Why is life expectancy falling in the UK? Danny Dorling on austerity Britain

The UK had the highest life expectancy of the world's larger countries from 1950 to 1955. But every year from 2012 onwards, projections for life expectancy in the UK have been revised downwards by the ONS. What happened? The answer is austerity. Its impact was far deadlier than the COVID-19 pandemic.
Life expectancy at birth is a key measure of the health of any given population - and Britain's is getting worse.
Other high-income countries also experienced falls or stalls in life expectancy between 2014 and 2015. However, when trends for 18 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries were examined, researchers found that all countries except the US and UK recovered with “robust gains” in 2015-16. The United States is very poor company to be in when it comes to public health.
In a talk given at the Royal Society of Medicine in London during the colloquium ”Recent advances in medicine and surgery” on Thursday 30 November 2023, Professor Danny Dorling looks at what happened - and who paid the price.
This is an audio-only recording of Professor Dorling's talk.
Visit www.dannydorling.org/?p=8871 to read the British Medical Journal editorial that this talk draws on, "The end of great expectations?" by Lucinda Hiam and Danny Dorling.