Leaving hospital after seven days, three spent in intensive care, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson thanked his doctors and nurses and other National Health Service (NHS) workers who saved him from coronavirus. Speaking from his country residence, Chequers, Johnson said that the NHS “has saved my life. No question.”
Soaring oratory indeed—and rank hypocrisy. For over four decades, since the election of the Thatcher government in 1979, Johnson and his ilk have done nothing but attack the NHS and set out to destroy it. The NHS has suffered death by a thousand cuts alongside backdoor privatisation of its most profitable sectors by both Tory governments and the Labour government of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown—equally hostile to the notion of universal public health care, free at the point of use.
Over the last decade, the Tories ramped up the offensive against the NHS—including seizing billions of pounds from its budget in “efficiency savings.” The result has been catastrophic during the coronavirus pandemic.
NHS staff saved Johnson’s life, but his government is responsible for the death of more than 40 NHS workers who caught the coronavirus while treating the untold thousands who
— source wsws.org | Robert Stevens and Chris Marsden | 14 Apr 2020