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[/audioplayer]On a radio discussion show shortly before the general election I made the not terribly original point that the NHS had become our national religion. The first caller immediately objected. ‘No, it’s not,’ he said. ‘The NHS is far more important than a religion — it’s about life and death.’
Ignoring the theological presumption for a moment, this view is common enough. Even when not ‘in crisis’, the NHS is now perennially said to be ‘under pressure’ and so becomes an ever-larger part of what government does and the public expects. George Osborne refuses to seek savings in its budget and promised an unbudgeted further £9 billion during this Parliament. And as the NHS becomes the dominant and only untouchable force in the state, so its enemies (the eaters, the drinkers, the old, the infirm) become enemies of that state.
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