Fallout from Daniel Hannan

Ok, I have three things to say about Daniel Hannan and the fracas that he seems to have created in Britain over his health care comments.

1) He is perfectly at liberty to say what he wants about health care - let's get one thing straight, Daniel Hannan MEP is a duly elected Member of the European Parliament. He has the right to say whatever he wants about any topic that he wants. To have people on the left claim that what Hannan is saying is somehow unpatriotic is nothing short of ridiculous. I mean, for heavens sake! If insulting your own country and military during an active campaign is not unpatriotic (and those same lefties sure seem to think it isn't), then how on earth can leading a campaign to change the National Health Service be?

2) David Cameron was right to shoot him down - While Hanna has the right to say what he wants, David Cameron has a duty to the wider party to show his leadership and the likely direction of his potential premiership. David Cameron, for his own reasons, strongly supports the NHS and will obviously seek to protect it against the right flank of the party while in Government. If he feels this way, it is completely correct for him to go on TV, affirm his committment to the NHS and cut Mr Hannan loose about the issue.

3) Daniel Hannan was absolutely right! - It is time to stop feeling loyalty towards a state behemouth and instead feel loyalty towards the ideal of improving the standards of healthcare for all Britons. These days people seem to have forgotton that the principle is to ensure that as many people as possible get the best health care possible. Not to protect some vast, inefficient state bureaucracy from criticism and amendment. For those getting emergency care (heart attack, stroke etc) the NHS is a wonderful system, providing people with immeidate life saving operations. However, if you have a long-term treatable condition then the NHS is vastly inferior to part-private and privatised systems we see in other parts of the world. Want a hip operation? Fine, wait twelve months for it. Want non-vital heart surgury, fine, but you have to wait for it and risk having your operation cancelled because one of those emergency patients comes in.
Not only this, but because of Britain's current ballooning deficit, aging population and increasing costs of healthcare (expensive drugs, machines, surgical equipment etc) the NHS in it's current form is unsustainable. The Government simply cannot continue to put enough money into the health sector. If we recognise this now, we will be able to amend the system to make it sustainable and improve service to patients. If we continue to go forward pretending we do not need change, then when the results of this government's profligate spending finally become unavoidable, then we will have to put together a new system in the worst possible conditions - quickly, and with no money to soften the pain of those who miss out.