Where's the Money Coming From?

Since the new boss for NHS England announced that the NHS needs a further £8bn of spending per year, the political parties have been desperately scrabbling around for extra pennies in order to convince us that they will fulfill this spending increase. But should we believe what they are promising us?

Just a quick breakdown for those of you who have not yet received flyers through your letterboxes:

- The Tories recently promised a "guarantee of an £8bn increase in spending per year above inflation by 2020"
- The Lib Dems are promising that "funding will increase by at least £8 billion a year"
- Labour "has pledged to spend an extra £2.5 billion a year on the NHS."
- Ukip are offering an extra £3 billion for NHS frontline services
- And the Green Party Back  a rise in NHS spending across UK of £24bn by 2020-21

This is all very good, and clearly it is very important that we provide our NHS with the necessary funding, else we could risk more privatisation and an even longer waiting time in A&E.

However, not to put too much of a downer on this, but where exactly are these parties getting all these billions of pounds from? UKIP assure us that their policies are all fully costed, yet to what extent can we trust these politicians?

The issue boils down to whether or not we can believe everything we read and watch about politics, that is to say that, in the run up to an election, is it possible that every single politician interviewed s being completely honest with us? To what extent is what they are saying true, and how much of it is only designed to coax a vote out of us...

A study by the independent found that only 18% of the British population trust politicians, even less than those who trust journalists (21%). This is an alarming statistic, especially seeing as we are allowing these people to run our country, despite these figures. However can we really blame them? Surely in their position, many of us would de the same? After all it is only natural to want to win as many votes as possible. Given that the average British adult only thinks about politics for 5 seconds per week (hopefully more during the run up to an election but still...) it is unsurprising that politicians constantly repeat key catch phrases, thus luring us into voting for them without having actually examined their manifesto in it's entirety.

So to sum up, although it is understandable, I do think that quite often the figures presented to us by political parties are often too good to be true. Therefore it is down to us as voters, to be more sceptical and to question the viability of certain political policies, only then can we make a truly educated and informed decision.


By Lili

Picture Credit: Ellen


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29741776 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30796343
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/10/george-osborne-conservative-party-election-pledge-extra-8bn-nhs
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-dont-we-trust-our-politicians-8531134.html