(This was diaried by UltravioletUK but I think needs more attention to point out that a so-called "expert" on European "socialised" medicine is being slapped down by his own Conservative party leader in the UK.)
The health-insurance reform debate is making waves over here in Europe. Specifically, party political leaders in the UK have come out staunchly defending the much-malinged National Health Service, the NHS.
UPDATED: Cameron has now given an interview to Sky News (Prop.: R. Murdoch), and his language could not be more unequivocal, including highlights:
"The Conservative Party stands foursquare behind the NHS, we are the party of the NHS, we back it, we’re going to expand it, we’ve ring-fenced it and said it will get more money under a Conservative government and it is our number one mission to improve it . . . you could sum up our priorities in three letters: N. H. S."
Yesterday, as reported in the BBC, David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, launched a strong defence of the NHS, seen here in his weekly email to supporters. In it, he writes:
Millions of people are grateful for the care they have received from the NHS - including my own family. One of the wonderful things about living in this country is that the moment you're injured or fall ill - no matter who you are, where you are from, or how much money you've got - you know that the NHS will look after you.
Now I’m no fan of David Cameron, mainly for his policies towards British membership of the European Union. But his perspective is informed not simply as a result of paying political lip-service to the NHS, it is deeply personal for him. Earlier this year, Cameron and his wife lost their six year old son, Ivan. Ivan, who suffered from cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy, required continuous round-the-clock care, which was provided by the . . . NHS. Cameron, a direct descendant of King William IV, has a privileged background, attending the best schools and could have gone private with respect to his healthcare needs. Worship of the private sector is in the Tories’ blood. Not so, for the NHS, however.
As was said at the time of Ivan's death:
In his own tribute to Ivan and the Cameron family, Michael Gove, a long-time friend and now the Conservative education spokesman, said his party leader's political philosophy and his attitude to public service had been shaped by the inspirational way in which NHS staff cared for his son.
"Seeing doctors, nurses and care workers, at the end of an exhausting shift, pouring all their effort into easing Ivan's pain has given an extra dimension to David's appreciation of what the public service ethos means," Gove said.
Cameron launched his defence the day after Prime Minister Brown twittered his support of the NHS following the increasing criticism in the US health insurance reform debate. It’s personal to Brown as well, whose wife and he lost their first-born child back in 2002, who was born with heart defects, and died 10 days after birth.
But the final straw appears to have been Conservative Party MEP (Member of the European Parliament) Daniel Hannan’s appearance on FOX’s Hannity, that well-known source of objective, incisive news analysis.
In particular:
- 1:48: here he talks of the time of the founding of the NHS (at the end of WWII), and he lightly sprinkles terms such as "rationing" (that was rationing of
food, you moron!)
- 2:15: why would the US want to contemplate putting "the power of life and death in a state bureaucracy"? (You heard it first on FOX here guys, a proposal for the abolition of the Defence Dept.!)
- 5:08: putting the UK on a par with . . . arggghhhhh . . . pre-1989 socialist central and eastern Europe, and heading towards a "Cuban or North Korean system"
- 5:45: quick plug by Hannity to attend townhall meetings
And to quote Ultraviolet and to second what he/she writes:
I am pretty politically aware, but I had not heard of this guy before today. Don’t be fooled into thinking he is some sort of respected political figure or leading thinker. He is an anonymous no-mark looking for the spotlight.
And said a Conservative party colleague of David Cameron:
"What he said was both a negative view of the NHS, but more to the point was a distorted view of the NHS."
Last week, Hannan said he wouldn’t "wish it [the NHS] on anybody", on FOX’s Freedom Watch (starts at 1:40):
HANNAN: I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. We have a system where the most salient factors of it are; you get huge waiting lists; you have bad survival rates; you would much rather fall ill in the us than in the uk. You know if you get cancer, if you get heart disease, you get stroke, five years on the chances are here you are gonna be healthy ; in the UK you are not. Why do we stick to it in the uk? Because there is such a huge vested interest, there are so many people now who depend on it. We have 1.4 million employees in the NHS in the united kingdom. It’s the third biggest employer in the world after the cinese red army and the Indian national railways. And that means that electorally it’s almost impossible to get rid of the thing. Even though – most of those employees are administrators and are bureaucrats rather than doctors and nurses – and even though the people in the system, the people working for it, are ruthlessly exploited because it’s a monopoly employer and are very badly paid, but that is such a big conservative block in the sense of being resistant to change, that it’s something you almost can’t politically get rid of. And that’s why, you know... don’t believe if you’re watching this programme, don’t think that you can experiment with one of these things and then reverse it if it doesn’t work out. That’s not how it happens.
And he also appeared yesterday on the Glenn Beck programme spouting more of his drivel.
At 2:35, they produce a long list of (non-urgent) treatment waiting times, but it’s hard to see that the figures actually relate to 2004, not 2009). Overall, however, waiting lists have been coming down, as seen here.
So. There you have it. A Conservative party leader angered by the nonsensical musings of a fellow party member for slamming the NHS. I’m sure that that will be reported in full on FOX. Not.