NHS can’t survive in its present form

Widdecombe Guides mustn’t be made to share showers

I HAVE heard some daft reasons why leaving the EU might be bad for us but the claim that animal welfare might be compromised takes the dog biscuit.

We are the laughing stock of the EU because most other countries think we are sentimental about animals. Indeed all the big changes to animal welfare have

IT IS reported that the NHS, which received the best part of £3billion in extra funding in the budget, is getting ready to ration drugs and routine operations. Er… what exactly is new? And when are politicians going to find the courage to admit that the NHS is simply not designed to cope with modern levels of demand?

Rationing has always been with us. Nye Bevan himself was the first to introduce it when he brought in prescription charges. The public service has always rationed by queue as surely as the private sector rations by price and Blair introduced formal drug rationing on a grand scale with the setting up of NICE, whose remit is to ration by efficacy and price.

For some years NICE, which as I said in Parliament would almost certainly prove nasty, refused to license Lucentis, a drug administered by injection for macular degeneration. So some people bought it privately and went on seeing while those who could not afford it went blind.

The real problem is that we have come to confuse Bevan’s vision with his vehicle. His vision was that nobody in Britain should be refused treatment because he or she could not afford it. The vehicle he chose to deliver this was that all treatment should be free at the point of reception regardless of means.

That vehicle is now rattling badly and breaking down. One day it will grind to a halt or even blow up. But we keep it at the expense of the vision which was a noble one and shared by almost everyone.

Long queues don’t bother the betteroff and the insured. They just pay for what the NHS won’t or can’t do. They can buy the drugs anyway. No, the people who suffer are the very ones Bevan and the been initiated as British, not EU legislation.

Foxhunting is still lawful in some EU countries and Spain still has the gory sport of bullfighting. Foie gras is still produced by forced feeding in France. Brits pour their hardearned cash into animal charities and the RSPCA has powers, the DON’T put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington. And don’t let her join the Girl Guides unless you think it OK for her to share the showers with boys who are founding fathers of the NHS set up the system for: those who couldn’t pay for their treatment if they starved for a month and who are completely dispossessed when rationing bites. We need to ask what

ANIMAL WELFARE WILL BE HELPED BY BREXIT

equivalent of which are difficult to find elsewhere. We have tight rules on animal experiments. It is because of EU law that we have not been able to ban the export of live farm animals.

In short, if animals could vote they would be well nigh unanimous in wanting to leave the EU. “transgendering”. Some parents fear abuse but frankly there is a level way below that on which this is inappropriate. Teenage, menstruating and still developing girls we would do if we were from where we are now.

What would we have done if we had known how vastly age expectancy would increase and how quickly medicine and surgical science would starting are self-conscious about their bodies and don’t want boys around when they are discharging their private offices.

This is not an enlightened measure. It is a cruel one. expand into the realms of science fiction? Instead we struggle on, propping up the vehicle with cash injections here and there and meanwhile the glorious, revolutionary vision goes to hell in a handcart.