'NHS or Bust!' - The government appears to be using public health as a smokescreen to hide bigger concerns ahead of the budget
After nearly four months of doom and gloom, various scandals - confected or otherwise - over Taylor Swift tickets, questionable breaches of manifesto commitments and all the rest, it made sense for Labour to try and shift the conversation back towards the ‘Change’ agenda on which they were elected.
The entry point for this is the NHS. After all, it's one of their strong points.
Labour have always, historically, been more trusted on the NHS than any of the other parties. It's the kind of reputation you would hope for given that it was your party that was responsible for its creation.
The Conservatives would say otherwise, of course. Theirs is the long-standing, mythical view that they were the party that created the NHS - contrasted with the more honest message that they’ve spent the last 70-odd years trying to meticulously destroy it.
The Conservative Party's involvement in the NHS creation myth is often traced to the publication of the 1944 White Paper, titled "A National Health Service”, a policy paper produced by the wartime coalition government, led by Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill, which included members from both the Conservative and Labour parties.
The White Paper proposed a comprehensive, state-funded health service that would be available to all citizens. It was not, however, a concrete plan for the NHS as it would eventually be implemented.
While the policy paper laid out the broad principles of a national health service, the detailed work of designing the NHS as a fully nationalised and free-at-the-point-of-use system was implemented by Labour following their 1945 election win just prior to the end of World War II.
Indeed, Labour’s Aneurin Bevan rejected many of the policy paper’s suggestions, particularly its provisions for preserving a larger role for local authorities and voluntary hospitals before he laid the foundations then went on to form the NHS itself in 1948.
The context of the Second World War and how it served as the basis for a free health service is perhaps most interesting.
Sociologically, the NHS’ creation reflected the collective mentality of a nation that had been exhausted—physically, emotionally, and economically—by years of conflict. Britain was, to put it simply, knackered, and voters turned to the state for assistance. Out of this for state support need arose the National Health Service, embodying a new vision of equality and care for all, regardless of wealth.
In 2024, Britain finds itself similarly "knackered" after fighting its own modern war against the "invisible enemy" of the coronavirus pandemic.
The country is grappling with a deep sickness, both literal and figurative, and this has placed an overwhelming strain on an NHS already struggling after years of austerity measures.
Successive governments, primarily Conservative, have cut funding and weakened the institution, leading to a healthcare system that is barely able to cope.
The damage inflicted by these policies has been so severe that one might question whether the intention was to dismantle the NHS entirely, setting the stage for a complete rebuild - or “vision” - from the ashes of one of Britain’s most cherished post-war achievements.
In any case, Labour have the almighty task now of presenting its own vision of a “broken” NHS with health secretary Wes Streeting at the helm to presumably ‘fix’ it. This, it seems, is their first problem.