MEP Hannan says NHS "Made People ILLER"

The hero of the Tory right Dan Hannan MEPs has embarrassed his Party by describing the NHS as a "mistake" that "made people iller".

The remarks are particularly embarrassing for David Cameron because Hanans a Eurosceptic whose popularity with grassroots Tories soared after a video of his speech attacking Gordon Brown in the European parliament attracted more than 1m views on YouTube.

The MEP toured the United States last week criticising the NHS in a series of TV interviews, saying he "wouldn't wish it on anybody". The quote happened while he was being interviewed by extremist USA presenter Glen Beck who describes our system as "socialised medicine". Hannan fails to mention that in the USA people are refused treatment by hospitals if they have no insurance!

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." This is not sounding very convincing any more.

It comes as the USA is debating its future health services. There is a twitter campaign #welovetheNHS than many people have joined. Gordon Brown contributed with a tweet: "PM: NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there." Sarah Brown added her own comment, saying: "#welovetheNHS – more than words can say."

The extreme right have duped some British women into their campaign. Katie Brickell and Kate Spall said that they strongly supported state-funded healthcare, but their descriptions of poor treatment at the hands of the NHS form the centrepiece of an advertising campaign against the proposed reforms in America. Both appear in adverts for Conservatives for Patients’ Rights (CPR), a lobby group that opposes Mr Obama’s plans for universal medical insurance, which have caused a transatlantic rift over the merits of the NHS.

Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge scientist, has also been drawn into the row after the American newspaper Investor’s Business Daily used an editorial to claim that he “wouldn’t have a chance in the UK” because the NHS would have deemed him “worthless”, given his physical disabilities. Mr Hawking, who has motor neuron disease, rejected criticism of the NHS yesterday as he collected America’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “I would not be here today if not for the NHS,” he said.


Links:
was
times