Laurence Fox dares to point to the emperor’s new clothes.
Laurence Fox sparked a huge debate today after branding the NHS ‘unfit for purpose’ and saying health service staff ‘aren’t my saviours.’
The actor, who is currently trying to turn his hand to a career in politics, previously revealed he had a ‘large group’ over for lunch – despite England’s lockdown rules banning people from meeting indoors, or outdoors in groups larger than six.
After enjoying the get-together at the weekend, Fox tweeted: ‘The @nhs isn’t my church and salvation. It’s employees aren’t my saviours.
‘If you can’t deal with a 99.9% survival rate virus, you aren’t fit for purpose. You don’t need protecting, my elderly relatives do. I also love your emergency care and will continue to pay for it. For now.’
Quite right, too. Given that the glorious NHS effectively killed my mother, I don’t worship this obscene monument to state failure, either.
Cue predictable outrage though.
That said, it’s nice to see people actually demanding evidence when government ministers start spouting bullshit from their arseholes.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove insisted that every hospital in England will be overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients without draconian restrictions.
But Tory rebels called for ‘hard evidence, not hyperbole’ and said Mr Gove must publish the evidence for his assertion.
Again, precisely. Let’s see this evidence. Not least given that what pandemic there was, was over by June and what we are currently witnessing is normal for this time of the year – we are into the flu season and people are getting sick with flu symptoms. And, as usual, the usual suspects start bleating about the NHS being unable to cope. If that is so, it is because it is bloated, top heavy and inefficient and if you are weak then it is likely to be deadly.
This debate needs to be had. The blind worship of the NHS, that is sadly far too prevalent, needs to be challenged. If we can get it out in the open I’m pretty certain that the floodgates of horror stories will burst open and the myth of the wonderful NHS exposed as false. Part of the problem is that it isn’t universally bad, I have had some excellent service from the NHS. But overall I think that it is pretty appalling.
An approach I have found effective with these faux-outrage types is to say “So, you claim the NHS is perfect and incapable of improvement then?”
Followed by “So one part of public sector that’s got enough money then?”
The pause, while they try to find a way out of the trap is very enjoyable. And it shuts them up.
Good for Fox. Instead of bending to the woke intolerance, he’s been man enough to stand up and make a very good case, which many no doubt agree with but feel too cowed to make themselves.
Allison Pearson in the Telegraph today makes the same point as Fox in a searing piece:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/stop-telling-us-protectthe-nhs-nhsis-failing-protect-us/
Despite the noise, I suspect that he’s made more friends than enemies.