The mood here in the U.K. is not exactly festive in the run-up to Christmas. Not only are there train strikes to cope with in the closing days of December, but key healthcare workers in the shape of nurses, midwives and paramedics have also been taking unprecedented industrial action. Then there are the ongoing problems. Accident and Emergency units are overstretched to breaking point and it’s not that easy to see a GP.
And yet polling suggests that a majority of Britons – and I’m one of them – hold the free-at-the-point-of-delivery National Health Service close to their hearts. Created in the wake of the second world