What #PaulNuttall doesn’t want you to know he thinks of the #NHS – in his own words

Great find tonight by @Rachael_Swindon, who managed to find an archived copy of an article that UKIP leader Paul Nuttall wrote a couple of years ago – and published on his own website as well – about the NHS. And then deleted.

He deleted it, presumably, because his current official position on the NHS is that UKIP is “committed to keeping the NHS in public hands and free at the point of delivery” and he didn’t want us to be able to find what he really thinks – especially as he was already busy fending off accusations of falsely-claimed qualifications and a professional football career.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, however, an archived, exact facsimile of his true opinion can still be viewed in all its, er, ‘glory’:

In case that comes out a bit hard to read on your screen, here’s what it says:

NHS Reform

Dear Editor,

I would like to congratulate the coalition government for bringing a whiff of privatisation into the beleaguered National Health Service. The fact that successive governments have undertaken what they call ‘substantial’ changes to the NHS should tell us all we need to know: there is something fundamentally wrong with how we treat the ill in our country.

The NHS is the second biggest employer in the world, beaten only by Walmart, but as with all state monopolies, it is costly, inefficient and stuffed with bureaucrats. In New Labour’s NHS, for every nurse there is a manager and vital workers, such as midwives, are falling in numbers.

The problem, however, goes far deeper. I would argue that the very existence of the NHS stifles competition, and as competition drives quality and choice, innovation and improvements are restricted.

Therefore, I believe, as long as the NHS is the ‘sacred cow’ of British politics, the longer the British people will suffer with a second rate health service.

Paul Nuttall MEP

Of course, Nuttall wouldn’t be Nuttall if he didn’t spout provable drivel:

• The NHS is not the ‘2nd biggest employer in the world, beaten only by Walmart’.
  With its latest number of around 1.3 million employees (down from the 1.7m it had in 2012 when it was 5th), it is no higher than joint-8th, dwarfed by the US Dept of Defence (3.2m), the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (2.3m), Walmart (2.1m), McDonalds (1.9m), behind  the China National Petroleum Corporation (1.6m), the State Grid Corporation of China (1.5m), Indian Railways (1.4m) and level with the Indian Armed Forces (1.3m)
• It is not costly or inefficient. Even in 2014, when Mr Nuttall wrote his comments and after 4 years of Tory-driven predations, the NHS was the most efficient health service among the top nations of the developed world.
• Competition, which Nuttall considers makes for a good health service, clearly doesn’t. The untrammelled competition in the US health-care system makes it the worst among developed nations and forces it to spend well over double per person what the UK does.

Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised at Paul Nuttall’s real views on the NHS. After all, he was previously a Tory candidate – and the Tories have been planning the NHS’ demise since well before they came to power in 2010 and Margaret Thatcher would have loved to end it back in the 80s if she had thought she could get away with it.

And if an EU/OLAF investigation upholds allegations against him when it publishes its report next month, that’s far from the most dodgy thing about him.

The only surprising thing about him and his party is that anyone doesn’t see through them.

The SKWAWKBOX needs your help and relies on the generosity of its readers to be viable and free of charge. If you enjoy the blog and can afford it, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your support.