LET me begin by explaining a theory of mine and please excuse the cynicism.

From bitter experience, I have long held the deep suspicion that Government ministers and senior civil servants all have three trays on their desks. One is marked ‘in’ for incoming mail, one is marked ‘out’ for work dealt with and there is a third marked ‘too hard’. The significance of my theory will become clear.

It is a well-observed and confirmed fact that life expectancy increases in the UK have stalled in the last decade. When you consider that for well over a century life expectancy has been increasing year on year, this fact is worth serious examination to find out what is happening in society to reduce the expected time we shall live. It gets worse because some experts predict that the life expectancy may even go into reverse and all agree that the stalling is not temporary.

If we leave aside Russian ‘tourists’ having a go at us with deadly war agents and terrorist extremists having a pop now and again, there must be more deep-seated and prevalent changes to the way we live and die that account for the very worrying life expectancy issue.

If you research what the ‘experts’ are saying, you will become very disheartened and confused because it is like asking three politicians for an opinion and them coming back with at least six answers. They all have their own agendas and wish to defend a particular cause. For example, don’t dare to suggest that the massive consumption of cheap alcohol by millions of the population might be harmful because if you do the powerful pro-alcohol lobby will descend upon you like a firkin of beer. A recent research publication that claimed even a modest but regular consumption of alcohol presented some health risks prompted a strong and predictable reaction from the industry.

Social care is certainly in trouble. I hesitate to use the term ‘in crisis’ because it is now over-used and therefore losing its impact. Wherever you look, the public services are claiming to be in crisis.

For more than 20 years successive governments have fiddled around with social care without actually getting a grip on what is so obviously needed. It is expected that a Government Green Paper consulting on social care will be forthcoming but it hasn’t appeared yet. Just as so often in the past, I suspect that this project is destined for the ‘too hard’ tray.

Common sense should tell us that if life expectancy is worsening, one place to start looking for reasons is the way we look after the disabled, infirm and elderly. A recent survey sponsored by Age UK showed that this country has a poor record of social care compared with most others in Europe.

The conclusion was that urgent corrective action is needed now but my guess is that after being given brief perusal that report is already in the ‘too hard’ trays in Whitehall and Westminster.

The decade of change to the life expectancy tables roughly coincides with the period of austerity imposed on the nation. Is this just a coincidence or could they possibly be linked?

Any reasonable person would answer that question with “we don’t know but we ought to find out”.

In a fair and ideal world parliament would set up an inquiry but any such suggestion is bound to be quickly tossed into the ‘too hard’ tray because that’s where proposals go when the answer is not one the government wants you to know.