No society can legitimately call itself civilized if a sick person is denied medical aid, because of lack of means.
Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin Bevan, a Welshman, was one of the most important ministers of the post-war Labour government and the chief architect of the National Health Service, which was founded in 1948.
There was fierce opposition from the Tories (Conservative and Unionist Party) who voted against its formation 21 times. There was also a lot of opposition from doctors, who voted 10:1 against it.
After the formation of the NHS, hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, opticians and dentists were brought together under one umbrella, to provide services for free at the point of delivery.
In 1951 Bevan resigned from the government in protest at the introduction of prescription charges for dental care and spectacles.
The NHS has been in crisis for a long time, because the Tories have systematically run the service down, not just by underfunding, but by siphoning off billions and privatising it by stealth. Private companies were given permission to use the NHS logo over 30 years ago.
Ronnie's Blog 
This blog post does a great job of highlighting the importance of the National Health Service and the opposition it faced from Tories and doctors during its formation. It’s truly disheartening to see that the NHS has been in a crisis due to government policies. Do you think there is a possibility of restoring the NHS to its former state?
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Once the private companies have everyone’s medical records, that will be the finish of the NHS in England.
Recently the UK Government ordered hospitals in England to hand over all its medical records to Palantir, the controversial US “spy tech” firm, who have already made millions from NHS contracts.
Palantir had some involvement in the UK Test and Trace program. Test and Trace was actually a mass surveillance program. It came under the Intelligence Services and not the Health Services. People are still wondering why something that cost £37 billion did not work. It did work, but only for the purpose it was created for.
Contrary to what the MSM says, NHS Scotland is in a much better state than NHS England. The biggest problem they have is due to the Barnett formula, because when there are cuts to the funding for the NHS in England, there are automatic cuts to NHS Scotland.
Another myth that the MSM peddle, is that Scotland is subsidised by England. Scotland puts much more into the Treasury than it gets back.
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Thank you for the reply. I had no idea that the UK government was dismantling the NHS. That is so dumb.
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The Tories never wanted the NHS or the Welfare State. They were creations of the Labour Party. Although they have been dismantling the NHS for years, they could not be seen to be doing so. That would have been folly. They continually gave the illusion they were supporting the NHS whilst actually destroying it.
It was a key selling point of Brexit, that they would be able to put more money into the NHS when we left the EU.
Link: ABHORRENT HYPOCRISY
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Here in Australia both parties seem to be supporting our public medical system, and it works extremely well. It’s a shame that other countries don’t realise that the sign of a truely civilised society is the way they support those unable to support themselves.
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The Tories are all about profit before people. They are like a regional branch of the aristocracy whose agenda is to hoard as much wealth as possible, and distribute money from the public purse to their cronies. They deliberately keep property prices artificially high.
We have a government of millionaires who have voted for poor people to become poorer. They are openly corrupt without any shame. If Labour come to power in the next election, they will continue with the same neoliberal destructive polices of Brexit. The worst of Brexit is still to come.
As Noam Chomsky said, “People not only don’t know what’s happening to them, they don’t even know that they don’t know.”
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The answer is no; the country is not civilized at all. Just a shame as many other countries
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The UK has been retrogressive in a lot ways for a long time. This started out with the Tory’s austerity programs, which were not an economical choice, but a political choice.
Crimes that had been a thing of the past, like poaching and stealing lead from church roofs returned. Diseases that had been eliminated since Victorian times, returned due to increased poverty.
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This is so unfortunate. It’s like they are recruited to take their counties backwards
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It is very disturbing. Even people who are working, are having to use foodbanks. A lot of people have to decide between heating and eating. The number of billionaires in the UK increased during the Covid crisis.
People like the former Prime Minister’s father, believe there are too many people in this country. The lives of people are irrelevant to a lot of the elite.
If the rich did not hoard so much wealth, there would not be so many poor people. The top 1% have been siphoning off public money for years.
Poor people are easier for governments to control.
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