The author sounds like a grumpy sod. I am British, and my experience of the NHS, and those of most people I know, is nothing like the horror stories reported in the likes of the Daily Mail for the consumption of an increasingly American audience.
The NHS doubtless has its faults, and needs to be reformed in some areas, but it is a public institution here in Britain for which many people have reason to be thankful for. My grandmother, who has never been well off, would have died about 40 years ago if not for the NHS keeping her alive with treatment that she could not otherwise afford and which no insurance company would have willing to pay for this long without charging sky-high premiums.
IMHO, associating paying tribute to the NHS as symptomatic of being a muesli-munching leftie puts one in the same category of idiocy as claiming that paying tribute to the armed forces makes you a right-wing nutjob.
All I will say to any Americans on here who will doubtless scream at me for defending the NHS, is that you needn’t concern yourselves with it. Fight your own politicians for the 100% privatized healthcare system that you all want in your country, the British NHS is not your problem.
The NHS is our problem as our vaunted leftists point to the utopian NHS as the pinnacle of health care. Our system needs to be improved, but complete nationalization is simply not who we are.
I don't know if you saw any of the NBC feed of the opening ceremonies, but Matt Lauer immediately started opining on the pride the Brits have in their NHS while we pitiful Americans squabble over the socialist wonders that could be ours...it was pathetic and pure, blatant propaganda.
Do us a favor and sign up for the Liverpool pathway !!
NHS is a disaster and England has the lowest cancer survivor rate in the first world .
England has Private hospitals for the elites like Mr Boyle.