No. 134 - In Praise of the NHS

Dear James,

At 8 o’clock last night, the sounds of clapping and the tinkling of bells rippled along our lane as residents came out from temporary self-isolation to applaud everyone who works in the NHS and the Emergency Services. These people – each and every one of them from the cleaners to the consultants - are putting their lives at risk for our own safety. We are all eternally grateful to them and to the organizations in which they serve. 'To serve', in its best sense, implies doing things for others beyond doing things for yourself. It is the antithesis of ‘using’ for self-gratification. It is what the NHS does best.

James, our world is changing before our very eyes. The Coronavirus scourge is suddenly throwing up new perspectives. For example, industry may be on pause but nature is rebounding. At the risk of being accused of romanticizing, I should tell you that this morning, Boxford had already changed. The sky was a deep blue, there was not a plane be seen, the skylarks, freed from the noise of traffic on the A1071, were twittering high up above the smiling fields and down near the Box River the Buzzards were patrolling and the Yaffles (Green Woodpeckers) were yaffling. Likewise, elsewhere people are slowly learning new things. They are learning about the complexity of everything. They are finding out about ‘Just-In-Time’ supply chains. They are seeing how millions of travellers are transmitting diseases in hours around that globe at the cost of an airfare costing a few hundred pounds. They may even be seeing the environmental damage that their emissions cause. They are certainly seeing how complex the human genome is, how difficult it is for experts to devise a vaccine quickly. But they are also seeing that experts are the best people to have around us at times like this. Reality and human frailty have exposed us to the need for responsible and expert leadership and that is so refreshing after these years of populist propaganda.

But most of all, this crisis is demonstrating that we are really ‘all in this together’. And that each and everyone of us has a degree of responsibility for everyone else. That is a major change. Remember, ‘Greed is good’? The pendulum has swung James. Hopefully we are now in times of working together, new cooperation and understanding that it is the great cooperative institutions of our planet that are needed and not the petty, nationalistic nostrums of recent history.

We all need to pause and reflect. It is our way of life that has caused the problem. Anglo-Saxon capitalism has had its successes but it has created much of the mayhem in finance, trade and disease and generated huge inequalities not to mention environmental depredation. Its successes have been the source of its greatest failures and those failures are now threatening our very existence on this planet. Surely it is time for the world to wake up?

The nationwide applause last night was not just for the NHS but was a heartfelt cry for a kinder, gentler more compassionate form of the way we do things. It represents a huge opportunity for our country and the world. An opportunity to think about what it is to be human, to think about what it means to have clear skies, less pollution and a firm control over food production and hygiene. And perhaps, also to think about what it means to be a politician?  

Perhaps we are at a turning point? While capitalism is still the best system we’ve got for producing the goods that we all need, many of its associated ideologies have done so much damage. The ideas of duty and service need to come back into corporate and political life. The NHS may not be the most efficient organization in the world but at least it has a higher mission than making money. Today everyone counts. Not just shareholders. Not just the rich and privileged. Not just the lobbyists and corporate boards. Everyone. That’s what ‘in it together’ means!

Old habits die hard though. This week Boris and Cummings refused to collaborate in the EU search for solutions to the respirator supply problem. Yesterday it was announced that they have asked your friend Mr Dyson to supply 10,000 respirator kits himself. Some wit has already called it a resurgence of ‘cronyvirus’.

It’s all such a pity James. My recommendation? Read the Zeitgeist. Get ahead of the curve. A truly successful politician moves with the times and it is not as if you haven’t shifted before, even though next time it might have to be in a different direction?  I suppose it would be easier though just to follow your gut?  More twisting and turning just to stay in your job?

Kind regards,

BH - Your Concerned Constituent