For some years now, as a form of education and occasional amusement (and not a little exasperation!), I’ve subscribed to various right-wing mailing lists, in the UK and elsewhere, in order to keep abreast of the latest in conservative ‘thought’. I know – the lengths I’ll go to in pursuit of information!
Most times I receive messages, a quick glance is enough to know to delete immediately. ‘Nothing to see here. Move along, move along‘. But just occasionally, one of these emails is useful.
I received one such late last night, in which a US right-wing group that considers socialised medicine to be on a par with satanism, tries to persuade readers that ‘Obamacare’ – Barack Obama’s noble-but-limited effort to lift the crushing burden of healthcare costs from the backs of hundreds of millions of ordinary American citizens – is killing more people than it cures.
Why was this worth the time it took to read? Because in its simple-minded, over-the-top way, this group of US right-wingers is following exactly the same playbook that is currently being used by our own lamentable bunch of right-wing miscreants to denigrate the NHS – but because it’s so over the top, it shines a bright light on the more devious versions used by the Tory front bench.
Here’s the full wording of the message I received. Please note, this is not satire, but deadly serious and exactly as I received it:
Obamacare Just Killed its Millionth Person…
Dear Concerned Citizen,
The eleventh hour is upon us.
In the coming weeks, the full impact of Obamacare will take effect.
I’ve seen what’s coming and it’s scary. It’s a lethal dose of socialism being injected directly into the heart of the American health insurance market.
Heck, it’s already wreaking havoc. By our estimates, Obamacare has already killed a million people by further straining an already weak healthcare system.
It’s NOT too late to fight back, though!
In a moment, I’m going to ask you to help me repeal Obamacare before it’s too late.
You see, I’m petitioning Senate Democrats along with the President to kill Obamacare for good.
So if you’re on the side of personal liberty…
Small government…
And free markets…
I urge you to join me in the fight.
By government mandate, once we hit 100,000 signatures in 30 days, the prevailing administration MUST consider our demands.
Even Obamacare’s most staunch supporters are beginning to crack, signaling that now is the perfect time to strike…
But I need your help to pull off this historic victory.
Just click the link below.
The second you click, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up for Capitol Hill Daily where we’ll rush to you (via email) simple instructions on how to participate in this landmark repeal effort.
Capitol Hill Daily already reaches over 125,000 readers. And it’s through this flagship publication that I’ll communicate our progress toward repealing Obamacare.
Time is a luxury we no longer have…
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR FIGHT AGAINST OBAMACARE (I’ve removed the link for the sake of the innocent!)
Sincerely,
Martin Biancuzzo
Senior Correspondent, Capitol Hill Daily
Isn’t that just lovely? Now, if you’ll bear with me, we’ll take a look at a few individual sections and compare how our own sorry ‘leaders’ apply the same principles as they try to destroy the world’s best social healthcare system, rather than trying to strangle one at birth like the US right is doing. I’ll do so by using actual claims, statements and arguments used by our own cuddly Tories – but converted into the US hyperbolic style:
In the coming weeks, the full impact of Obamacare will take effect.
Tory: The NHS wastes millions of pounds. It’s inefficient and must be reformed. It’s, it’s… UNSUSTAINABLE!!
I’ve seen what’s coming and it’s scary. It’s a lethal dose of socialism being injected directly into the heart of the American health insurance market.
Tory: Public services are inefficient. Private enterprise is much less wasteful. It’s all for your own good! Tough decisions! REFORM! PATIENT CHOICE!!
Heck, it’s already wreaking havoc. By our estimates, Obamacare has already killed a million people by further straining an already weak healthcare system.
Tory: If we can’t find any figures to twist, we’ll just make some up! A million new private sector jobs! 900,000 skivers! We need a culture of compassion! Overstretched?! Nonsense!! Our doctors and nurses don’t care! People are starving to death and bodies are being dumped in piles in the corridors!! We need reform!! MID STAFFS!!!
It’s NOT too late to fight back, though!
Tory: We must DO something! Anything!! As long as it’s for profit!!!
In a moment, I’m going to ask you to help me repeal Obamacare before it’s too late.
Tory: REFOOOOORRRMMMM!!!
You see, I’m petitioning Senate Democrats along with the President to kill Obamacare for good.
The NHS is safe in our hands!
So if you’re on the side of personal liberty…
Patient choice! Personal healthcare budgets!!
Small government…
Localism! Decentralisation! CHOICE!! Responsible to promote, not to provide!! ANYTHING as long as it means we can’t be held responsible!!!
And free markets…
Forget rail fares! Forget energy bills!! Don’t even THINK about G4S!!! Private is good. Private is better. Private is best!! It just IS!!!
Even Obamacare’s most staunch supporters are beginning to crack, signaling that now is the perfect time to strike…
The vast majority of British people still love the NHS – we’re doing EVERYTHING possible to change that! Aren’t we, Rupert?!! MID STAFFS!!!
