To wonder what has to happen to force the government to reprioritise spending

[CurdinHenry]

I am really sick of my tax money going on things I don't want to pay for while my family and I can't get basic things like access to healthcare.

What kind of things you don’t want your tax spent on, do you believe it is being spent on?

We don’t have enough people paying sufficient tax to fund the services they expect. There is no appetite to increase taxes. It’s a catch 22. No party who does ‘the right thing’ (cutting welfare, means testing state pension, increasing taxes on lower earners etc) will be able to get in, or stay in, power.

I don’t know what the next decade holds as a result.

Such as?

What do you mean by 'basic things like access to healthcare'? Do you not have a GP surgery near you? Or a pharmacy where you can ask for advice, and get treatments for some conditions?

My children aren't in education any more, so perhaps I should insist on my taxes not going into education? I don't like the idea of war, so I'd prefer my taxes not to go into defence spending.

But both of those are selfish as well as stupid.

We ALL pay tax, to benefit ALL of us.

So YABVVU.

We all know what OP means.

I can't get basic things like access to healthcare

What do you mean? Are you turned away from healthcare in emergencies? Do you children not have access to education? Are you not getting child allowance? Are your parents not getting pensions?

What are the barriers preventing you from accessing healthcare OP? Do you not have a surgery locally, etc?

I think people are being disingenuous suggesting that healthcare is readily accessible in its current form. You may be able to get a GP appointment but tests and treatments usually come with a long waiting list while the individual suffers with whatever health condition they have, possibly limiting their capacity for work and daily life.

The mark of a functioning health system has to be both easily accessible primary health care and reasonably speedy secondary/tertiary care.

Basic healthcare is getting a CAMHS appointment within 2 weeks not two years. Basic healthcare is getting a hip replacement when needed, not having to wait until it’s needed to get an appointment then have to wait 3 years for treatment. All the while, if we don’t address current trends in disability benefits, they will increase from £43bn a year now to £61bn a year in 5 years time. They are real terms numbers. That’s obviously staggeringly unaffordable!

There are clearly issues with the NHS and other posters are being a bit disingenuous. There are no NHS dentists around here, and I believe that's pretty standard now.

A family member recently had a stroke and it took 3 days for him to get on a ward. This is not ok.

And that's without getting onto defense spending which is woefully underfunded. I'm a complete lefty but it really does need sorting out.