The living standard of the UK is downhill

Some basic facts: UK wage growth and productivity growth has been the worst in 200+ years; austerity has been linked with 120,000 excess deaths; the number of adults with unmet care needs has increased 50% since 2010; and child poverty has increased by a million since 2010

The use of food banks is at the highest level ever recorded; a record number of people in poverty are working, and the proportion of elderly people having to work to support themselves is at levels not seen in 50 years

Household savings rates are at the lowest levels ever recorded; the chances of owning a home have collapsed, and UK income inequality remains the highest in Europe.

The most famous episode of austerity was during the interwar years, as Germany, Britain, France and Japan all fought to stay on the Gold Standard even amid the Great Depression. The deflationary impact of keeping their currencies pegged to gold, along with the austerity policies they followed to do so, was disastrous.

In Britain, unemployment jumped from 10.4% in 1929 to 22.1% by early 1932, even while government debt surged. In Germany, the Social Democrats stupidly clung to the orthodoxy of austerity, pushing joblessness up to to 30% by 1932, and opening the door to the Nazis.

Anyway, if the NYT are Stalinist supporters in Neil's weird analogy, then he's Baghdad Bob insisting everything's alright as buildings collapse around him.