On not understanding Tories (2)

Being the second in an occasional series. Part one is available here.

Let me see if I can get this straight. The British Conservative Party has not won a general election since 1992, in part because the voters did not trust it to run the NHS. Ever since David Cameron became leader, the Tories have made a mighty effort to stop health destroying their electoral hopes. Through no fault of his own, David Cameron could not rebut the suspicion that toffs with private insurance would leave the common man and woman to suffer and die in under-funded NHS wards, by pointing to his family’s unhappy history. Because of the sickness of his son, he was able to say that he had seen the NHS up close, and came to admire its staff and its principles. Cameron did not win the 2010 election, but the NHS, the club with which Labour has battered the Tories for a generation, was no longer a weapon the left could wield against you.