Now, I seem to have finally broken the 'Tudor Trend', and looked into the world outside of the Tudors. I have been wanting to do this for some time, but those Tudors kept sucking me back in to the abyss of a family so odd it would put some of the Jeremy Kyle regulars to shame. However, today, I ventured out from the abyss, quite by accident. As every teenager does, I decided that there was absolutely no better way to spend my sunny Sunday morning than stepping in to the familiar, if very expensive, comfort of Waterstones. It was while I was browsing through a section of novels on good old Winston Churchill, deciding on which one I was going to pretend I would buy in order to sit down and read it for a good few hours, that I stumbled across the 'Politics and Current Affairs' section. I have always been interested in Politics, but felt that I know far too little of the 'backdrop' to British Politics to contribute in any way to a discussion (no matter how opinionated I am), but for some reason today I decided not to be put off by the privately-educated politicians, and instead began to browse for a book on one of my favourite political issues: Thatcherism. However, the shelves were stacked with 'pro-thatcher' books, and I'm simply tired of reading the exact same opinion in different words, while knowing that there is a strong case for the opposing argument. Downhearted, I skimmed the other titles and realized just how many books there were on the NHS. Don't get me wrong, I always knew that the social security that we experience in Britain causes a great deal of political debates on the extent it should stretch to, but I didn't quite realize how important it was. Allow me to explain...
In a period where good old Dave is having to make a ridiculous amount of cuts in order to just about keep the nation on its feet, lots of areas of the public sector are coming under scrutiny. Love them or hate them, the bigwigs up at Number 10 are having to make a multitude of choices that I don't envy them for. Deciding where to make cuts from must be hard, and certain sectors have been 'ring fenced', meaning that it's budget it supposed to keep pace with inflation. One such sector is the NHS, although they are being instructed on how to spend the money, meaning that things like A & E still seem largely affected by the cuts. Calls for reform in the NHS are widespread, especially as this fall in standards in the past years ironically follow Cameron's promises to keep the it strong. To the public, it simply looks as if the government has failed to deliver yet again, and this is where Ed Miliband benefits slightly from the impact the Conservatives have had on the health sector- it has been, for many years, a priority of Labour to keep the N.H.S strong.
'If we lose it we wont get it back', a Labour poster proclaims, 'Fight for it. It's priceless.' And seemingly, that is what Labour really does intend to do, as the posters continue 'The A & E crises prove you can't trust David Cameron with the NHS'. The party spouts facts from its twitter page about how David Cameron had failed the NHS, and therefore how he has failed the general 'working man' that Labour supposedly represents.
And I suppose that is the big link between the NHS and and general politics. Not the money that the government must shell out to keep it running, but the people that are affected by both things. People have got the idea that Politics is just for politicians, and nothing to do with them and how they live their life, but the 'NHS Crises' as Labour has branded it, has proved just the opposite: whatever they do at Number 10, we will be affected in some way.
So there we are. An article that wasn't related to my precious Tudors. A very well done to me, I think, for kicking the habit. As usual, I hope my article wasn't overly boring for you, and that you perhaps may have learnt something from it. If not, sorry about that, and I'll try harder next time.
E.C
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