NHS Winter Crisis 2023

 

I'm a big fan of Carl Benjamin, aka "Sargon of Akkad". This internet pundit has a panel show called Podcast of the Lotus Eaters which he co-hosts with about half a dozen other contributors plus some guests. In one programme during the Christmas period, two of them, Harry and Callum, discuss the current crisis in the NHS, which has become an annual event. The Lotus Eaters propose a radical explanation and solution. Harry and Callum begin by referring to one of the Lotus Eaters' articles: https://www.lotuseaters.com/despite-its-virtues-it-is-time-to-let-the-nhs-die. After that they make some good points about the nurses and ambulance strikes that tally with some of my own, as an insider. Why are the government so indignant about the pay-rise demands when they squander multiple times that much money on their ridiculous attempts at monetarism? Why do they employ so many administration officers for the sole purpose of "diversity and inclusion", in other words, anti-white activism? Callum says: "If the nurses didn't work for the government they would be able to negotiate better." That got me thinking. The problem is though, what's the alternative in healthcare to taking the King's shilling? Even Harry, later in the programme, is critical of the private agencies' role in NHS contracting. He understands that they have a parasitic relationship. Source: https://odysee.com/@lotuseaters_com:1/the-quick-fix-to-the-nurse-strikes:6. The reason the NHS is so beloved by the British people is because the provision of free healthcare by the state has saved so many lives that would otherwise have been lost, as well as improving so many other lives that would have otherwise been led in pain and disability; for the simple reason that some people couldn't have afforded it. The supposed "paranoia" about its privatization is nothing of the sort. It has happened almost to the point of completion and the service has not improved as a result, it has degenerated. However, it is true that the ultimate problem is bureaucracy and inefficiency. The government seem to be incapable of reforming it. (Do they want to?...) I am not a socialist and like the idea of libertarian capitalism. However, does private always equal good and public bad? The Lotus Eaters propose a "dynamic" and "entrepreneurial" private sector insurance based system with a social safety net. This is the standard on the European continent. Maybe it is time to think the unthinkable. If my eighteen year-old self could hear me say that!
See here for background: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-nhs-religion.html.