Shortsighted policy on care for the elderly is false economy
For years it has been the great elephant in the room.
As people live longer, it is inevitable that they will need more care in the latter stages of their life.
But this is expensive, meaning that successive governments have shied away from dealing with the problem, fearful of being punished at the ballot box. Both Gordon Brown and Theresa May made tentative efforts to address this conundrum, and were punished severely at the ballot box for their efforts.
As a result, it has fallen to cash-strapped local authorities to pick up the tab, meaning that services have failed to keep up with demand, and it is sick and the elderly who have paid the price.