New poll shows why politics must make the case for universalism

There is no age group where there are not at least three out of four people who support the founding principles of the NHS. This could be viewed as a positive result – if it wasn't for the direction of travel. In almost all age groups, support for the principles of the post-war welfare state is falling.

In a new poll on those three founding principles (available for all, free at the point of use, funded through tax), there are falls of around ten per cent in most measures of support, and it is particularly marked for Gen Z, the youngest cohort.

The shift in levels of support are not even across the three categories either. Generally, drops in support are higher on the question of 'available to all' than on 'free at the point of delivery'. There is a strong hint that this is an artefact of the immigration debate, and that 'all' is here taking on racial connotations.

But there are also larger falls in support for the service being tax-funded. This is probably largely the rightward turn at the right of UK politics where the campaign against taxation has become more and more marked. There may also be an element of financial duress and cost of living.

This might unfairly be summarised as 'we want healthcare for ourselves but we're not so sure about others, and we want it to be free but we're not so convinced about contributing ourselves'. Or at least that appears to be the aggregate view.

However it is a mistake to see it in those terms, a mistake we are seeing a lot just now. It is almost certainly not that the aggregate view is moving that much but that it is polarising and those at one end of the political spectrum are becoming more and more detached from the post-war consensus.

On the other hand, it is equally a mistake not to note the age cohort issue. The difference in trend in support by generation isn't startling – only a couple of percentage points. But it is consistent and it should warn us that generations brought up inside that post-war consensus cannot assume we are protecting it and propagating it over the generations that followed.

Common Weal is founded largely around the context of universalism. If there is a core philosophy which represents us more than any other it is that doing things which lift everyone up is the best way to equalise the highly unequal experience of life in our society and the best and most efficient way to deal with big social problems.

And yet it is not a principle which is clearly articulated in contemporary politics, rather forming a sort of 'background radiation' which is taken to be understood without having to be discussed. There has been little promotion or defence of the spirit of universalism, often from any point on the political spectrum.

Basically the right opposes it, the centre never talks about it (and is constantly chipping away at the edges of welfare entitlement) and the left assumes it and so focusses on other issues. Making the case is also hampered by decades of universal state provision in key areas (education, health, policing, waste collection) such that there is increasingly little understanding of the alternative.

Or at least there is at a society-wide level; those at the bottom of the income spectrum have experienced the withdrawal of universal service more sharply than the population as a whole. The same is true with specialisms (there are also concerning statistics out today about the provision of Additional Support Needs in the education system).

The post-1990s drive to take ideology out of politics in favour of a narrower, more managerial 'what works' mindset has distracted us from talking about the principles which have protected us from many of the sorts of 'social evils' that the welfare state was established to tackle. Without a wholehearted defence of those principles, support is bound to fall.

Politicians who believe in the welfare state model have to start promoting it, defending it and articulating why it is an effective, popular and just system. We can't keep assuming that support will always hold up.