TUCKING into some fish over the weekend half a back-tooth fell off. 

Looking at the offending chunk I wondered initially if I could persuade myself it was a very large uncooked grain of wild rice. Alas, no.

The earliest I can get an appointment is a month’s time and since Salisbury Terrace in Teignmouth stopped offering NHS treatment, I have no choice other than to go private. 

I know that I count as extremely lucky to have that option.

I can see why DIY dentistry is back in the news. I thought tooth extraction was the cheap option if you were forced to go private. 

Even on the NHS, however, I’ve seen tooth extraction quoted at £64. Private clinics may charge about £300. 

Establishing these dismal facts triggered a childhood memory of watching ‘Little House on the Prairie’ and an episode where the local doctor used a door as leverage to pull out a child’s tooth. 

I actually caught myself wondering if it’s possible to do that safely. (Perhaps there’s a Hayne’s manual on pull-it-out yourself dentistry…?). 

It feels like a pretty desperate form of gallows humour to joke about the decay of dentistry services in this country but we are in a terrible state. 

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might almost wonder whether it’s a strategy since dental decay and infections are associated with some life-limiting conditions in extreme cases. 

Is this the government’s way to cull old people once they’re of no use as workers?

But there’s a knock-on effect beyond potentially killing some of us through lack of essential healthcare (!) 

The cost of pulling out a tooth is going to come from not buying an artwork from a local Teignmouth artist. My teeth are lucky I have that choice. But the local economy is not. 

The way everything is connected financially needs scrutiny politically.

We are encouraged to buy locally – support local traders, buy good quality cuts of meat less often rather than poor ones regularly. 

But when incomes are dropping for everybody except the super-rich, then buying in bulk cheaply is inevitably going to replace popping to a butcher or local farm.

The recent budget is a let-down for most and an uplift for a tiny number. 

Of course, there are always going to be winners and losers in any budget but this time, there is a conspicuous win for the most wealthy. 

These people will, I hope, already be buying expensive local products and doing their bit for their local economies but where are they going to spend their extra thousands? 

Holidays abroad most likely. I’d rather these sums were spent on healthcare for the nation!

I argue therefore for some good old redistribution of wealth (to use an old-fashioned phrase). 

The left-wing parties talk about ‘progressive taxation’ these days probably because some focus groups found that people find it less threatening than the idea of sharing (redistributing). 

I however am an advocate of saying what you mean and wish all political parties would get better at doing that. 

And in that regard, I believe that the very richest people should pay more in taxes to ensure funding of public services (and dentists!) for all. 

We should be celebrating what taxation can bring our local communities.