The debate which I took part in today went pretty well. My argument was helped by those who spoke from the floor. While many present, no doubt, had been brought up to believe that the welfare state was a good thing, they were old enough to have had experience of how the dream has gone badly wrong.

The speaker on the other side of the debate naturally argued the case that public spending was a jolly good thing and improved people's lives. But the first person speaking from the floor told how she had had a terrible time looking after her mother. The hospital had refused to give her mother a drug which the GP had been giving her. Why? It wasn't in the hospital budget, she said she had been told.

She said that she had had to fight to get her mother looked after. She had no doubt that if she had not been around, that her mother would now be dead - due to the poor care of the NHS.

Other speakers spoke of immense waste in government departments that they had known.

I find increasingly that people relate to the criticisms I make of the welfare state. They can see how my analysis fits in with their own experiences.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in NHS

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