Deborah Harrington, National Health Action Party campaign organiser, guest blogs here on the need for politicians to wise up to the fact that public spending is not a drain on the economy – but a boost to the economy.

Deborah’s blog post reinforces the point that Naveen Judah made, back in March 2014 at the first public meeting in Halifax to save our A&Es, that NHS spending has a “multiplier effect” – so that for every £1 of NHS funding, £1.80 recirculates in the economy. The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills – a study by Dr David Stuckler and Dr Sanjay Basu – found a bigger multiplier effect for health spending:  investments in health saw multiplier greater than 3 – so each £1 generated up to a £3 return. This is why cutting NHS spending will shrink the economy. We need to keep on demolishing the myth that the NHS is financially unsustainable and that it needs to make £22bn of “efficiency cuts” between now and 2020. Deborah takes a timely swipe at this myth here.

When is Labour going to start talking about the real economy, instead of just tagging along behind George Osborne and his balanced budgets? With the Autumn Statement looming I reckon now would be a good time. Continue reading →