Let s talk about the cultural aspects of this, mina al 0raibi. what would your readers of the national make of this discussion that we ve been having in this country for a long, long time about social care? which is what do we do with people who can t look after themselves? at any age, but we often think about all the people who we put into homes and care homes, where they are understaffed and under resourced. what would their reaction be to how we are dealing with this? it s a great question, martine, because it s about how do societies take care of their older citizens? it is interesting earlier on, simon was saying about this is about the grey voter and what happens to the young voter, whereas i think you will find that other societies would have a sense of obligation to take care of those who are older, who would have worked and paid taxes under different circumstances, and now need to be taken care of. i think the context of social care is not always understood outside the uk, b
Would take out insurance policies. we can only do that for your social care if you have got the money. mina, do see that around the world? i do, and i think there is also a question about public debt. the uk s public debt exceeded 100% of gdp last year for the first time since 1963, but there are many countries around the world that are having to deal with public debt, but not coming up with solutions. because, to polly s point, there are tough political decisions to be made in the long term and unfortunately too much of politics in the uk and in too many countries are based on election cycles. people already here are talking about the election, but it really isn t due until 2024, but people are thinking about how will this reflect in the ballot boxes, rather than long term reforms that will be tough politically. there are voices on the left, - i would say, who say actually this is a false debate and the rishi - sunak position that we have to keep public debt within 100%, -
Them a bit more agency. simon, very briefly, if the leverage with the assets doesn t work, the americans are already talking about drone strikes if terrorism starts to flare up again? that is the unknown question. the taliban have said they are not going to be a place, a tent under which terrorist organisations can gather. l obviously the invasion in the first place was because al-qaeda - found succour and shelter within taliban controlled afghanistan. we just don t know. that is all we have time for this week. our thanks to polly toynbee, mina al 0raibi and simonjack. do join us again next week same time, same place. it will be me again, i think. thank you for watching and goodbye.
Because they do not want to be seen to be running a government. that is failing catastrophically to the detriment of his own people. immediately, as soon as the taliban took over, it was pointed out by a lot of commentators that china and russia see opportunity in afghanistan? there are huge mineral resources, there s big marble deposits, - there will be no shortage of people queueing up to examine the opportunities there. i think one of the i other problems is. and i am no afghan expert, believe me, but one - of the things we have seen in terms of the conflicts we have seen over the past few decades, j the idea of a centralised government that knows exactly which bits, - what they are doing in the extremities. i some people have compared it. to a kind of narco gangster state, what have you, and certainly it is full of regional people . who often have different i agendas to anyone talking to the international| press at the centre. so the idea that you can reason. with one entity whic
I have got a quick question i for polly, if i may, which is do you think the conservatives are storing up a problem i and rod for their own back, given what is happening. with education and the allocation of these tax rises for the future? j i think they are going to be in a lot of trouble because it is notjust. the money is going to cut the health and people really worried about how long waiting times are to have an operation and this isn t really going to cover that, but they made it sound as if they will. they should perhaps have said, these are very hard times and this is going to be difficult, instead of which they have made rather wild promises. education is still 1% less than it was getting in 2010 and ideally all the other departments, apart from defence, are going to be hit very hard over the next few years and this government is pretending to be a spendthrift, father christmas kind of government, not back to austerity, but austerity is exactly what most government spending