Election

Once again DZ seems to give the impression of having gone into hibernation, but I’m still here. Maybe I’ll make a new year resolution to post more often. And maybe I won't.

It can not have escaped  anyone’s attention that we have a general election coming up in less than two weeks, and, if the current opinion polls are anything to go by we are likely to have a Conservative government, with a significant majority.

DZ is not going to say who he will vote for, except to say that his intentions are formed by very local issues. What he is about to post should not be taken as an endorsement or otherwise of any political party.

I’ve been very interested to read all the speculation about the future of the NHS. It’s claimed that the tories will sell it off completely to American companies, circling like vultures, waiting to feast on the massive financial potential it presents. I personally think that this is complete bullshit, for a couple of reasons.

a)      If there is anything that unites the British electorate it is that the NHS is something that should be preserved and nurtured above all else. We will all (including our politicians) almost without exception, need it at some time in our lives and we are all reassured that whatever care we will get will already have been paid for. None of us will get a bill after the end of our treatment. In the USA, more than half of all personal bankruptcies result from massive medical bills. In the UK that figure is zero.  Any politician who was responsible for the destruction of the NHS would be committing political suicide. If such a thing were to appear in a party manifesto that party would be destroyed in the election. If a government tried to introduce such a thing they would be opposed by many in their own party, and the house of lords. The suggestion that any party would be so stupid as to introduce a USA style healthcare system, undoubtedly the worst in the developed world, to the UK is ludicrous. There would be massive civil disobedience, rioting, possibly even a general strike. Those responsible would be figuratively, and quite possibly literally, lynched.

b)      Similarly untenable is the idea that a British government would follow such a course at the demand of the current President of the United States, a man so vile, so deranged, so grasping and so unsuitable for office that no sane Prime Minister would acquiesce to his demands. Unless the people of the USA exhibit an act of unbelievable mass insanity this man will no longer be in office a year from now. One can only hope that a far less predatory President will be available to negotiate a less one sided trade deal by then. There is no doubt that Trump doesn’t like our NHS. He doesn’t like it’s collective power to negotiate drug prices to a level far lower than found in the USA. He doesn’t like the social principles on which it operates. Most of all he hates the fact that it’s not available to make a profit from. He can be defied successfully, after all, his attempt to buy Greenland was firmly rebuffed. Boris may look a little like Trump and share one or two attitudes, but unlike Trump he at least has had a decent education and is not entirely stupid. And he’s not orange!

So I don’t think we really have to worry that the wild speculation about the future of the NHS is justified. It has many problems, and is, as ever short of money. But I don’t believe for a moment it’s going to be used as a bargaining counter to get a US/UK trade deal. And I think the current polls reflect that the electorate don’t believe it either.