when I talk to Finns about the differences between here and the UK, I find some of them are kind of surprised to learn that the free national health service (still) exists - theyāve somehow gotten the impression that the UK has a US-style healthcare system, and I can see why youād make that assumption. when you mostly hear vague horror stories about the rise of poverty in the UK, itās easy to assume that social care there hasnāt historically been quite secure compared to most countries, and that it must have always been very different to Finland. alas, no.
It worries me when I see Finns casually supporting government āsƤƤstƶsā. From what I read and hear, it seems very similar to the āausterityā that the UK has been under for a decade now, and I canāt help but think that a huge part of people supporting it is the assumption that people would never go too far cutting the social services. Not here, right?
Itās so unfortunately familiar to what I heard 10 years ago in the UK. Right before the waves of rising homelessness, and the rise in malnutrition cases, and the food banks multiplying while honest-to-god rickets cases rose too.
Most Finns Iāve heard recounting their trip to Manchester or London have a moment where they pause uncomfortably and say āā¦and yeah, some things werenāt so niceā, because when youāre used to a basic level of social care existing, the amount of homelessness in the UK is rightly, honestly shocking. And so is the scale of a huge number of other social problems, so many caused by the UK equivalent of Kela no longer functioning.
You think Kela is slow now? Give it 5 more years of āsavingsā and āsensible re-organisationā, like the UK did. The people whoāve been in power there for a decade are essentially the same sorts that fill the more right-wing side of the current Finnish coalition, and they will take a countryās social net and gut it like a fish if you let them.
Before the current right-wing government came in, satisfaction with the free healthcare in the UK was at an all-time high. Then the āinnocent questionsā about whether it was the best way came, and after that, the question of ādo we need it at all?ā. The dialogue has moved within a decade from āaccess to healthcare is sacred, even we on the right would never touch the health service!ā to āoh, since we took the money away, mysteriously nothing in the health service works anymoreā¦ hey, what about an American-style system instead?ā. Doctors, teachers and friends all said ten years ago that this would never even become a question, not in the UK, ānot here!ā. Every time someone here in Finland goes ābut maybe we should give more private businesses a try, just to see if itās more efficient!ā I feel like the whole last decade is flashing before my eyes. I wonāt make this post even longer with too many examples, but the privatisation and cuts in the UK have, to say the least, made people suffer.
I canāt tell anyone what to do, I donāt want to tell anyone what to do, and I hate that I still have to write longer things like this in English. However, I really do believe the following questions are worth thinking about. Do you feel like Kokoomus are safe? Keskusta? Does that feeling of safety have anything to do with the idea that because theyāre Finns, they would never truly go too far and leave hundreds of people to literally die in the cold? Or to die hungry, with no way to keep your insulin?
An awful lot of British people thought they could get away with voting right-wing a couple of times, just to see if something new would be nice, just to see if the āmore consumer choice, less tax, itās a modern world!ā thing would be fun. They really thought it would never happen to them. I would really hate to see people here make the same mistake, because once the problems of growing poverty have begun, they take decades to fix again. If they ever get fixed at all.
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