive consumption of inappropriate foods at the heart of that”
Eh? I thought neoliberalism meant people had to choose between heating and eating?
austerity and excessive consumption sort of sound mutually exclusive to me
That has to be one of his dumbest takes ever. His list of mutually-exclusive things blamed on neoliberalism is approaching the size of that one about what global warming will supposedly cause.
I thought neoliberalism meant people had to choose between heating and eating?
Neoliberalism means whatever you want it to mean.
Comedy gold.
Sorry Dennis, far from comedy gold it makes me think; 13.7 billion years, then you get this?
Thank God that his position at Islington Tech is just the sincecure beloved by the Socialist Old Boys network and not a real job:
“Well students, Tory Austerity has led to excessive consumption and you may ask, How can that be? Ha! My job is to tell you the truth and if you are too stupid to work out the mechanics you must be neoliberal idiots.”
Mind you, a little surgical culling wouldn’t be a bad idea, for the greater good you understand.
A restriction of resources to consume has lead to excessive consumption of resources. That’s…. I’m stuck, I’ve run out of adjectives.
@Emil
According to the left, everyone in the UK is either starving and in need of massive government intervention, or obese and in need of massive government intervention. The cognitive dissonance is massive, but the underlying message is clear.
There hasn’t been a fall in life expectancy – there has been a deceleration in the rate of increase in life expectancy. I had a long argument with Danny Dorling on another site before he admitted that – and still blamed the non-existent “austerity”.
Most of the apparent improvement between 2001-11 and the apparent failure to improve after 2011 was down to errors in the 2001 census so that the denominators in the sums were wrong (and the error in the answer got progressively larger as the decade went on).
Very true john77:
Then there is the alleged increase in infant mortality coming down the line. This is down to more children being born premature and dying in the first few days. If you can detect a heart beat, then this can be declared a live birth, and the parents are entitled to some child related benefits they would not otherwise get if the child was declared as still born using the old technology.
Radio 4’s More or Less programme has covered this, and explained it better.
It won’t stop ‘progressives’ claiming that Great Britain has gone to schit when the next round of data comes out. Maybe there’s a usable definition of progressive in there somewhere.
Bongo,
Wasn’t it also to do with being allowed a religious funeral?
@John77: I’d be grateful for a link to you vs Dorling, please.
“a deceleration in the rate of increase in life expectancy”: it probably won’t be easy to sort out a cause because cause-of-death data is of feeble quality compared to fact-of-death data.
Here’s a guess: the decline in heart attack deaths for middle-aged men has declined so far since the 70s that there isn’t much room left for further decline. Heart attacks are now mainly just one of the various ways that codgers die.
Extra pizza is burning a candle at both ends.
“My candle burns at both ends;
it will not last the night;
but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends –
it gives a lovely light!” – Edna St. Vincent Millay
@ dearieme
Presuming on our host’s generosity I have sent a link to him to forward
@ Gamecock
In the phrase “burning the candle at both ends” “both ends” refers to both ends of the day, not of the candle. Ultra-hard-working peasants’ wives working before dawn and after dusk by candle-light.
@j77: Bless you, sir.
““both ends” refers to both ends of the day, not of the candle.”
Wut?
Explain ‘it will not last the night.’
Explain ‘the lovely light.’
@ Gamecock
Explanation – she did not know what the proverbial saying meant.
If you are capable of imagining a candle – and that the flame comes from the wax melting and then catching fire at the tip of the wick – then you will realise that the only way a candle can burn at both ends is if it is suspended horizontally through a stake in its middle (like a compass needle) and both ends of the wick are lit. The woman clearly had no experience of the poverty implied in her “poem” – girl from a middle-class family; divorce because her mother dissatisfied with her husband’s finances; makes play about poverty to gain sympathy and sales.
‘the lovely light’ is poetry in the USA, in Britain it was just enough to spin wool to earn a pittance to keep the family at the bread line.