A new study has exposed a staggering fall in life expectancy growth across Europe. Crucially, it revealed that improvement in life expectancy had dipped significantly in the period between 2011 and 2019.
And, the results are in for England too. Unsurprisingly, it was Europe-leading in the worst possible way. It topped the tables with the most shocking plunge in life expectancy growth during this period. This meant that, of the twenty countries in total the study included, England had the steepest decline.
What could possibly have happened in those ten years to drive such a sharp drop? The study is evidently a tale of callous Tory austerity. You might think that the dire findings would have the Labour Party government finally getting impromptu little lightbulb moments. You’d invariably be wrong – the study will likely prove the perfect impetus for more austerity-Osborne 2.0.
That’s because, instead, the study’s ‘experts’ blamed diet, ‘inactivity’, and obesity. Naturally.
Life expectancy study shows staggering declines across Europe
The University of East Anglia led the study, appearing in the Lancet Public Health journal.
As the Guardian reported:
The average annual growth in life expectancy across the continent fell from 0.23 years between 1990 and 2011 to 0.15 years between 2011 and 2019, according to research published in the Lancet Public Health journal. Of the 20 countries studied, every one apart from Norway saw life expectancy growth fall.
England suffered the largest decline in life expectancy improvement, with a fall in average annual improvement of 0.18 years, from 0.25 between 1990 and 2011 to 0.07 between 2011 and 2019.
The second slowdown of life expectancy growth in Europe was in Northern Ireland (reducing by 0.16 years), followed by Wales and Scotland (both falling by 0.15 years).
First, the good analysis. Lead researcher professor Nicholas Steel did acknowledge that food manufacturers are partly at fault for the highly unhealthy food they produce.
The study also reviewed the time period between 2019 and 2021. It attributed the fall in life expectancy to:
deaths from respiratory infections and other COVID-19 pandemic-related outcomes
So it did recognise the role the pandemic played in the slowing increases. However, the outlet demonstrated how the researchers were quick to point the finger at:
an alarming mix of poor diet, mass inactivity and soaring obesity.
In short, they largely attributed this sharp decline in life expectancy increases to people’s supposedly poor lifestyle choices.
For instance, Steel told the Guardian:
We have high dietary risks in England and high levels of physical inactivity and high obesity levels. These trends are decades long – there isn’t a quick fix.
Largely then, he appeared to miss a extremely obvious factor for England’s poor showing in particular.
Two words: the Tories. That’s who’s to blame for falling life expectancy.
England’s abysmal results demonstrated that there’s a lot more to the story.
It starts with two key words: The Tories. The study period aligned with a decade of the Conservative Party in government. A previous study found that between almost the exact same period, there were over 334,000 excess deaths. And as the Canary’s Steve Topple pointed out, the Tories are directly responsible for this.
An aggressive and deadly combination of callous policies punching down on the poorest and most marginalised communities were the recipe for this classist, ableist act of eugenics.
In short: The Tories killed them. Poor, chronically ill, disabled, and racially minoritised communities bore the brunt of it. Now, here’s more of the result. With so many needless deaths, it’s little wonder England’s life expectancy growth has crumbled.
You only have to look at the Victorian “undeserving poor” rhetoric and the Victorian conditions the Tories left in their wake to make the connection:
dickensian https://t.co/vhoqpnsVfz
— Sinan Синан سنان (@DrSinanovic) February 19, 2025
‘Inactivity’ is it? Here we go again. Try living in poverty, overworked with piss-take pay, without access to healthy food, time to exercise or cook, and then maybe the ‘experts’ can come back to us:
How can you not mention poverty and stress in here?
Jesus Christ https://t.co/vQvuRFebyf pic.twitter.com/xYBFdkbSoN
— Matthew Myspace (@MatofKilburnia) February 19, 2025
No surprises here to those of us at the sharp end of austerity measures. https://t.co/BXcGs78QTz
— Julia Suzanne 🌹🇬🇧🥂 (@juliasuzanne76) February 19, 2025
Moreover, there was no mention of the Boris Johnson Tory government’s catastrophic “let it rip” pandemic policies. Nor did it pick out then health secretary Matt Hancock’s murderous eugenicist application of Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) notices on disabled people.
A wake-up call to Labour? Not a chance
So, after fourteen years of Tory austerity-fueled culling, the results are, to put it politely, really fucking predictable.
Now, these should serve as a wake-up call to the new Labour government. However, its track record so far show no signs of letting up on the Tory-esque policies that caused this disgraceful nosedive in life expectancy improvements:
Life expectancy growth stalls across Europe, England sees sharpest fall
Inequality; poverty; poor access to good food, housing, healthcare, dentists; junk food take toll
Austerity kills. Govts obsessed with it. Redistribution is off the political agenda.https://t.co/6qtd1fIiUN
— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) February 19, 2025
This should be the focus of a Labour government & is why their attacks on people on benefits, the disabled & elderly people is so wrong https://t.co/urb98fpBbV
— Angela Perrett 💙 (@AngelaPerrett) February 19, 2025
It has been only more of the same. Did someone say raise the pension age, while making it easier to force chronically ill and disabled people into work?
Our ruling class wants to raise the pension age as life expectancy is falling rapidly in the UK.
They want you to work harder and longer while you’re dying younger.
They hate us. https://t.co/zUgpreZLn5— Sir Norman of Nowhere. 🏴☠️ (@Normanjam67) February 19, 2025
So the reason for increasing the Retirement age stalls. Let’s see if the Gov’t will plough on regardless with their agenda to make everyone work til they drop #50sWomen can tell you it’s not possible without ruining what little life you’ll have left @UKLabour https://t.co/T5z7tmV2XQ
— Kit – #50sWomen Fighting Back (@ochnaw) February 19, 2025
Killing us all off younger while pushing up the retirement age. Sums up the attitude to us
We need a socialist group that counters this narrative https://t.co/C61ysOAiMW— Up_Again ItWasAScam 💙 🍉💙🍉 (@up_again) February 19, 2025
Eyeing up the next deal with Big Pharma?
So just as a study shows England’s atrocious life expectancy rises, the government want people to work longer, while sicker. And that’s precisely the point. The ruling class – whether in blue or red rosette – only care about lining the pockets of corporate capitalists:
I said this about the Tories. I’m still saying it. Mind you, Labour are the Tories aren’t they? https://t.co/mGBj6CkHMM
— Jane Darling (@janeydarling1) February 19, 2025
Speaking of which, Big Pharma must be having a field day over this:
First they scare you, then sell you the ‘cure’. Now watch them push Ozempic.
— Brit Ian (@dearbrit_ian) February 19, 2025
Watch as Health Secretary Wes Streeting casually slips this study into the government’s next deal with a profiteering weight-loss drug company.
At the end of the day, this new study’s findings are shocking – if still glaringly obvious. Yet, the life expectancy revelations are one thing, but the response to it is quite another. As ever, it’s a case of failing to see the bigger picture. And when the culprits come into full view, you know it’s the right-wing political establishment’s smug mugs that will be callously grinning back at you from Whitehall.
Featured image via the Canary
