It is often said that the British treat their National Health Service like a religion, but it dawned on me this week that the “like” is redundant. During the lockdown, signs appeared in people’s windows, saying “THANK YOU NHS” under rainbow symbols. The faithful were enjoined to stand on their doorsteps every Thursday evening to applaud the system in a rite called “Clap for Carers.”
People used to maintain this doublethink by blaming underfunding. Indeed, in a conspiracy theory that is every bit as wild as QAnon but is, for some reason,. fashionable among educated people, the Tories are accused of underfunding the NHS as a prelude to selling it. As the former health secretary, Sajid Javid, pointed out last week, the NHS will account for more than half of all state spending by the end of the decade. Javid wants a royal commission to look at alternative healthcare models, but it is telling that he had to wait until announcing his retirement as an MP before daring to suggest it.