Brits defend National Health Service against US conservative lies

by dunkelberg | August 14, 2009 at 06:29 pm

940 views | 66 Recommendations | 7 comments

FAT, stupid Americans with no health insurance have attacked plans to stop them dying so easily.

That's just one of many salvos being fired at U.S. conservatives who have been taking liberties with the truth about the United Kingdom's national health service.

Bill McKay, a retired sh[redacted]kicker and Fox News analyst, from Kentucky, said: "I would rather replace my own hip using a rusty spoon than wait two months to have it done in a communist hospital, by some coffee-coloured faggot doctor who will then eat my unborn child to celebrate the end of Ramadan.

While the Daily Mash takes a humorous bent, many of the thousands of Twitter users tweeted their love and respect for the service, and some took some shots as well. The Twitter #welovethenhs movement snowballed and was at the top of the boards for days.

Exceptional staff & care for my now healthy 7 yr old son! 3 complex heart ops at £0 - same in US over $400,000. Thanx NHS
Clearly Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich never got the mental health care they so sorely needed :
The greatest gift any government has given its people!
If Sarah Palin lived in UK she wld have her foot removed from her mouth 4 free
I'm loving the #welovetheNHS tweeting. Been hoping for backlash against the blatant lies about it for months.
Surely cervical and HIV screening must be available to ALL patients in the US?
UK Prime Minister: NHS often makes difference between pain & comfort, despair & hope, life & death. Thx4always being there
only really rich people in the UK would argue against the NHS. Ordinary working people couldn't afford the alternative.
"if Stephen Hawking were british he'd be dead". He's British, and alive. American rightwingers are comedy gold
NHS diagnosed and treated J's mum's breast cancer quickly, effectively and successfully. For free.

The movement quickly moved to Facebook and was picked up in the United States.
While there is opposition to the NHS in Britain, some of the people being used as examples say they are none to happy to be singled out.

Britain’s Channel 4 News reported on Friday that two British women featured in the ad by Conservatives for Patients’ Rights said that they support the NHS despite its problems and were duped into sharing their personal tragedies by producers who said they were being interviewed for a documentary, not an attack ad.

Perhaps one of more moving reactions to the conservatives' attack came in a posting to the New York TImes blog piece.

I’m British resident in London. I don’t object to rational criticism of the NHS. It’s a national passtime here. I’m actually glad I also have private health cover as a back up. However, when I was laid off last year, I lost my old private insurance provided by old employer. My current employer uses a different company and wouldn’t cover my pre-existing condition. Now that’s disappointing but, thanks to the NHS, it is a minor incovenience rather than anything else.

What I vehemently DO object to is Republicans implying that British society, which is sending troops to fight and die in Afghanistan with your own is so sick as to countenance state sponsored euthanasia of the elderly and disabled. They are essentially comparing us to Nazi Germany. It is a national libel. Critisisms of waiting lists and the British model are fine. Scaremongering untruths making us out to be so heartless as to murder our own disabled and elderly is not.

— Martin Pratt

We end as we began with the Daily Mash.

Stephen Malley, professor of American History at Reading University, added: "To be fair to Fox News and the Republicans, they do have a principled objection to socialised medicine based largely on the fact that a black man won the election.

"The thing you must always remember about the American right wing is that they are basically the baddies in a film."

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Uwe Paschen

at 18:58 on August 14th, 2009

Thank you for the post on the Health care Lies by the Conservative.

dunkelberg

at 23:22 on August 14th, 2009

[bell rings]

NICHOLAS PARSONS - Lee Dunkelberg

LEE DUNKELBERG - Repetition and deviation.

NICHOLAS PARSONS - Quite right! You have 15 seconds and the topic is "

Brits defend National Health Service against US conservative lies"
"Just a Minute"

The_Cynic

at 22:28 on August 14th, 2009

the Brits are now the second fattest of the industrialized nations.

Because, unfortunately, "Brits" still see a great acquaintance with the USA. But, as has happened before - idiots whisk in the mix.

j2B (not verified)

at 01:01 on August 15th, 2009

dunkelberg, good to see you around! "Big Boy" are you gearing up for the health reform campaign?

J2B (not verified)

at 01:06 on August 15th, 2009

David Cameron today insisted that the Conservative party stood "full square behind the NHS" as he sought to distance his party from comments made by a Tory MEP who rubbished the British health service in a series of American interviews.

The Conservative leader branded Daniel Hannan's views on the NHS "eccentric" and insisted he did not agree with them.

Cameron said today: "I don't agree with Daniel Hannan. The Conservative party stands full square behind the NHS ... We back it, we are going to expand it, we have ring-fenced it and said that it will get more money under a Conservative government, and it is our No 1 mission to improve it.

"As I said at the party conference, you can sum up our priorities in three letters: N. H. S. That is as true today as it was then."

Asked about Hannan's remarks, Cameron replied: "He does have some quite eccentric views about some things, and political parties always include some people who don't toe the party line on one issue or another issue. But no one should be in any doubt: the NHS is our No1 priority ... It is one of our greatest national institutions and we want to expand it and improve it."

Babel-Fish

at 01:30 on August 15th, 2009

Obama has of course sold him self out, changed paths and plans what with a cut and paste health reform and the pandemic fiasco. Its easy now to see who is pulling the strings, but his path is one of glass now of not really bringing in social reform in health care. The more lies and propaganda related to Public paid systems add sugar to a very sour apple.

Personal Medical Insurance being thw winner of the day and high medical fee's will erode away any value of what was patched up.

Ronald Paraman (not verified)

at 01:58 on August 15th, 2009

I really must join this one. I watched a lot of this discussion by Americans on BBC the other day, ubeleivable how ignorant they are, One so called American politition pontificating about Dr, Stephen Hawking "If he were british he would be dead by now" well he is British and is kept alive by the NHS. Another American "The NHS is hopeless, Have you seen British teeth?" The dental care in the UK is, it is rarely funded by the NHS. It is mostly privatly funded and NHS dentists are rare and hard to find. The reason. years ago dentists were paid by the work they did on patients, many dentists did a lot of unnecessary work, fillings that didn't exist etc. When I was 11, over 50 years ago, my own dentist was struck off for fiddling the NHS, claiming for work that was never done. Most dentists broke away from the NHS in protest at the poor pay they were recieving and went private. I have had private dental care in the UK for many years and it is excellent, and relatively inexpensive.

As to tory politicians making comments about it being no good, what do they know? most of them are so out of touch with the real world they are not worth listening to.

Now the reason the NHS is in trouble, I'll list them. Too many managers and not enough doctors, too many people getting free treatment who have never paid a penny in taxation toward it's upkeep. This includes Americans who at one time found it was cheaper to get a flight to Britain and have a baby on the NHS than to have it in America. It also includes something we call "health tourists" who arrive here from many countries in order to get free treatment. We also have women getting very expensive in vitro fetilisation treatment free and plastic surgery free.

The NHS is excellent, I worked in engineering all my life till struck down by something nasty and incurable, the NHS has looked after me for the last 20 years wonderfully well. I get free medication, (I take about 12 different sorts daily and 2 more weekly) I have a free wheelchair, an income from the government to help with my disability and help with transport costs. I have had surgery numerous times including joint replacement. I saw my orthopeadic consultant last Tuesday at 8:10 pm in the evening. He decided I need a new hip joint. It will be done in October, free, including the hospital stay, my food, medication, physiotherapy and transport back home.

Don't listen to those who knock the NHS, the only thing wrong is those who abuse it, Like managers who are the local mayors daughter who have no qualifications and get a fat salary out of it for letting their secratary do the work and make the decisions.