//Quite, Dave. It began long before Covid but is worse since. Too many people have their hand out claiming to be ‘entitled’.//
Yes I quite agree.
The government cannot protect everybody from everything. One of the defining tragedies of the pandemic was people believing that they could and their demands that the government "do something" to prevent the spread of an airborne respiratory disease. The country had a robust plan for dealing with such a pandemic. It did not involve locking people down; it did not involve closing businesses; it did not involve paying people to stay at home. But it was ditched within the space of a few days because people believed that all those measures (and more) were not only necessary but that they would work. They were wrong on both counts (as will become clear when the enquiry publishes its results -if it is conducted properly). No other pandemic in history has ever been accompanied by such measures and it has crippled most advanced economies for a generation or more. It is, however, indicative of the idea that he government must spend endless supplies of money to prevent things that are not preventable.
So now we are told that "austerity" (which was actually quite conspicuous by its absence) has caused tens of thousands of "excess deaths." I have news - people die and they die at all sorts of ages from all manner of causes. Some people die younger than others for no discernable reason; others die younger because they adopt unsuitable lifestyles. There is nothing any government can do about either. In fact, if you shower people who live unsuitable lifestyles with more money and gifts, the chances are they will live even more unsuitably and will perhaps die even younger.