Agree with almost all of this column. Except. A big reason why the Tories aren’t trying to privatize the NHS is because it isn’t popular. And it’s not popular because the idea is frequently talked about, and negatively.
https://twitter.com/samfr/status/1463798240084639747
Effort spent defending itself against privatization charges is not likely to be very large, and it is naive to think that it simply impedes good natured work towards reform. It’s part of what underpins the status quo.
It seems unlikely to me that somehow Brits are ideologically wedded to public provision. It’s what they know; and regularly contrasting it with other private provision models helps mould the view that what they know is best stuck to.
It’s worth noting that the idea of private insurance is alive and well in the right wing think tank world, and there are regular displays of ideological fealty to the private sector by Tory MPs and ministers. Quite similar to Brexit during the 90s and 2000s.
Finally, thumping the drum of public provision doesn’t axiomatically ‘blind’ you to the actual important power plays. You can have many thoughts at once! And express a few of them effectively.
Moreover, regularly pointing out the risks of privatization is not dissimilar to Tory tactics of painting Labour as spendthrift, or soft on crime. A subset of the tactic of 'which side are you and they on?'
If Dom were working for Labour maybe he would be pushing this strategy on the grounds that it perpetuates a myth that has a grain of truth in it.
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