People and planet first

While our politicians are taking a break from totally fucking up the country's future by prostrating themselves at the feet of a racist orange turd, a government on the other side of the world has quietly announced a budget focused on well-being rather than economic growth.

According to the New York Times, "Under New Zealand's revised policy, all new spending must advance one of five government priorities: improving mental health, reducing child poverty, addressing the inequalities faced by indigenous Maori and Pacific islands people, thriving in a digital age, and transitioning to a low-emission, sustainable economy". While one academic quoted in the article questions quite how radical Jacinda Ardern's government is, this particular move is nevertheless hugely significant, not least as a tacit acknowledgement that sustainable growth is a myth.

The contrast with the UK couldn't be much more stark. Here, ideologically motivated austerity measures continue to have an enormously detrimental impact on mental health and child poverty, and have recently been blamed by the Institute for Public Policy Research for causing 130,000 preventable deaths. And yet, despite all the evidence, Chancellor Philip Hammond has refused to accept the conclusions of Philip Alston's UN report: "I reject the idea that there are vast numbers of people facing dire poverty in this country." The level of wilful ignorance is astonishing.