Sunny ‘Liberal Conspiracy’ Hundal is organising a follow-up to 2008′s successful ‘Blog Nation’ event. Details over at Liberal Conspiracy, but Sunny asks what we’d like to discuss; below the fold, then, are some thoughts. In terms of logistics, I would make three suggestions. Given the layout, it’s important that each table isn’t talking amongst itself [...]

In a public service information film from 1948, Charley has the workings of the National Health Service explained to him. By Halas & Batchelor from the fascinating collection of British Government Public Information Films at archive.org.

The polemic of Obamacare and the nature of the NHS continues. There is a really important contribution to be made by Dr A. J. Cronin, a doctor of some note. Dr Cronin died in 1981, and the contribution is not scientific, but moral. It is not a paper, but a novel, called The Citadel. I [...]

I wonder if Dan Hannan’s posturing over the NHS might end up being the Tories’ undoing. The #welovetheNHS hashtag on Twitter and equivalents on other social media thingummies suggest not only that the NHS, for all its problems, is popular but also that the NHS forms part of our national identity. I know that this [...]

Chris ‘Stumbling and Mumbling’ Dillow asks five questions. Here are my answers; number two is the best. I’ve put Chris’s questions in italics. 1. The government wants children to learn about the slave trade. But in 18th century England, how much different were the living conditions of the average slave from those of the average [...]

Julian Le Grand, a professor at the LSE, recently proposed, in his capacity as chair of Health England (“a national reference group for health and wellbeing”) making people apply for a £10 license in order to be able to buy cigarettes and, one presumes, other forms of tobacco. I have to ask whether Professor Le [...]

Lord Darzi has said that single-sex wards are not possible: “The only way we’re going to have single-sex wards within the NHS is to build the whole of the NHS into single rooms. which, apparently, drew ‘an angry response’ from the Patients [sic] Association: We want to see entirely single sex wards, not accommodation. Otherwise [...]

AXA PPP Healthcare have recently been advertising on the television and on the Tube, amongst other places, its six week option; for a lesser price than insurance which will treat you privately immediately, you are seen by a private physician if the NHS can’t see you within six weeks. I’m not precisely sure on what [...]