But I need your help to pull off this historic victory.
We need you to believe us to pull off this historic demolition!!!
The second you click, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up for Capitol Hill Daily where we’ll rush to you (via email) simple instructions on how to participate in this landmark repeal effort.
We really, REALLY need you to believe us! Read the Daily Mail! Or even better, the Telegraph!!
Capitol Hill Daily already reaches over 125,000 readers. And it’s through this flagship publication that I’ll communicate our progress toward repealing Obamacare.
We’re actually a really, REALLY tiny group of people – but we own the press and control the BBC!! Hahahahaha!!!
[125k out of over 300,000,000 is less 0.04% of the US population)
Time is a luxury we no longer have…
It’s UNSUSTAINABLE, I tell you!!!!!
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR FIGHT AGAINST OBAMACARE (I’ve removed the link for the sake of the innocent!)
See the picture? Our bunch of right-wing bandits are a little bit more subtle than their US cousins – they are Brits, after all, and we don’t really do ‘over the top’ (except Alan Rickman, wonderfully).
But by seeing the message behind the Tories’ spin, distortion and outright lies in its least subtle, most naked form, it helps to show their callous, venal, avaricious claptrap for exactly the steaming heap of ordure that it is.
And hopefully we’ll see that it’s not to be swallowed – especially when it comes to our most precious national possession: the NHS.
The links between the US Anti-Obamacare Tea-Party types and the Conservative Party go right to the top of the British establishment and it’s media.
Right at the top. For instance, you may not have heard of the “Heritage Foundation” in the USA, but it is very well connected politically in both the USA and the UK, is funded by the Koch Brothers of anti-Obamacare tea-party funding fame, and was perhaps even an *inspiration* for Nurses For Reform, that so-called “grassroots” nurses outfit, that you should really read about.
http://www.brianmoylan.info/docs/TheDailyTelegraphAndFriends201304281245.docx
This may be of interest to your readers, Skywalker. Apologies for the length of it but I think its important.
David Lock, a barrister and a member of the BMA Ethics Committee, wrote yesterday in his British Medical Journal blog about the Prime Minister’s new health advisor, Nick Seddon, who he says:-
“poured cold water on the creation of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and appears to be focused on moving NHS management away from public bodies and into the private sector”.
Seddon was previously the deputy director of the right wing think tank, Reform. In 2010 whilst he was in that post and after criticising the government’s proposals for CCGs he stated:-
“The government could still move towards a mixed funding insurance model. The £80 billion budget could be allocated to insurers in professional alliances with GP groups, which would bring together clinical expertise with commercial intelligence.”
Seddon’s obvious penchant for US style healthcare was further elaborated only last month in the Health Service Journal when he wrote:-
“Equally, commissioners need to be open to making big and bold risks, such as using prime contractor models. In Valencia in Spain, private companies have taken on the running of a fifth of the hospitals and primary care services over the past decade, saving 20 per cent while maintaining quality by integrating services, using advanced IT and changing staff terms and conditions.”
So we should be VERY concerned that this man Seddon now has the ear of the Prime Minister!
David Locke further comments in his blog that the appointment of the right wing thinker, Seddon as the one of the PM’s new cohort of advisors seems “strange” to him, when the whole thrust of the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, as we were so emphatically told, was to move responsibility for delivery of the NHS away from Ministers and towards NHS England. He now wonders if the government were not being entirely honest with us when they were aggressively selling the Health Bill, and he concludes by saying:-
“Perhaps this is just the start of the wholesale privatisation process of NHS management”
Thanks! I’ve written before about Reform and its supposed charitable status while it plots the privatisation of healthcare. This is of serious concern.
Reblogged this on Vox Political and commented:
An amusing post that exposes an insidious scheme.
I think Steve Walker gets a little hyperbolic in his ‘Tory’ rhetoric (although only a little over-the-top) but the truth of the matter is there for anyone who wants to see it – not just here, but in any NHS-bashing story you might find over the last couple of years and into the future.
And the warning is clear: Beware Conservatives talking about the NHS. They can’t be trusted.
Two references (one media yesterday, the other academic) that may be interesting to anyone about to lose their A&E (if you want the best and cheapest solution it’s to keep local A&Es and populate them with the right number of well trained permanent staff). Surely even the Daily Mail can’t think that privatisation is the answer to this (in any case, private companies wouldn’t touch such an open-ended commitment with a bargepole).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323141/Shocking-proof-Accident-Emergency-closures-cost-lives-Death-rate-jumps-THIRD-department-closes.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2464671/
Reblogged this on nearlydead.
There’s also the fact that Simon Stevens fought against Obamacare as executive of United Health in the US, (as reported in The Plot Against the NHS), before being named head of NHS Englan.