How the middle classes pay for the state – but increasingly don’t use it | with Simon Jenkins & Genevieve Gaunt
Show notes
For this week’s Edition, William Moore is joined by the Spectator’s economics editor Michael Simmons, the journalist and author Simon Jenkins and the actress and Spectator book reviewer Genevieve Gaunt.
This week: are the British giving up on the state? Michael’s cover story looks at the growing number of people paying privately for healthcare, dentistry and other services – despite public spending remaining close to record levels. Britons now spend more out of pocket on healthcare than Americans, while satisfaction with the NHS has collapsed from 70 per cent to 26 per cent since 2010. Is the post-war bargain – in which everyone pays in and everyone has a stake – beginning to break down? And would charging to see a GP really be so outrageous?
Also: could the village save Britain? Simon discusses his new book The Village in Britain and argues that, in an age of loneliness and atomisation, we need to recreate village life even in our cities. From pubs and churches to neighbours and home ownership, have we forgotten how to build communities – and has working from home made the problem worse?
Finally, the panel choose their books of the year – from the late Doris Lessing to Sebastian Faulks and Michel Houellebecq. Plus, how much can you trust historical fiction?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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