“Austerity has torn our lives apart and strangled our hopes”

“If there’s ever a sign that austerity isn’t working, it’s in Kirkby,” says Neil Dunne, who has lived in Kirkby all his life.

With the general election looming on the horizon, political parties are trying to prioritize their policy positions and outline solutions to complex problems. However, for many people in Kirkby, there is one issue that is not being talked about enough: austerity.

Austerity was defined in 2014 by the Office for Budget Responsibility as: “one of the largest deficit-reduction programs seen in any advanced economy since World War II.” It led to £30bn of cuts to welfare, housing and social services payments, as well as a 49% central government cut in real terms funding to local authorities in England.

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For Neil, it’s a complex issue that doesn’t always grab the headlines. However, he believes this is the defining characteristic of the nation’s decline. He said: “It’s the elephant in the room.

“In the case of the reduction of public services, the consequences are very easy to diagnose. What has happened is that vital services are being withdrawn from the people who need them most.

“What people are seeing is a lack of local school places due to closures, bus routes being cancelled, train routes being cancelled, shops that have been here for years closing and wages being stagnant.

“These workers pass on cuts and offer no alternatives to austerity”

“In Kirkby, austerity has torn our lives apart and strangled our hopes, but it’s difficult when you can’t show that one thing is going wrong, because everything is. Life becomes a struggle and that can breed resentment.”

The post-war boom era was largely responsible for creating Kirkby as we know it today. After the ‘slum clearance’ of the 1950s, people were displaced into the ‘new town’ in areas such as Scotland Road in north Liverpool. The transition was not easy.

However, planners took into account the importance of community links and housing developments tended to include local amenities such as local shops and pubs. According to Neil, these were places where people could come together and socialise, but he sees the closure of pubs around Kirkby as part of a deeper economic malaise that is destroying people’s sense of community.

From here he expands on the concept of loyalty and believes that many people in Kirkby vote Labor out of habit and tradition. Although he is quick to celebrate the achievements of the Labor movement – with a particular focus on the NHS – Neil is not sure whether his parents’ or grandparents’ generation would vote for the current Labor Party. He said: “This Labor is delivering cuts and not offering alternatives to austerity and that is having an impact on working class voters because we don’t think they represent us as they should.”

Knowsley has always been a Labor stronghold and polls suggest they will win the seat with a huge majority. However, Reform is currently in second place, ahead of the Green Party, the Conservatives, the Lib Dems and Labour. Asked to give his opinion on why some people are moving towards reform, Neil said: “I think it’s the populist language that gets through.

“When something is offered to the point of blame, it will be presented as an alternative to mainstream politics, which many people feel disenchanted with.

“But you don’t hear Reform talking about a fully funded NHS or a massive council house building programme. It is based on dividing people.

“One solution to this divide is to end austerity, stop tax avoidance, invest in public services and our young people and restore the social contract.

“With any Labor government that comes in, they will inherit a huge mess and we will need them to be competent but also to put forward a vision for radical change because the people of Kirkby are tired of voting while holding on by the nose, they want someone on their side. .

Natalie and her daughter Willow walk through Kirkby on their way to visit Natalie’s elderly mother. Willow just turned 20 and said she enjoys walking downtown because it brings back happy childhood memories and she remembers it as always busy and friendly.

The town center is still busy and friendly, but with fewer independents and more chains and charity shops than was probably evident two decades ago. However, there are local shops such as Kirkby Coffee and the stalls at Kirkby Market.

When asked what the big issues are at the next general election, Natalie doesn’t hesitate to laser on the struggling NHS, which she believes has been “completely destroyed” by years of underinvestment, mismanagement and neglect.

Natalie is a mother of five and recently completed a Masters as a mature student. This came after she left formal education as a young woman after becoming pregnant. Not surprisingly, education is also central to Natalie’s concerns. She said: “After family life settled down I went to university and got a degree and a masters but now I have £70,000 worth of student debt. A very different situation to what it was when I was 18 when university was free for me to do. accession.

“I managed to get the first three into good schools, but with my two youngest, you can’t help but notice the increased pressure on the schools and the difference is huge.

“When you have a deteriorating education system, a failing health care system and constant economic crises, it’s difficult to tell my children to have hope. Then the young people are told that they will have to do national service. That scares me.”

Natalie is particularly concerned about the NHS and the future in general. She points to cuts to public services and the impact on her friends, one of whom is working but still struggling to cope financially. She said: “The damage done over the last 14 years is almost beyond comprehension. This country is in a mess and it will take a long time to get things working again.”

“For the hours we work and the commitment we show, our rate of payment for health care is absolutely shocking.”

The cost of living crisis – along with the legacy of austerity measures – are issues that come up from time to time for people working in Kirkby. People like Gemma Stevens and Stephen Naylor, who are both health workers and now live together as friends.

Although Gemma has two jobs, she couldn’t afford to keep up with the rent in her previous home and had to move in with Stephen. They pool their resources, but I don’t think it’s fair for them to work so hard and get so little out of it.

According to a report published by the Local Government Association, the cost of living crisis has seen payments fall in real terms at the fastest rate since records began in 2001. As mortgage rates rise and rents rise, millions of people will face an increased risk. of falling into working poverty.

To illustrate this point, the data show that 61 percent of working-age adults in poverty lived in a household where at least one adult worked, and 11 percent of all workers lived in a household in poverty.

Gemma said: “For the hours we work and the commitment we show, our rate of payment for health care is absolutely shocking.

“When you work in care you don’t do it for the money. If you’re in it for the money, you’re in the wrong job for a number of reasons because the focus is on helping people.

“However, it would be nice to be paid enough to live and get on with life.”

This sense of injustice is echoed by Stephen who said: “I can’t believe how much we are taxed. It really pisses me off when I see how much tax they pay and then you read stories about rich and big people. companies avoiding it.

We are saving the NHS an absolute fortune and I can’t even access the NHS. I’ve been trying to get a doctor’s appointment for months and months and months. I’m still waiting.

This is a point repeated by Gemma, which she extends to the people she supports. She says it’s virtually impossible to arrange medical appointments for their clients and finds it doubly difficult to access mental health services.

Asked if they will vote, Stephen seems to summarize both perspectives. He said: “I haven’t read any manifesto to inspire me. I will vote, but I really don’t want to vote for any of them.”

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