This leftist idea that the UK operating an environment of "austerity" is laughable.
The current UK government hasn't done anything substantial to improve the efficiency of public services. Instead they've generally reduced the level of service. It's not more efficient, just worse.
Sadly all this is an anthropological problem linked to the unending appeal of bread and circuses as offered by politicians who enjoy being in power and know how to achieve that end. People get hurt as a result; tragic but much of it inevitable and saying it isn't doesn't make it so.
Those people experiencing the reduced level of service never deserved the red carpet and gold plating anyway. A 4 star hotel is still good; but yes I can see why one might be upset if they were forced to downgrade from a 5 star hotel. Running out of analogies now.
Which 'undeserving' people are you talking about exactly?
Give an example of a public service where service levels has declined, as clearly you have some in mind?
The only obvious one I can think of is welfare, which of course involves handing physical cash to the claimants. The only reasonable measure of welfare service level is of course the £ value of those hand outs. So yes, the welfare service level has declined. But it is within public expectations; it is after all what the UK public voted this government into power for. Indeed, the UK public opinion intensified as before that they were only happy with having a Con/LibDem coalition.
A&E departments missing max 4 hour limits
Entire towns not having any but locum GPs; people having to wait more than 48 hours to get GP appointment; people not being able to see GP of choice; junior doctors choosing to leave UK.
Social care being delayed, causing people who could be discharged from hospital having to stay there
Social care being delivered by people on zero hour contracts, and making flying 5 minute visits.
I could go on.
The NHS needs increased funding to stay where it is. And that's not including new things like 7 day working ("Do what you're doing now, but do it better, and do it over 7 days a week, and do it for the same money"). And the NHS is clearly seeing budget cuts - Hunt has gone back on his "everything they need" pre-election pledge. (The two year pay freeze and junior doctors leaving in their thousands are clearest evidence, but the gaps in provision for children with mental illness (some children are sent out of the country to get treatment (and not exotic treatment) which isn't something that happens anywhere else in health).
We now have NHS England suggesting that staffing levels should be "proportionately safe", while also seeing CQC give damning reports because of unsafe levels of staffing.
On 36.9% of votes cast through first past the post. In other words 63% of the country didn't vote for the Tories or their austerity policies (that said you can barely slip a fag paper between Tories, Labour and the LibDems policy-wise).
In Scotland the story was quite different. The SNP romped home with 56 out of 59 Westminster seats, many seats gained with greater than 50% majorities, so as a Scot I can tell you up here we unambiguously voted against Westminster's wishes to destroy public services.